Reception venue cancelled my reserved date!

bsims726 · January 2012

Hi ladies,

This is my 1st ever post on this site. Normally I just read other posts and occasionally comment but I've just been hit with news that I just needed to vent about. See, my fiance and I are planning to get married on Sept. 22 of this year and we found the perfect reception venue (it's right across the street from the church, it has a beautiful space, great vendor connections, and Hispanic-managed which we appreciate because my side of the family is Hispanic). In Dec., we paid the deposit and reserved the date and all was good until we had a little incident with the pastor who is officiating. We thought we might have to change the date so I called the reception venue to discover what I needed to do IF I wanted to do so. The guy asked me if I wanted to change the date and I distinctly remember telling him not to change the date, I just wanted to find out what I needed to do IF I wanted to do it. Today, the reception venue guy calls to tell me my date has been changed to Oct. 13th! He tells me he gave away my date because I told him to. I didn't even sign any paperwork to authorize him to do that which he said I would have to do when I called a few weeks ago. He was very rude and when my fiance tried talking to him, he was just short and dismissive. Are reception venues allowed to just give away reservations without notice?? I'm not sure whether we should go in-person to speak our minds or should we just change the date to another day in Sept. (which he said is possible)? I am too livid right now to think logically. Ladies, I need advice and reassurance please.

Grits8812 · January 2012

Well, I know what I would do. I would call and ask him what happened to the paperwork that you were supposed to fill out before he gave your date to someone else. Did you sign a contract already saying that you reserved the date? I'd be taking that in there, asking to speak with whoever is in charge of him, and demanding my date back.

But that probably isn't the most polite way to go about it. I would be livid! If that is the venue you want, and the date was saved for you, and you didn't sign the papers saying you wanted to move it, he shouldn't have done that, and he has to answer to someone (as in there has to be a boss higher up than him)

If they swear up and down they can't give you your date back, get all your deposit money back, and find a new venue, and write bad reviews on them.

DG1 · January 2012

What she said, mostly. And honestly, even if you did get your date back, it sounds like they're going to make you miserable through the whole thing.

IDK if you can play the race card (or that it'd be particularly honorable to do so), but that might be another option.

At the very least, get your deposit back. That kindof sounds like the best possible outcome at this point.

Grits8812 · January 2012

I agree. As long as you get your full deposit back, it will be alright. There has to be another venue close by.

RaptorSLH · January 2012

If you have a contract, and he will not abide by it (give you back your date or your deposit,) you can get the BBB involved, and even small claims court.

Is this "venue guy" the manager/owner, or a event planner scheduled to you? If it's the former, I'd probably be looking to get my money back and run. If the latter, and there is more than one on staff, you may be able to have them assign a new one after his behavior. Go in calm, but firm, and speak to management only. Whether I would accept another date or demand a refund would depend on how management handles this from here on out.

Also, we can see your post count. We know this isn't your first post.

melntaitt · January 2012

I'm very curious if you already had a contract and a copy of your contract; which you should if you paid a deposit.

The contract should distinctly state your venue address, date and time along with any other particulars. If you paid them and don't have a contract, you are screwed my dear.

I would actively work on talking with them and figure this out because it seems pretty absurd that a venue would just change your date to some random date in October without consulting you. I know, I know, things happen but this just seems very suspicious. Contracts are in place specifically to protect you from things like this, so it's a bit worrisome that it even occured.

bsims726 · January 2012

Hi Ladies,

Thank you all who commented. Your advice really did help. After taking some time to clear my head and having a discussion with my mother and grandmother (the major funders of my wedding), I was able to calm down even though I am still somewhat peeved. Ok, I do have a contract with all the information: date, time, restricitions, etc. Nothing on the contract says they have the right to change my date without my official permission. We decided to change the date to the available date in Sep. (the 15th which is one week before our original date----groom is actually happy about that because he really wants to get married sooner rather than later lol). Although we are agreeing to change the date, we are still going in-person with the contract so we can confront the guy about his dissatisfying service but we're not trying to have a big situation because we don't want hostility or even more poor service as payback when my big day rolls around. We're crossing our fingers and saying prayers that things work out better this time----my fiance and I try to make light of the situation by joking that maybe God wanted us married sooner than we thought lol. Again, thanks ladies for the help during my moment of stress.

ReturnOfKuus · January 2012

I'd probably make the guy sweat it with threats of lawsuits before finally agreeing to the new date change.

Hilraythebride · January 2012

See I don't really think you want to be nasty and rude about this ESPECIALLY if you are still going to have your reception there, it would be different if you were going to have it somewhere else because of this. Since you are having your reception there I would politely call and just make them understand that you did not tell them to give up the date and did not sign anything that indicated you would and just let them know how genuinly upset you are that you have to change things over to another date (especially if you have started getting other vendors).

Unfortunelty, there most likely isn't anything else they can do except give you another day in September because like you said another couple already has it. Maybe if yo0ur suoer nice and genuine about it thought, you will be able to get a discount or something for free like discounted HD package or an extra hour for free. You never know but seriously since your having your recpetion there anyway, you really should be good to them so they don't think your a bridezilla and then they want to spite you!

Reception venue cancelled my reserved date!

Re: Reception venue cancelled my reserved date!

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