To think wedding venue can't charge us for their invoicing mistake AFTER wedding

[maria1113]

We were sent a 'final invoice' for our wedding, a few weeks before the big day. Being busy and tired we scanned the invoice and paid the total as requested in bold at the very bottom of the form. Now, two days after our wedding we have an email to say they've noticed they invoiced us wrongly on said 'final invoice'. They now realise they have invoiced us just over £800 short. Is this our problem?

Hate confrontation, my partner is not brave enough to take the lead on this one and having a debate with the venue that we loved will leave a huge stain in the memory of our wedding day, wether we win or lose the debate.

If I stand firm, fight our corner and they accept their mistake, we will feel unwelcome there in future and risk looking like total tight wads. If I refuse to pay, and they lay the blame solely at our door, they could charge us without authorisation as we have given our card details for previous deposit and invoice payments. I can't see a way to avoid hassle, embarrassment and expense. We've spent a lot on the wedding and really aren't in a place to hand out that kind of money willingly.

Anyone know where we stand legally? Their contract says nothing about what will happen in the event they make an invoicing mistake.

Horrible horribleness. We just want to relax, haven't even unpacked our bags from the weekend, now got this lovely flaming bag of shite dumped at the doorstep. thought wedding stress was over. Hello old friend!

Any advice legal or moral welcome.

I once had a venue charge me for all the soft drinks people had ordered which they had laid on as an extra. As I had spent £30 000 on this week long conference, I was not amused that my final invoice included all these extras which should have been billed to the individuals. A final invoice before an event strikes me as all inclusive. If this is the case and it was the agreed amount then I would explain that you have paid this and will not be paying any extra unagreed expenses. If it was £800 short, or you had a clause suggesting that you may be billed for additional expenses then you need to pay up. Prepaid hotel rooms sometimes charge for minibar or food in a final invoice which has this sort of clause.

They cannot use your stored card details to take unauthorised payment - it's illegal.

Legally there's no such thing as a "final invoice".
The OP was invoiced for all services except the rooms. The value of the rooms was £800.
Because OP gave them £800 for the rooms previously, they removed this from the invoice.
They could now, quite reasonably, raise another invoice for the rooms only and expect £800 in payment.
Legally, OP owes the £800 as the services have been provided at the rates quoted and this fact isn't in dispute.
The mistake made by the venue was to credit you with £800 - but from what you've said, you don't have any invoice stating that the £800 was for rooms and that you've paid for them before the "final" invoice.
You can make a fuss and may get some of the charge waived, but legally and morally they're entitled to the money and could easily pay £60 for a small claims judgement against OP if they wished.

Pay up. You must have known that you were paying less than agreed amount, no-one would book a wedding without knowing exactly what they owe. Be fair, they did a job, you didn't say it was God-Awful, you are married, welcome to married life, its hard, expensive, but hopefully worth every penny! ;-) x