Wedding venue has cancelled - bankrupt. Where do I stand?

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice although I'm aware I'll probably have to go see a solicitor about it at some point. My partner and I booked a venue back in august 2017 for a wedding two years later. We paid a deposit of just over 2k to secure the venue. Last month, we had an email from them stating that their temporary event license had been lost, and therefore they had to cancel the wedding. We didn't actually know that they only had temporary event license from the council as they never told us. I emailed back asking for the deposit back in full and receive don't no reply to phone, email, or letter. I even dropped round and spoke to someone who identified himself as her son and said he would ask her to contact us asap. Never happened.

I then wrote them a clear letter of events/payments and sent recorded delivery asking again for money back, stating if no reply I would proceed to go to court within 7 days. Of course no reply received and I applied online for small claims court last Wednesday. Court gives them until 1st of may to reply to them.

My partner has then sent an email today asking for money back again, and that we might drop round tomorrow to ask for cash also. We know she actually has a wedding on tomorrow and to our surprise we got a response within a few hours. In a nutshell it stated we wouldn't be getting any money back as the company was being made insolvent. We were asked not to go round tomorrow and attached was a letter from her solicitor stating the insolvency was going ahead and that court proceedings can only be made against the company and not herself. Also some stuff about slanderous/threats which I suppose other people she cancelled with have done, which doesn't surprise me given how's she handled the situation. communication has been awful. She apparently also took a deposit of similar amount 3 weeks before she sent the cancellation email out.

Anywho, back on topic, i actually found out her details and sent those to the court, not the company. I did this because I knew if the company goes bust I'm gonna have a harder time getting it back. Now the invoice the deposit was paid does have the company name on, but she said we would get some terms and conditions to sign after we sent payment - she never sent this so I haven't even read them let alone sign them.

I'm so mad because she is sitting in her beautiful house worth over a million quid easy, two flash cars on the drive, furnishings worth thousands of pounds, yet she's made her company insolvent and won't give me my hard earned 2k back! I guess she can have mortgage and finance on cars but she must have a few assets to sell. I just want my money back. Where do I stand? Any previous experiences with similar things? Will I be able to take her to court or will her solicitor argue it's got to be the company?

Oh to mention, the money was paid by bank transfer, and we don't have wedding insurance. Apparently it's in the terms and conditions advising us to get it (which as I said I never received).

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.