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Just Said Yes September 2020

Are venues being flexible with postponements?

Meredith, on April 6, 2020 at 12:18 AM Posted in Wedding Reception 0 4

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Hi Ladies,

Looking for your personal accounts... my fiancé and I recently made the decision to postpone our June 6, 2020 Chicago wedding due to the uncertainty of Covid-19 and having mostly out of state/country guests. Our venue would only allow us to rebook through March 2021 and the only Saturdays that are available are November or later. We found this to be disappointing since our ceremony was supposed to be on the rooftop and we obviously won’t be able to use it in the winter (also the main reason we booked the venue).
We asked if we can be refunded if we instead decide to cancel, and they are not allowing any refunds. We were also offered a Friday in September, but they will not refund the $1500 cost difference of a Saturday versus Friday booking. Very curious if others are having the same experience with their venues or if ours is being particularly difficult???

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4 Comments

Latest activity by Gina, on April 13, 2020 at 3:01 PM

Beginner September 2020
Destiny · on April 6, 2020 at 2:45 AM
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I’m so sorry your venue isn’t being flexible! My venue in New York has been very accommodating about rescheduling our May wedding to September. Unfortunately, there are no more Saturdays available so we had to settle for a Friday.

Sending lots of good vibes your way!
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Master August 2019
Rebecca · on April 6, 2020 at 4:19 AM
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Hi, and welcome!
I'm so sorry, this is super frustrating. I'd take a good look at your contract, and see what kind of leverage you have. Also, we have a bunch of discussions that might help!
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Master May 2020
Kari · on April 6, 2020 at 1:27 PM
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As long as the decision to postpone is a personal one and not due to any gov't regulations or mandates, I think venues end up with the upper hand. Our wedding is May 30th and currently there are no guidelines on the federal or state level that extend beyond mid-May. We think it is unlikely we will be able to have the event we planned on that day, but if we were to change the date now it would be our decision to do so. If the emergency stay-at-home order or limitations on gatherings in our state were extended and our venue was not able to legally uphold their end of our contract, we think we may have more leveraging power, so we are holding off on making any decisions for at least another couple weeks.

Currently our venue will reschedule us for any date they have available this year (there were only four dates left when I touched base with them several weeks ago) and will let us apply our deposit towards a 2021 wedding as well, but they will not refund us and did not say whether or not we would receive the 2020 rate if we postponed to 2021. As much as we'd love to have the wedding we planned, we don't want to have to postpone indefinitely and are worried that we'll need to use our wedding savings or marry right away (for health insurance) if one of us loses our job. Postponing with so much uncertainty about both public health and the economy makes us nervous, and we're trying to delay on making a decision as long as we can, just so we have as much information as we possibly can have before deciding how we want to change our plans to fit the situation.
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WeddingWire Administrator April 2021
Gina · on April 13, 2020 at 3:01 PM
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Hi Meredith,
I'm so sorry you are going through this. While it may not be traditional, have you considered getting married on a Monday?
A lot of vendors are offering discounted rates to postpone to a Monday. This way, you might be able to get married in a warmer month on the rooftop and score a great deal!
I hope this is something your venue is able to accommodate if you are interested,
Sending lots of love your way!
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