Can our wedding venue do this??? Any lawyers?!

[RedWineRage]

Posting here for traffic....and also some perspective/help/ideas!

Getting married this summer. Reception venue is stately home-type place which is open to the public but also does weddings, has done successfully for years. Top listed wedding venue in various magazines etc and very good reviews. So - not some shady outfit.

Email out of the blue this week - all rather breezy - due to several incidents at recent events, just to let you know we will no longer be serving red wine at all, with immediate effect.

But don't worry, we'll just swap that out for rosé in your drinks package.

What???

My mum only drinks red wine. Several family members prefer red wine. We planned to have beef as a main.

Totally unacceptable, right? They appear to be relying on some woolly clause in the contract around "it's a historic building, changes may need to be made to your wedding plan that are out of our control due to operational reasons" etc.

We're genuinely considering trying at short notice to get another venue, and trying to claim money back through small claims. Has anyone done this? Any ideas on how likely we are to be successful?

My mum can't not have an alcoholic drink at my wedding. Sorry I'm ranting and probably not being very rational.

Perspective and advice welcome!!

Because stains and damage has obviously become an issue between the time of booking and now.
The venue has a responsibility to maintain the property to the highest standard.
I would think brides would be more upset with paying thousands for a venue covered in red wine stains or losing their deposit because a guest spilt a drink.

Also, I think those saying that changes might be needed due to operational reasons outside the control of the venue covers them may well be wrong.

This is not outside their control.

They are choosing to change their rules. It is entirely within their control. Hard to see how that clause would help the venue if you argued they’d breached contract. They may have other clauses that help them but that one doesn’t as far as I can see.

This

You are being a bridezilla and your guests will cope drinking something else.

Red wine carrying risks is not new. It is the responsibility of a venue to risk assess the services it offers before it offers them.

It is entirely foreseeable that some drinks pose more risk of damage than others. This venue chose to allow red wine as part of OP’s booking. They are totally within their rights to change their policy for new bookings. They don’t get to unilaterally refuse to provide already contracted customers with the service they paid for.

They don’t get to unilaterally refuse to provide already contracted customers with the service they paid for
They do.

Bollocks. I have not time for weddings or Bridezillas (my wedding was a two-witness job, and we went back to work afterwards) - but this isn't about Bridezillas: it's about a company which agreed to provide something and has now changed the goalposts. It doesn't matter if it's red wine or smoked trout: the fact is that the OP has booked and paid for it on the basis of X being the case, and it now turns out that Y is actually the case. That's the problem, not Bridezilla stuff or the potential alcoholism of someone who reasonably doesn't want to be told that they can't have red wine with their beef, when that's what they chose and that's what they paid their deposit for.

Not unless their contract specifies that and the OP hasn’t posted anything from the contract that says they do.

We had roast beef and white win. Nobody complained or asked for red.

Because stains and damage has obviously become an issue between the time of booking and now.

The venue has a responsibility to maintain the property to the highest standard.

I would think brides would be more upset with paying thousands for a venue covered in red wine stains or losing their deposit because a guest spilt a drink

If that's true, and stains have become an issue, then it's fine for the venue to veto red wine (or anything else they like) for future bookings. But they can't apply it retrospectively.

As I say, I have no dog in this fight as I loathe big weddings and would be happy if they were all banned. However, I would say that the venue is wrong in this case.

Is it only red wine that is forbidden or all dark coloured drinks? No Kir Royale, no port, no Ribena for the kids?

They appear to be relying on some woolly clause in the contract around "it's a historic building, changes may need to be made to your wedding plan that are out of our control due to operational reasons" etc.

I absolutely hate the dependence on alcohol we have in this country. It's obscene. No one needs to be so reliant on alcohol to have a good time. But you know if you don't like it, find another venue.

How on earth can you guarantee there won't be an incident?

I’d be furious personally.

Stupid stupid idea. Honestly.

Yeah but this change isn’t outside the venue’s control.

Which obviously will be against the rules too

We had roast beef and white win. Nobody complained or asked for red

I think what you meant to say was no one complained to our faces. I would find it very odd not to be offered a choice of red or white wine regardless of what the food was.

Keep calm and give your mother a hip flask.

The chief responsibility is preserving the condition of the building and its contents.

Then running a hospitality business from there is not a good idea….

I don’t think you’re unreasonable at all; red and white wine is absolutely standard with a sit down dinner. To tell you after the event that you can’t have it is dreadful.

In your shoes I would not be thinking legally. You would get nothing from a legal claim except legal bills and a pissed off wedding venue.

Instead I would be seeking to understand the reasons behind the change, what has gone wrong in the past, and then ask (nicely) she for exceptions based on that.

So if there are some particularly delicate rooms that have got damaged in the past then ask for red wine in the dining room only. If the dining room is very delicate maybe you can use a different room for dinner? Or if neither is an option then at least ask for an exemption for your mum.

Try to work with them, understand their perspective and reach a middle ground rather than going nuclear.

You have a contract for a whole package wedding - venue, catering, wedding planner etc, presumably costing thousands. Unless you made it clear that you would only book if they provided red wine then I doubt you’d be able to successfully argue that they are in breach of contact (at least not sufficiently material a breach to justify you terminating). Wrongfully terminating a contract is itself breach of contract…..

Annoying as it is, in the context of the whole day it’s surely a minor thing really? I agree that beef and rose isn’t really a winning combo - ask if you can have red wine for the seated meal only (the rule is presumably to avoid spillages which I expect has damaged some old piece of furniture or original wallpaper or something) otherwise change the main to chicken!

I can't believe the number of people who are saying it's not a big deal. I think it is! You've planned a wedding meal with wine and now they're withdrawing part of that agreement however, if they won't back down then I think you need to get them to come up with an alternative menu and paired wines.

Nonsense. Celebrations and booze go together in many many countries.

What matters for someone’s wedding is personal and it’s ridiculous to pretend valuing the ability of people to have a celebratory drink (of their choice) at your wedding is a ‘dependence’ on alcohol.