Earn cash as you plan. Get a $20 gift card for every 200 points with The Knot Rewards
Wedding Woes
knottief429eeb05eb6fc69
member
We are cancelling our wedding, but still getting married due to a family emergency- what do we do?!
in Wedding Woes
We recently experienced a sudden/unexpected loss in the family, my fiancé’s brother. He was a single dad, to a young child and the mother is not in the picture. My fiancé and I are choosing to raise her and in order to focus on this, have decided to cancel our wedding a little later in the year. We however are getting married as anticipated, but pushing this up and doing the courthouse thing in order to make the process of taking custody smoother. Our save the dates have already gone out- how do we go about announcing this to our guests? Additionally, what can we expect from our wedding vendors in terms of refunds? Our venue has a large “non refundable” deposit as does the bridal salon (they have NOT ordered the dress). While we have gone into this decision accepting we will likely not get anything back, is it worth trying? Postponing makes little sense for us, so we will be cancelling. Thank you in advance!
Best Answers
-
MyNameIsNot
member
I'm sorry for your loss.
For the guests, just print out a postcard that says something like "the October wedding of X and Y will not continue as planned. X&Y were married in a private ceremony on May 4." If you want to still have a party to celebrate, you could have it on the originally planned wedding day, and just announce it with the cancellation note. If you don't want to do a party, that's fine, just leave it as that. I could see where suddenly adding a child to your family may mean planning a big party isn't as much of a priority.
For vendors, you're probably not going to get deposits back. You should review your contracts, but most plan for deposits to be non-refundable. Depending on the contract, you should also verify that you're not responsible for any future payments once you cancel. The only exception is if you're moving the date and postponing, sometimes vendors will allow you to transfer your deposit. I would share your story with your vendors. They are businesses and have to make ends meet, but they may be more willing to work with you given the circumstances. -
short+sassy member
I agree with @MyNameIsNot. Legally, you probably aren't entitled to the non-refundable deposits back. But it's definitely worth trying! I think there is a good chance at least some of the vendors will work with you. Especially considering the circumstances and also because it's not like you all are cancelling last minute. They still have a lot of time to fill in the empty slot in their work with another couple.
Plus, right now, there are a lot of April/May/June couples who have had to postpone their weddings because of the pandemic. Fall seems to be a popular replacement time period. I would hope that your all's venue would do the morally right thing and give the deposit back, at least as long as they're able to replace the day/time with another couple. Which I'd think they wouldn't have any trouble doing.
Good luck!
Re: We are cancelling our wedding, but still getting married due to a family emergency- what do we do?!
I am so sorry for what you are going through, and I wish you the best.