Wedding venue help needed

A question about : Wedding venue help needed

We have booked our wedding at a hotel in Derbyshire for July of this year, it has been booked since May 2014, contracts all signed, deposits paid etc.

It is based on exclusive use of the venue, all the bedrooms etc, and choice of rooms we can use for the wedding breakfast.

One of the big selling points to us was an outdoor ceremony area that they are constructing. July - hopefully beautifully sunny, will be absolutely wonderful to tie the knot outside.

When we first spoke to the venue in March / April time, they were selling this outdoor ceremony area for 2015 weddings, as it was due to be finished by the end of 2014.

I have been asking them for a while now when it's going to be done, can we see plans etc. so we can think about decor, layout.

However this weekend I received an email from the venue to say it might not be ready for July, and they went onto say that they had never 'promised' or 'guaranteed' use of the outdoor area to anyone due to the 'difficult' work required.

We are completely furious with this - the outdoor area is listed for the ceremony in our contract, and it has never been mentioned to us until now that there was a chance it won't be ready. Certainly it doesn't say in the contract as long as it's ready!

I have all their communication on email, when we were going through and booking it etc. The outdoor area is referred to as a given, there was never anything tentative about it.

So my question is - where do we stand legally with this? As I mention this was a big part of us booking the venue, and we are feeling completely let down that our dream wedding might not be what we'd hoped.

NB there are other options for the ceremony - one of which is a quite dark, wooden panelled room, not ideal in summer, and the other is the room we are using for the wedding breakfast, so would have to have an extended drinks reception to facilitate turn around time. Both not at all ideal.

Please help! Feeling very deflated and lost all enthusiasm at the moment :-(

Best answers:

• Check the small print in your contract, that is the important document, not the emails per se, unless you have one which specifically mentions that you are using the outdoor area. The fact that it exists does not mean you intended to use it. If you have a never expressly said that your cermony will be held there you may not have a case.
  If your contract simply refers to the use of "hotel" then they are covered in my opinion.
  I can see how it must be very disappointing though, so I would fight my corner, but ultimately. if is is not going to be ready (still 5 months to go though, must be major problems - money?) what do you want? To cancel? Or compensation?
  You will need to be clear what you want (aside from what you thought you had agreed) and set it out as a compromise if you don't want to cancel. If you do cancel and the contract is in their favour there will be penalties I expect.
  Think it through once you are sure there is no possibiity of the structure being ready for your date.
  Good luck.
• My opinion differs slightly from Andy's. In my view if you have referred to the outdoor wedding in your emails, meetings, you made it clear that this was the reason you were booking them and they at no point warned you it may not be ready then I would say you have a good case. Certainly I feel if heaven forbid it went to court a judge would be sympathetic.
  However....what I do agree on though is you need to be clear what you want. Because July isn't far away and assuming your wedding day is a weekend date then your chances of booking another comparable venue will be slim.
  So I think you need to sit down and decide if this really is a total dealbreaker or would you be happy if they chuck in a few freebies to quench your anger.
• Thanks for your replies. The contract states as follows:
  Timings - Function - Room
  Time - TBC - Civil - Outdoor / Con's
  Time - TBC - ArrivalDrinks& photographs - Outdoor / around hotel
  Time - TBC - Receiving line - Con's
  Time - TBC - Wedding Breakfast - Con's
  Time - TBC - Speeches - Con's
  Time - TBC - Evening begins
  Cons being short for conservatory, the room we are using for the wedding breakfast.
  Therefore as it expressly states we can have the ceremony outdoor - the conservatory was the wet-weather backup, I think we have a case?
  I have checked the T&C's and it does not expressly state about change of room / location anywhere.
  It is too late to change venue as we have everything else all set and I don't want to go through any extra stress. So you are right the conversation would be what can they offer us by way of compensation. In our eyes this is a big part of the day - the most important part really! So we would want something significant, a discount on the agreed rates and some extras added.
  They are blaming the delay on the council not approving the structure, now I know councils can be slow but this seems unlikely to take so long.
  Money is definitely not an issue as they are spending on the hotel elsewhere - refurbishment, new furniture etc.
• If it was peeing it down, would you expect them to offer an indoor room or insist all the guests stand outside in the rain for that allotted time period.
• In England/Wales weddings outdoors are only ever an option (subject to the weather and registrars approval on the day), so there always has to be an indoor backup plan.
  As they presumably are still offering the indoor ceremony room, they are not cancelling the contract, merely stating an option (which was only ever that, and not under your control) may not be available at all. The important thing may be that the contract said that the outdoor structure would be available (and licensed) by the date of the wedding.
  Quote:
• That's right, outdoor does have to be a licensed structure, so as this is not built there is nowhere at present for this to happen.
  Absolutely it's only ever a may, indoor backup and all that, but if it's a beautiful sunny day we booked based on being able to make the most of it and be outdoors, not shut up in a dark function room, which is our option at the moment.
  I work in the hotel trade and although could find somewhere else it's not worth the extra hassle. We do not want to cancel but price reduction / compensation yes.
  Just want to get some opinions that we're right in asking for this, before we go in and state our case.
• If they confirmed that the outdoor structure would be ready, licensed & available by the date of your wedding then you do have a case for asking for some sort of reduction.
  But you need to consider what your negotiation options are - if they say no, what then ? ...do you cancel and walk away (may not really be an option for you) ?
  Getting approval shouldn't take long - if they are sensible they will have discussed their plans with the local registrars office in advance to get their opinion. The actual approval process can't happen until it is built and can be inspected - is it actually in place yet (or do they maybe have planning problems ) ?
• So do they not currently hold any outdoor ceremonies?
• No it is not in place yet - as far as I understand the council have not approved their plans so this is where the hold up has been. Not sure on the specifics here.
  Andy - no not at the moment. Until this area is built they do not have any licensed areas to do so.
• Sounds like a planning issue - check on the councils planning website, to see if they have an application and when it is going to be ruled on.
• Nothing on the council planning site - what does this mean?
  What the venue have said is "We have so far had issues with the council and meeting their requirements in regards to materials" - would the council have advance requirements before they could even submit planning?
• I would ring the local council planning dept, and ask your questions direct about the planning permission, and see what the answers are.
  Good luck for your wedding
• In that case I would suspect they have been told that whatever they were planning doesn't meet the legal requirements to be licensed. It has to be permanent with a roof and floor...some places try and licence pergolas or other garden features and then find out they can't.
• I'm not 100% sure you have a watertight case here. The contract says outdoor/cons. There isn't anything that really says that they've promised it's outdoors. They could easily argue the agreement was outdoors or the conservatory and since the cons is still available then they're able to fulfill the contract.
  But we come back to the original point. What do you want out of this? Because if the issue is the council they being honest the council won't give two hoots about your wedding and they will stick to their planning regs so help them God.
  The point is that despite the hotel's best efforts they may simply cannot get the outdoor structure completed and licensed in time in which case what do you want to do?
  Cancel or compensation?