Wedding venue cancelling my menu choices with three weeks to go - devastated

[Ilikegherkins]

I have just received an email from my wedding venue saying there has been a mid communication with my menu choices for my upcoming wedding. I have chosen a three course meal - with the help of the events planner at the venue, printed menus for 44 guests to choose and RSVP, spent hours with a spreadsheet to be able to get my pre order in - which was confirmed by the head chef in February (all choices with costings)

We have a three course set menu for 44 guests - we have also pro ordered lots of wine / beer and will be getting evening food for approx 60 people

I am in complete disbelief. The new set menu they have sent me bears no resemblance to my menu and is £20 per head more expensive

They have offered me a bottle of champagne to say sorry

Does anyone have any constructive advice - I'm a bit heartbroken

What are the ingredients that are so challenging to get?

It's a lovely pub (award winning foodie pub) with event space so not a 'wedding venue' as such

What were your original menu choices?

If they offered to sell you food at x price and you said yes please and ordered it and the chef confirmed they accepted your order, than that is a contract, it doesn’t have to be in writing. Like when you go to supermarket and the price label offers to sell you food at x price and you take it to the till and pay, you have a contract with the supermarket and the food becomes yours, you don’t need a written contract…

Truth is though with 3 weeks to go you’re going to have to negotiate with them. I’d ask for a meeting / phone call to discuss. Say this is not a miscommunication, you offered to sell me x food at y price, I ordered it, a verbal contract was created and the emails are evidence of it, now you’re refusing to provide it because you have supply problems but that puts you in breach of contract. Say that they have to make sensible suggestions and a bottle of wine is not going to cut it. Say you want a similar dish to the original menu and the price will not be changing, nothing entitles them to pass on price rises to you.

Even if they are intending to honour the price, the inconvenience and embarrassment for you to contact all of your guests again for their choices, and print new menus is worth a fuck-ton more than one free bottle of champagne!!

Slightly less conventional starters - but crowd pleasing mains - fish and chips/ roast beef or chicken with fancy potatoes - easy mains.
This email has come from head office. The events planner and head chef have been great so far

How different is different? There must be somewhere in the middle to meet?

Then why aren't they offering you slightly different starters but the same easy mains you were having before?

You do have a contract. There is no requirement for this type of contract to be in writing (there is for land, but not much else). They've cocked up, and are trying to pass it off as a mistake. Very poor form.

Thankyou- I'll use this when they eventually answer the phone / call me

I found this from a UK based site OP:

Can an email form a legally binding contract?
Yes, emails certainly can be legally binding. But whether they are or not, depends on their context and what is said within them. For contracts to be legally binding, five essential elements must be present:
An offer
Acceptance of the offer
Consideration (i.e., some form of payment)
An intention to be legally bound by the contract
Certainty as to what the parties have agreed
In simple terms, two people must reach an agreement between them. So, one email on its own can’t be a legally binding contract. However, there’s no reason why an exchange of emails can’t contain all of these elements. Therefore, an exchange of emails can form a legally binding contract.

businessadvice.co.uk/business-development/business-planning/are-emails-legally-binding/

I would be fucking FURIOUS at this and the "one bottle of champagne" would have been an extra slap in the face. I would be tempted to raise hell on social media about this. This is not something unavoidable. Though I can see why you would not want to do this before your wedding (certainly afterwards though).

My guess is that for some reason they messed up your original order and "booked you" using the wrong menu and have just realised their fuck up.

I'm actually fuming on your behalf. You must be devastated. I hope everything works out ok.

So has the new set menu they have sent cost £20 more per head ? are the ingredients particularly difficult to source ?

An email exchange will form part of a contract.

I'd accept the changes as there have been some crazy things going on with the cost of ingredients but I wouldn't agree to a price increase. The apology champagne is a bit of a dumb move by the restaurant. How much of the food is being changed? How did they word asking for the extra £20...

Otherwise you really shouldn't worry too much! You guests won't mind. I imagine the food will still be lovely just different from what you and they were expecting.

I hope you get it sorted and that you have a great day.

I absolutely would not be paying any extra for the new menu. It is their mistake not yours.
I am interested to see both menus though.

Have you paid anything yet OP? A deposit or part payment?

Thankyou for this. Looks really helpful

I'll have a good read through. Also to everyone else who has replied so far

Im on my way to friends soon so will catch up in the morning and of course keep you all posted

Sorry just saw your post about the menu , ask them to do alternative starters and the quite conventional mains ?

What is the difference in menu options? Push back on any additional charge (that is another £1k just for sit down meal) , one bottle of champagne will hardly cut it. Unless your choices were particularly exotic it seems ridiculous to pull this at such a late stage. Minor alterations ( like trout for salmon) might be acceptable but you would still need to check with those who chose it.

They absolutely can and should do a mix and match of both menus if that’s what you would like! Their mistake, they need to sort it.

You don’t have time to chase up all your guests and ask for new choices on all items and due to potential allergies etc they can’t just substitute whatever they like, so this is on them to fix.

If they don’t come up with a more useful alternative, I’d point out that if they don’t provide the food choices which have been ordered and someone becomes ill from eating something they weren’t expecting, that it will be on them to explain why your guests’ choices were ignored for cost saving reasons.

How different are the choices? Given the importance they can’t just deal with this via email

Don’t use the price at the supermarket argument . The price on the supermarket label is an offer to sell which the shop can legally revoke at any time right up to the last moment. I don’t know if the same applies to restaurant food.

We went in on Wednesday and paid for all the daytime food - guessing this is how it has now been picked up by head office

Thinking further, I think you need to arrange to meet with the chef and manager to come up with as close a match in options and price as possible, even if off menu or a mixture. Ask them to propose some choices for you to discuss. Is it possible the head chef has changed recently and has altered the menu?

OK so it sounds they have buggered up with sending you the wrong menu. On the one hand I would not want to fall out with the people doing the food for my wedding , on the other hand I would not be willing to hand over another £880 for their mistake. I would say that if new menu bears no resemblance to new menu ask what can they do to make it as near as possible for original budget. Make it clear it was their mistake.

& yes I agree with LIZS. speak to someone in person.