Price Changes?

You'll need to look at your contract and make sure that one of the pages includes the prices of the menus and that it doesn't include any fine print that allows the venue to increase the price. Some contracts that don't specifically note the prices agreed upon can be changed unfortunately. However, if you had it written in black and white then I would bring it up with the venue.

I, like you booked our venue over a year prior to our date and locked in the rates of the previous years menu price. Luckily we did that because the following year they increased the buffet by an extra $8pp and we had 300 guests. So we saved $2400.

Contracts can change at any time sorry to say. I had the same issue with the room rates where I put $10 less each room after informed the prices went up. Even a deposit isn't enough to give you that confirmation it will be given to stay a solid price.

Venues have in their contracts stating no guarantee pricing may stay the same unless changed on their part. I had to learn the same way as you. The contract should read over to see that claus.

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I would bring up the contract signed and photocopy it to attach in email. Stating there is no where mentioning there would ever be price increases and we agreed to what was signed upon. I would also state it was never even verbally mentioned as well.

View quoted message No, they did not mention anywhere that prices are subject to change

In the original contract did it state that they are allowed price changes and will give notice when occurs? I know with most I had to ask and they all stated this. It's definitely frusterating

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Yea, it's unfortunate. I had a good look over it and it's not a huge difference worth saying anything about so I'm just going to leave it at that.

If you have a signed contract I would definitely be fighting this one. This has personally never happened to me but I have heard of it with other people.

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Agh, that's not fun! Glad you found a new place. Definitely review everything and don't end up like me! Thanks, good luck to you also

Contracts are definitely your life line when it comes to these things! I also keep all email correspondences in case a vendor tries to include a new charge/hidden fee that wasn't explained earlier.

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So great that they changed it back! I would have been so stressed! My September venue cancelled and we are locking down our new location after two weeks of frantically trying to find a new place. We have a meeting today to review prices and talk contract. I can't handle anymore 'surprises'!

Good luck with the rest of your planning

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Ugh I know, I am now doing the same thing

View quoted message That sounds beyond frusterating. If you say it’s not that much (and you can live with it), then it’s good that you can keep quiet. I just hate how vendors have us stuck to their whim.

I’m currently going through all my contracts to ensure they’re correct because now I don’t know!

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They did not state anywhere in the contract that prices would change. It's not a huge difference so I don't think I care to ask them about it. I already had to discuss the room prices when they quoted me off season pricing. When it came to the contract, the room prices were literally about $4000 more and I was like umm, that's not what you told me? But they changed it, just frustrating. I think I had to have them revise the contract 2 or 3 times before it was right.

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They had already done this to me with the room prices. When I went to look at the venue, I was writing EVERYTHING down. Since my wedding is in September, it's technically off season. But when they sent the contract, the rooms were like thousands more than what they told me and I called them out on it and they changed it. So annoying.

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I didn't even know that places did this. It does not state anywhere in the contract about subject to change, nor does it have menu pricing. It only states a minimum of food order that we have to spend and the deposit.

I agree with others - your contract is your life in a situation like this. If it is not in black and white (this includes email correspondence - that's why I ask for EVERYTHING in writing from my vendors after they tell me something verbally), then it is open for interpretation.

Unfortunately, unless you have correspondence or a note on the venue’s behalf indicating you’ve locked in the prices for 2018 then I don’t think there’s much you can do besides try to reason with them.

Unfortunately I have had this happen with the florist. Boutiners went from $10.00 to $12.99 ea. Coursages went up. I believe it was drink prices that went up as well. For all these vendors we were told in advance that this could happen. However when the makeup artist I signed contract and paid deposit in June changed her prices I was prepared to loose deposit. I'm paying $140 for a 2nd makeup artist out of my pocket which I don't agree with but it is what it is. My makeup was going up to $150.00. She wanted 8 Girls to go from $60 to $95. For me the bride, she wanted $100.00 for trial. I paid $65. She agreed to stick with the original contract which was good for her because at least half the Girls if not more would have backed out.

Our venue contract states that certain food items may go up in price and we have the option to go with the price increase for our original choices, or change to something that would decrease the cost. Our contract states this outright.

the overall price for the venue itself is locked in for us.

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Just read through your contract carefully and see if t states anywhere that they can increase the price. How big a difference is the price?

From the research I’ve done all places said that food prices may change in the new year (so around now) as they need to account for changes from their suppliers.
The contract might not address this directly which means you may have to pay.
If you have any correspondence via email I would forward these to the venue contact with a statement explaining that the reason you went with them was because of the quote they gave and point out that no one said “price subject to change”. Ask them to honour your expected price.

That happened with us. We signed the contract with a temp staff member who told us the price would not go up for us even though the menu was changing since we signed with those prices. When it was time to pay, it was a different staff member and so we said what the other person told us and they did honour that. Go in and talk to them about it.

Stephanie is right, a lot of places do that. Unfortunately some will say that prices subject to change, but also them not stating that the price that was in effect at the time of signing the contract is how some places get away with it. If your signed contract does not have a price written on there and it doesn't say they cannot change the prices later then technically they can change the price. It's horrible but that's how they do it sometimes. Do you have a deposit receipt or invoice that says your remaining balance?

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Yea, I read over it thoroughly and did not find anywhere in the contract that they are allowed to do that.

I've sadly read of this happening in a few venues.... read over your contract FULLY there may be a clause in there that allows them to change the price if the price happens to change in a new year. The venue may have the right to update the price based on what's said in the contract so have a GOOD read over it first! Of theres nothing that states something like that then I would go back to them and complain!