"Acts of God" Clauses in Wedding Contract

No worries, glad I could help. But what I'm saying is just in general terms. Please review all your written contracts with a fine toothpick. If your contract actually says something along the lines of "All funds paid is non-refundable even in the event of an Act of God, pandemic, etc etc etc, whereby the owner reserves the right to cancel the event without liability," walk away. Regardless of how much you love the place, they're clearly a shady business and it's not worth the potential hassle.

I can't be absolutely certain without reading the details of your specific contracts, but based on experience, cancellation via Acts of God usually result in a refund. Refunds are usually not honoured if you cancel on them for any reason.

A lot of venues tried to strong arm their clients into not accepting a refund (Dynamic Hospitality), charging for date changes (Peter and Pauls) or just outright refuse to refund and postpone (Bellvue Manor) during the early months of the pandemic and likely ended up getting sued or got a ton of negative media attention on them. If what you're saying is true about the new terms, it sounds like these fishy people are looking for ways to pocket your money like Bellvue did.

Do know that if a contract is frustrated and one party refuses to honour refunds as a result, it's ground for some major legal action.

You can certainly negotiate the terminology of the contract to better reflect your stakes in the deal and if they refuse, walk away and take your business elsewhere.