Wedding venue not allowing me to change date

[Persiaclementine]

Just emailed our venue to change the date of our wedding from feb 2021 to feb 2022, partly because of covid and also because I'm 22 weeks pregnant and will only be 3 months pp at the time of current wedding booking. I got a phone call on a mobile phone about 10 minutes after I'd sent it, saying we cant do that yet as owner isnt allowing it, we will still be working with you hut we will move it if we need to. no other reason as to why. We are due to pay approx 4 thousand in november towards the cost of the wedding and to be honest after this exchange I am not convinced that they are going out of business and want to capture as much funds before going into liquidation or something.. perhaps I'm reading to much into it but why on earth would they not be allowing you to change the date and with such a wishy washy excuse that the owner isnt allowing it. any advice or anyone been told similar?

Have you got wedding insurance? Admittedly we got married 10 years ago, but £50 for peace of mind worth it (and that was Military cover, so relatively expensive)

I wouldn't pay them anymore money rn.

No unfortuantly not, I may invest in getting some quickly but, I've heard it's very hard to claim due to the pandemic. I will have a quick look. But I'm thinking we will cancel before we have to pay anymore money.

Why should you be allowed to change the date of something you committed to? If they allowed all their bookings to do this they'd be in a complete mess.

I agree. People can't just change their dates as they see fit sadly. It's a business after all.

What does their terms and conditions say?

You have contractually agreed that date with them - they are under no obligation to accommodate a change.

You need to decide whether to continue with the current date, or cut your losses and start looking for somewhere else, forfeiting any money already paid to them.

Why would insurance pay out because the OP doesn't want to marry at 3m post partum? She certainly wouldn't be able to get any coronavirus/pandemic cover now.

Your insurance would likely have covered a pregnancy related postponement (mine will up to three months PP), but won’t cover you now you’re pregnant, and won’t cover coronavirus now.

You’ll need your contract to see what you agreed to. Changing the date in my contract was classed the same as cancellation, so the cancellation fee was due. Some places are nicer!

Unfortunately, they have no requirement to change the date as you are able to marry, you just don't want to. We have been lucky as our venue did change the date but that was entirely at their discretion - we just made the point that the caterer would make more money with more guests than are currently allowed and it wouldn't put the vulnerable people who live on site at risk. But it's entirely up to them and you need to read your cancellation terms.

I’m not surprised tbh. Presuming they can still fullfill the contract - I.e hold the wedding of the size you booked - then why should you have the right to re-arrange it....

You have my sympathies tbh. Yes they might not be obligated to change the date but neither are you and I would bet my life savings on it that come February if CV is still bad they will be begging for you to change the date rather than them refunding you!

As an aside I was due to get married in April and our wedding insurance wouldn’t pay out because the cancellation was due to ‘a government act’ so even if you do everything right you still get screwed!

They've already been able to change the date previously for £150, no problem, from wednesday to saturday. Terms and conditions says nothing about moving the date, they had been very accommodating yp u till this point.

I would imagine most businesses are struggling and what might of easily been filled 8 months ago can’t now so holding with contract.

So you have moved it once before? To be honest I'm not surprised that they don't want to move it again.

I wouldn't expect them to change the date really. You've booked a specific date. Obviously venues have accommodated changes this year due to covid but February is a long time off.

So is this the second time you've wanted to change the date with them?

They didn't have to change it the first time but they did. I think they've been accommodating to you up to this point but they have to draw the line somewhere. How would they organise anything if they just let people change the date of their event every 2 minutes.

Read the T and cs but agree with pps ,you have booked a date,they don't have to let you change it

I'm quite surprised that the venue won't allow you change, you're giving lots of notice. Our venue was very understanding and accommodating.

From what we've been told by various people and hotels and venues is that 2021 is going to be a bumper 2-in-1 type of year for them, so they would probably have little to no difficulty in filling your existing February 2021 date. Maybe discuss with them to see if they could offer the date to couples who are rescheduling and if they can fill it, could you then move out your date? Then they don't lose and you get your new date.

If the venue aren't going to lose business and are in fact getting an extra guaranteed customer, assuming they can fill the date, then there'd be no reason not to let you change it!

Sorry, I can't help with the date change, but If you are worried about them going under, you can pay them with credit card, and if they go bust you can get your money back from your card provider under section 75. Obviously you'll still need to find a new venue, but at least you won't lose all your money.