For everyone that had to cancel/ postpone ...

So far, my vendors have been pretty good with the postponed date. I think it's possibly because we haven't gotten into all the gritty details yet (the flowers were agreed upon but not ordered, the invitations were not printed yet, etc.) so they were okay with the new date because that meant they still had time to do all of their tasks.

A lot of people are mad im now hearing horror stories from people. this is so SAD this is suppose to be the happiest day of our lives

Hey all. We were just notified on Friday that our venue is cancelling all weddings over 15 people for July and August now. Friday was a tough day with a lot of tears and anger but I am doing better now. It is out of my hands but now we know and can move forward. The venue has been amazing so far and have given us 3 options, cancel with a small fee since we paid via credit card, postpone with no penalty and being able to hold a new date for a week to get thing sorted, or to wait a couple weeks for them to figure out their elopement packages. We have decided to postpone until next year, which sucks, but is the best thing for us. Our DJ has also been great and flexible and we are still waiting to hear back from our wedding commissioner.

We are one of those couples that did not choose a significant date, just one that was available with the vendor we loved. So we will do the same with the new date and hopfully everything else will just fall where it needs to.

I have had a lot of emotions brewing with not knowing and so I know I will be okay and be excited to continue planning with a new date and maybe add a few other things that I was not able to with only having 6 months to plan a wedding the first time.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who have been sharing their thoughts, frustrations and most of all things they are doing to keep positive during these times. This has been tough on everyone and I am glad I have this community to help keep me sane.

View quoted message Hey! That’s a great idea. No unfortunately I had to pay cash for it ... surprise surprise .. lol.

Hey Gloria, if you're going to cancel on them and lose $2400 anyway, might as well milk them for an engagement video or photo set that you can show at the actual wedding itself. That way you can hire another photographer/videographer that you won't have a shaky relationship with while getting something out of the lost deposit.

By the way, did you use a credit card for the deposit? Because if you did, and your postponement is due to a government mandated order that services can't be rendered, even if the company is trying to be a jerk about it, you can always get the credit card company to cancel the charge.

View quoted message Exactly. But I’ll figure out first if I even have a wedding this year lol

View quoted message That's a good idea it really sucks about losing the deposit, but maybe it's better to avoid sticking with him knowing his priorities

View quoted message I am. I’m waiting to get my contract so I can see what it says but yes. I’m even considering forgoing my 2400 deposit and just going with someone else. I’m paying this guy close to $9000 and he still trying to charge $1000 if we have to postpone for next year. It’s ridiculous.

None of my vendors have tried to charge a reschedule fee luckily. I'm disturbed other vendors are doing that - is anyone in that situation planning to leave a bad review or take other actions?

Overall, ours were absolute champions. The vast majority allowed us to postpone without any financial penalty (including our venue, luckily). There were two exceptions. First, our photographer. Sadly, he was already booked for the new date. He didn’t refund our deposit which I was fine with as it wasn’t an exorbitant sum and there were services rendered (in the form of an engagement shoot). The second is a decor company I hired for the sole purpose of installing a head table backdrop. They’re taking a “wait and see” approach and plan to enforce their regular cancelation policy unless/until it’s confirmed that we couldn’t have legally held our event. Kind of shady but luckily my deposit was fairly nominal.

View quoted message If you can't fight the contract, I'd say don't lose your money on the deposit and go through with the booking. It would cost more to lose the deposit and find another photographer/videographer.

View quoted message Yeah our venue has been great. It’s our photographer/videographer I’m worried about

We have plan B and plan C with our venue. They gave us not only one, but two back up dates in case the original date doesn't work out.


They also didn't charge us. Very thankful for that.

View quoted message Thank you so much. I did not know that. Will
Look into it ASAP

Definitely go through that contract with a fine tooth comb. If no cancellation/reschedule fee is mentioned then legally speaking that could be counted as a hidden fee and are technically fraudulent, which I would for sure be bringing up when I talk with them next. If it was stated though then there's not much you can do except agree to it, or not. The other thing is, I'd be worried that if I did go ahead and use them, then they wouldn't do their best work for me after this. I would hope they'd still have strong enough business skills to put their best foot forward for my wedding, but you just never know with people.

View quoted message Thank you. I’ve just asked for the contract as I don’t have it for some reason 🤦🏻‍♀️

View quoted message Based on time frame of the contract, you are entitled to a refund given how long you are in the planning. I did the same and got half the amount back due to cancelling because of an argument my husband then was putting up. Read over the contract for the refund policy as others have suggested.

View quoted message Agreed. Not sure But I’m honestly having second thoughts about using them. I almost want to say 100% don’t want to use them because of this.

What a charge for postponing and wanting to lose clients including yourselves for next year. Seems this vid/photo vendor doesn't want to work with you or anyone to keep the business. Many vendors are understanding of what's happening right now and coping to work with couples to adjust the date.

Its terrible how some look at this situation as an advantage to get more out of you. Their services are upon the contract they make to provide to clients. Not worth keeping this vendor if they want to charge you $1000 more over the deposit paid.

Out of curiosity, what would their response be if they were to be sued due to their lack of service not provided upon their contract?

View quoted message Exactly... 😢😢😢

Jeez that's a hell of a deposit! Yeah I'd almost be willing to let him go out of spite lol and wouldn't feel comfortable working with him on my wedding. But $2400 is a lot of money to throw away on top of having to find a new photographer and paying that all over again. That's a really crummy position he's put you in.

View quoted message Can’t charge a cancellation fee... that’s what the deposit is for. It sucks because it was 2400 deposit but I’d almost rather lose that money then go with them given they’re trying to charge $1000 for having to push a wedding date back (completely out of our control). I didn’t even say I was. I told them we’re monitoring the situation and we’ll have to make a final decision in June... but he was almost pushing to make our decision now ... a month ago he was singing a different tune and saying it’s too far out and now he’s trying to say if I’m going to postpone it I should do it soon. Bs

View quoted message

Ouch! Would it be cheaper in the long run to find another video/photographer? Some vendors are also charging a cancellation fee though, so it's hard to gauge what's worth it with some vendors during this time that are just taking advantage of the situation and gouging some couples. Have you read the contract and their policies?

View quoted message For sure! The rest of my vendors have been great... my video/photo not so much atm... trying to charge up to $1000 for changing date 😢

We had no issue with re-scheduling any of our vendors. I was also pretty thorough with reading contracts before signing them though, and re-scheduling/postponement was something I paid attention to. I obviously wasn't expecting this since I booked all of them 10 months ago lol but it was just something that I thought would be smart to look out for while choosing my vendors, just in case. So really thankful I did!