To be annoyed at wedding venue?

[LolaDo]

I’m getting married in 3 weeks at an English country house hotel type venue.

They have called me today to advise that there will be roof works going on on my wedding day complete with the usual scaffolding etc. Fine. However, this goes round the perimeter of the whole venue so will be at the entrance. This means no pictures outside or under the beautiful archway. There’s a huge path leading up to the entrance with gardens either side so I won’t be able to have pictures here either as the scaffolding will be in the background.

They have also “advised” that the main bar and sitting lounge (it’s like a cigar lounge type thing where guests would have waited when they arrived) will be boarded off for refurbishment and they will be putting a temporary bar/ lounge round the back of the hotel.

I have guests coming from all over and the first thing they are going to see it bloody great scaffolding/ tarpaulin and builders.

I am so upset. What would you do?

We have spent a huge amount of money on this venue because it was “perfect” and now I just feel like the whole day will not be as I imagined. Am I being over dramatic?

I'm no expert but I'd have thought the week or so around Valentines Day would be popular for weddings, so other nice venues are likely to be booked.

If this was known before the booking then it should have been refused, and if it was more recent OP should have been given much more notice ... the reason neither happened is simple greed on the hotel's part. You simply don't get to charge the insane prices these venues make for weddings then treat people like this

Nor would I accept a promise to remove stuff for the day - even if this was possible - as given their behaviour so far you'd probably arrive to be told the contractors having gone sick or some other excuse

I agree with PPs that a calm, purposeful meeting is needed to ask what they'll do about this, and to treat any offer as a starting point only

Check your contract for any building work. Has work already started?

Please complain now. Not after.

OP - Make friends quickly with the Event Manager upthread, and get her on to the venue on your behalf.

Shitty behaviour.

I work in weddings, this is not a popular time of year for them: there WILL be other venues.
Firstly I'd research and find other venues- see how easily you can move existing suppliers over to new venue- and if you find somewhere you like/available- then I'd demand all my deposit/anything paid back from hotel as well as any extra costs you will incur from changing, and immediately book up other venue. If they refuse you at all, then use everything available to you- review sites,local press as they will not want publicity like this getting out-
no bride would book up after hearing such a horror story! Delegate and use bridesmaids/family/ushers to help and ask them to send one large group email as well as individual texts to all guests, casually informing them as if its no big deal but just mentioning venue has changed, giving clear travel directions to new venue. You can do it- and I definitely would.

I knew in advance that a venue would be having work done. We got 75% off the usual price. This was the main reason we chose the venue as the price was too good to miss.

Can the company just remove it for your wedding and reinstate it the next day?
The last, relatively small project I was on, took them 3 days to scaffold. It isn't a quick thing to do.

That’s awful! Have you checked your contract yet? Even if it does have a building works clause, I would still speak with a solicitor as one of the main parts of the reason you choose a place is the look and feel and rooms they offer you for the event. They’re not delivering that.

I'd cancel and look for something else.

I could probably live with the scaffolding tbh but the interior refurb and not being able to use key parts of the venue would irritate me hugely.

At the very least you should get a substantial discount but in all honesty I wouldn't bother.

It's a not a great sign wrt their standards of hospitality letting you know just now and not offering and discount voluntarily.

Wow so many replies!

To answer some questions, it wasn’t even my event planner who let me know. He was “off today” apparently yeah right. So it was the poor receptionist (I presume?) that had to break the news to me, and no doubt many others.

Planner is going to call me tomorrow at 9, so we shall see what he has to say.

Don’t go all guns blazing on social media before actually speaking to them!!

Check the contract for the venue re: the right to building work etc. If nothing, they are not providing what they have offered and I think (not an expert) they are breaching the consumer care act if they don’t heavily discount you.

Bless you, I can imagine this to be a nightmare. I hope it works out op

“If it is an emergency repair they won't have know in advance”

If it is an emergency they should have insurance they can claim in for loss of income (I.e for cancelled bookings)

Pressed send too soon.

I’m in England (south) to the pp who asked, so yes there are loads of other venues but I REALLY don’t want to change 3 weeks before. I have 30+ guests who have booked rooms in the venue. I’m still just so angry at the moment so I don’t know what I want to do.

Obviously they can’t just remove the scaffolding but perhaps they could do something to make the entrance look a bit better. Ohh I don’t even know

Wait hang on, just thought of something- are they proposing the building work being done on the day of your wedding? Because I’d absolutely lose my shit over that.
It’s bad enough as it is, but the thought of the noise too...

Yes, don’t go to Press / social media before looking into your contract, insurance and talking to them.
Once they have nothing to lose you have nothing to bargain with.

OP, I don't think I would cancel or change venue (at least I would check what is going on exactly), but you could go on the internet now and check what other options exist and could be available in the same area.

Something equally disastrous happened to me at a similar sounding venue. It is a looong, long, story because there were a series of catastrophes but we ended up cancelling and moved the wedding to the other side of the country. We felt we simply could not trust or work with the original venue. We had to change the date too but chose a venue which was solely a wedding venue and they organised everything for us in a matter of weeks. The stress was absolutely unbelievable, we had to phone every guest to cancel, but the end result was just what we wanted and the support we received from the new venue was exceptional.

Many people said we should have gone to the press, we wrote letters of complaint, but received no compensation and, from memory, pathetic replies. At the time, our focus had to be on finding another venue fast and we did not want to waste energies on complaining. Everything needs to be in writing - we were far too emotional to even think about dealing with them face to face.

You choose a venue like that for the whole experience, not just the photos. The building itself, when you are choosing this sort of venue, is a large part of the 'feel' of a wedding and shrouded in scaffolding, even around the entrance would mar the experience considerably. Personally, for me, no amount of compensation would work.

Best of luck - I hope you can work something out.

That would piss me off. YANBU, and I would demand it for free.

It's not too late to cancel. They'd owe you a full refund minimum (possible compensation on top) and there'll be other venues at this time of year.

Have you read your contract? Fore warned is forearmed!

Oh that's pretty crap OP!

If you don't manage to get it changed then please try not to let it ruin your day.

I'd be furious but calm and firm in discussion as to what are they suggesting, what is compensation, what's in contract, can they remove it partially etc. as others have said. I'd also let rip on social media.

Do you have wedding insurance? Can they help?

I don't think a discount is enough tbh so before you contact them you need to be clear what you want. Is a discount enough? Or do you want another venue?
If they have any sister venues, I'd be telling them you want one of those instead. You could also ask them to suggest and arrange an alternative venue nearby (both these options give them the opportunity to negotiate on your behalf and hence still make some income from your wedding which should incentivise them).

That's awful.

I would suggest recording the phone call tomorrow and any face to face discussions.

You could have got married at a registry office with a meal at your local pub (nothing wrong with this, personal choice) but you chose that venue for the space the character of the building, it's appearance etc and all of that is lost or significantly dimished. If you can accept that then a equally significant discount should be applied if not then change venue. You only do it once (in theory) you're spending a fortune on it, you need it to be right.

Also if you got wedding insurance you could speak to them too.