So I just need to vent this all out before I freak out on someone. So we live in Michigan and are having our wedding in Fort Myers Beach. We couldnt really afford any of the venues, so decided to rent a beach house. Now I realize we probably could of afforded a venue after going through all this BS! So its probably my fault I didnt get more information in writing, or a contract. But that seems to happen when your planning your wedding and dont have any idea what your suppose to do. This is a big lesson learned. So we rented this house for a week, and were going to have the ceremony and reception there. The guy said that was fine but there was a charge of $800 for weddings. We figured we were getting such a great deal on the house that it was all good. The owner of the house and I talked on the phone a few times about all the details, and we mailed him a check for the deposit. When he confirmed he recvd that payment he gave me the balance. It was a lot more than I estimated. Turns out the price on his website is for 2 people staying in the house. The house sleeps 8. Each person over 2 is an additional $125. This was the first I heard of this. I assumed (and I shouldnt have) that the price on his website was for 8 since he advertises it sleeps 8. And in our convos he kept asking if I had 8 but never mentioned that extra charge thing. Than as I did a little more research I found out he lives in the house! Upstairs. He failed to mention that. He rents out the bottom half which is separate and 1500 sq ft. He also said this was a beach front home. I found out that there is the marsh to walk through to get to the beach, so there is no way we can have the ceremony on the beach without having our guests walk through the water. The beach is about 800 ft from the house. While I felt very uneasy about everything we did send a nonrefundable deposit so decided to make the best of it. Well now we are paying off the balance. And we have only 4 people staying in the house. Well 4 adults, 1 child. But to he said it doesnt matter the age of the person, its all one charge. A lot of our family is not coming to the wedding now, so we will not have the 8 people. We told him this and he said, sorry my retirement has been cut and when you sent the deposit you agreed to 8 people. Again we never signed a contract, but I guess I can see where hes coming from. Its one thing after another with this guy. He says he tries to run this like a business but everything he does is so shady. He goes out of town for work from time to time ,and I just know hes not going to go out of town while we are there. I have a feeling he is going to make me misearable. He keeps saying that the reception is no longer than 3 hours, and if we have over 30 guests he will charge us an extra $200. This guy is going to be monitor us...I can see it now. With all this extra BS we should of just paid a little more and had it at a nicer venue. When you think about it....$800 could of gotten a nice place without the drama! I feel like nothing is going smoothly, and if I hit another bump in this road I may lose it.
