Help with wedding venue Nestldown's response to rescheduling due to COVID-19

knottied795f43e51a3e570

Nestldown is a wedding venue in Los Gatos, CA that is forcing couples who have signed contracts with them to choose between these four choices:

1. Pay the remaining balance and hold our wedding on our current date. Despite the fact that 121,000, and counting, people in America have died of COVID-19, coronavirus cases continue to accelerate across the US, and Gavin Newsom just mandated that everyone must wear face coverings in common or public spaces – indoors and outdoors.

2. Cancel our wedding date and lose our entire 50% deposit for the day. Many of us worked very hard to save up for this milestone life event, and should not be penalized due to force majeure.

3. Reschedule by picking a wedding off-day, Monday to Wednesday, next year for "no extra charge". Weekday weddings are industrywide the cheapest days to be married and are much harder for guests to get time off for the event and travel. Holding a wedding on any of these days also penalizes hourly workers who may lose out on pay in order to attend. Additionally, weekday weddings limit our celebration options due to businesses being closed, closing early, and people needing to return to work the next day. For context, Nestldown has traditionally only offered weddings Thursday to Sunday, at different price points depending on the day and time of year. May through October 2020 rental prices were $14,000 for Thursday, $20,000 for Friday, $24,000 for Saturday, and $22,000 for Sunday. If we moved a Saturday wedding, for example, to a Monday, we would be holding our wedding at a financial loss to us, and our original contract as written and paid for would not be upheld.

4. Reschedule by picking a Thursday to Sunday and pay a penalty of 40% cost for the day, along with the contractual costs for our current day. For many of us, we would need to pay an additional $5,600-$10,000 to have our wedding on the same weekend day as it is currently. If our original wedding was on a Saturday at $24,000 and we wanted to reschedule to a Saturday in 2021, we would need to pay the remainder of our original rental fee, $12,000, a rescheduling fee of $10,000, and the damage deposit of $2,500, for a total of $36,500. This is an incredibly steep burden to place on couples attempting to plan what is supposed to be one of the happiest days of their lives.

Have any of you heard of couples being charged such a high fee to reschedule? Personally, we want to reschedule for the fall of next year. We have many elderly and immune-compromised family and friends. All of the bride's family is out of state and will not be travelling this year due to COVID-19. We cannot imagine a wedding without having them present.

Weddings are supposed to be a time of closeness, celebration, and love. People sit close together, they talk, they eat, they hug, they kiss, they laugh and cry, they drink, they dance, and they enjoy being at the wedding. We do not envision this without people jeopardizing their health. Therefore, we cannot see Nestldown delivering a wedding that is safe and enjoyable. They are refusing to refund couples and forcing us to make tough choices.

We cannot safely continue with our current wedding date.

We cannot lose our deposit.

We cannot pick between Monday and Wednesday when this will affect attendance, celebration options, and participation. We paid EXTRA money to hold our wedding on a Friday, and intend for this to be honored as stipulated in our contract.

We cannot afford to pay an additional $8,400 to reschedule to another Friday in 2021.

Therefore, our recourse is to make noise. To contact lawyers and reporters. To make consumer complaints to our CA Attorney General, Xavier Becerra. But Nestldown keeps forcing sites like WeddingWire to delete threads and scrubbing negative reviews.

We understand that some businesses are hurting right now. But many people are as well. These impacted businesses should not try to recoup their losses on the backs of customers who are also hurting. To Nestldown, if a couple paid for a weekend day, please allow them to reschedule to another weekend day without penalizing them for it.

To all of you, what else can we do?

VerizonGirl

Contact the "consumer reporter" at your closest "big city" TV station.

charlotte989875

It definitely sucks and I wish they were being more reasonable with you. However it doesn’t sound like they are necessarily being malicious here. If restrictions are lifted and they are open, you could have a reception on the date you scheduled at the original price. Or you could cancel and lose your deposit. This is pretty standard contract language, even in an unprecedented event. If you reschedule they are losing the Income form the date they’ve held for you and only earning off of the new date, which is I’m assuming the reasoning behind the increase fee. 

It definitely sucks to be trying to plan a wedding now and make the right choice. And it really sucks you don’t have more options that appeal to you, but I wouldn’t expect them to change the options they are providing unless restrictions change at the time of your original date and they can’t provide the service for you. 

maine7mob

I understand why businesses are trying to minimize the impact of the pandemic to themselves. And that's exactly what's happening here. It's complicated. On the one hand, they have employees to keep employed, and vendors to pay. On the other, they are passing along these costs to people who don't have the same deep pockets the owners have. I think there is a need for more transparency here, and in other cases, as this is happening all over.

I think it would be worth calling your consumer reporter. At the very least, someone needs to be compiling a list of policies like these and disclosing them to the public so that people know what rights they have. 

MesmrEwe

This is why you read and understand ANY contract with ANY vendor before signing it. Your wedding is an emotionally charged event for you, it is "just" a business transaction for your vendors whether that be the dress shop, florist, photographer, baker, caterer, or venue.  Much as you may not like it, depending on your contract, that you knowingly signed, they may be more than generous compared to normal terms and conditions where they could keep the entire deposit or fee agreed to if you cancelled for any reason, covid included.  

If as many guests are traveling to your wedding as you say from OOT, it doesn't make a difference if your wedding is on a Monday or a Friday.  In some ways it's easier for people to take off Monday than it is a Friday.  Or, planning now, you could schedule your wedding for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the Monday after since you want a November event next year. Key is you have to make a decision and run with it!  Only you can decide given your budget what you want to do.  You could still hold your wedding this fall and not have a financial impact of rescheduling though many won't be able to attend.