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Wedding Forum - June Wedding and Covid-19 - Help!...

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  1.  
    • RachelK266
      CommentAuthorRachelK266
      Just marriedBadgeBadge
      edited
     
    My partner and I have booked a venue for our wedding for the 20th June this year. The invites have gone out and majority of RSVPs have come back.

    The way our venue works is that it is a large country house that includes accommodation. So the total for the venue is £9,000, but £6,000 is for the accommodation and our guests are paying for that (those who are staying that is obviously). We will have the venue for the weekend so it would be about £110pp for three nights accommodation. We pay the £3,000 for venue hire.

    It's a DIY venue where we supply all our own alcohol and food for the weekend. We have planned for a friend who is a landlord at a local pub to do pies for the catering and supply a buffet in the evening. On the Sunday we were going to book a woodfired pizza oven to have a garden party at the venue.

    The venue requires the final payment 4 weeks before the wedding so we need everyone's accommodation money before the 22nd May.

    So the problem we have is that some guest are now worried about the Covid-19 situation, two people have declined RSVP on this basis. Many of our guests are coming from overseas so that situation is unclear whether they will be able to attend. Due to the uncertain nature of the near future I just don't feel comfortable asking my guests for their accommodation money.

    My friend's pub is currently closed and we don't know what his situation will be when he re-opens. I have paid £1,000 for a suit that now doesn't look like it can be ready in time. I'm an NHS student who has been sent home from placement so it is likely I will now have to go on placement June and July so we can't go on the honeymoon. Both our hen dos have been cancelled. My partner's job is in the mortgage industry which is currently looking very uncertain. We can't afford to pay out any more money for catering and registrar for a wedding that might not go ahead.

    Here's the thing. The terms and conditions of the venue is that if we cancel within 12 weeks of the date, we still owe the full outstanding balance of the venue. But we haven't actually paid that money so I guess the only way they could retrieve the money is by taking us to court (obviously I don't want it to come to this). I understand they're a business and will be struggling too but I feel they should take into account the unprecedented circumstances we have found ourselves in.

    Does anyone have any advice we're really stressed and upset, we ideally wouldn't cancel but I just can't see how we can proceed.

    We DON'T have wedding insurance unfortunately (didn't even know that was a thing, very naive!)
  2.  
    • KarolinaN14
      CommentAuthorKarolinaN14
      Just marriedBadgeBadge
     
    Hi Rachel,

    I'm really stressed as well; our wedding is booked for 4th July 2020 and it's a destination wedding. We have been planning our day for 14 months now! Nothing has been cancelled yet but being realistic international travel will be the last thing that will get back to normal, which may be months away at this point. Really disappointed as EVERYTHING has already been sorted, including our guest’s flights and accommodation (over 80 people!). I was really happy with our progress, we managed to get everything sorted with couple of months to spare for final details.
    So far, we only paid deposit for a weeding planner and venue. But the rest of money are due to be paid by the 25th of May. What we have decided is to wait until then and keep observing the situation.
    As a plan B we have decided to book alternative date for 2021 as close to original date as possible. We will still (hopefully as at this point everything is on hold, maybe except for funerals) get married this year in registrar and have reception next year, with all friends and family celebrating our first anniversary. We also hope that this way all of our guests can reschedule their flights with no charge, if the flight is to be taken withing next 12 months. The dates for 2021 are getting booked up extremely quick as everyone who decided to postpone till 2021 is looking for alternative date. So be prepare for compromise – for example our original date is Saturday, but for the alternative we had to settle for Monday instead.
    Hopefully our 4th of July 2020 wedding will go ahead but I rather have plan B, just in case! Hopefully this helps!
    I completely understand what you are going through. Same here, instead of happy planning and counting down the weeks, and days I’m sitting here worried! But my advice will be start planning for alternative and try to stay focused!
  3.  
    • SophieT375
      CommentAuthorSophieT375
      Just marriedBadgeBadge
     
    Hi Rachel, have you heard anymore on this? We are in a very similar situation, but for the start of August. We’re very reluctant to hand anymore money over without either definitely knowing that it’s going to go ahead as planned or that we’ll get a full refund if not.
  4.  
    • VenessaP
      CommentAuthorVenessaP
      Just marriedBadgeBadge
      edited
     
    I would suggest you have an open conversation with your venue and any other wedding suppliers.

    My wedding date was originally 6th June. Last month I contacted all my suppliers asking if they would be able to accommodate a postponement for me and if there would be any charges. Luckily they all were really helpful but the earliest date I could find was 24th October. I didn't have to pay any extra fees or anything as they are in the same situation.

    Lots of other brides have done similar by postponing their wedding rather than "cancelling". It was really hard to do, I still feel sad about my original date (it's even engraved on our rings) and I'm anxious that something will go wrong before the day even gets here.

    I chose to do this because I have some out of town guests international guests who may not be able to reaarange their travel at the last minute jf we went ahead with the original date, even if the crisis was over- it may take time for people to feel comfortable in a large gathering, I have some small bits of planning to finish and I can't while I'm on lockdown (didn't want a last minute rush) and lastly I really want to enjoy the lead up to the wedding and feel more certain that it will actually happen.

    Not sure if that helps but that's what I managed to do.

    Also, I bought quite a comprehensive wedding insurance at the end of 2018 when I started planning, but the Government lockdown isn't covered by my insurance! So in this situation you probably wouldn't have much protection with wedding insurance anyway. The exception being of the lockdown was over and a supplier failed to provide services your purchased. My insurance said that if it comes down to it, I should ask my payment card company for money back (not sure how that works but hopefully won't need to do it!)
 

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