Is this venue contract language normal?

That is odd (to me). All our contracts say if our venue can't fulfill the contract (or vendors) we get all our money back.

Yeah, I wouldn't be comfortable with that either.

That seems very odd! Ours said that if the venue is unable to fulfill obligations because of their own issues (i.e. air conditioning breaks) or an act of God (i.e. tornado) then we would be refunded in full!

That is pretty weird. I would be uncomfortable with that as well. The only reason you shouldn’t get a deposit back is if you cancel on them

Definitely not normal. Can’t hurt to ask them to remove that clause and request a full refund in that event. If they refuse; that’s a red flag and I’d begin looking for a different venue.

I agree with others about it not being standard. However, that is the reason wedding insurance is recommended. All the reasons you cited are great reasons to get wedding insurance. It will cover your costs in the event any of those things happen.

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Thank you! Is there a particular provider you'd recommend? It seems like WedSafe is the go-to. It looks like we are going to have to take out a pretty large policy to cover the 4500 amount, though.. so might have settle for 3/4 of that!

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I have heard good things about WedSafe too. I foolishly didn't get insurance and got married in Sonoma in 2017 when the fires nearly destroyed my venue. Fortunately, it didn't, but other brides were not so lucky.

View Quoted Comment Oh my gosh how horrible! I’m glad yours was okay, you don’t know what you don’t know! Thanks again for the reply

I would not be comfortable with that at all...I feel like that means if the facility has any issues at all, like fails some sort of an inspection, or electrical/plumbing issues, or a zillion other things that could cause them to not fulfill their obligation and have to cancel the booking...you'll be out $4500

Yes it is typical for them to keep the deposit. But there is a thing called wedding insuracne

Sorry Insurance that you can buy so that i think if anything happens you get the full amount of every thing back..good luck and congrats

That’s not normal, all the venues we looked at gave full refunds if they had to cancel the wedding for whatever reason

My venue also had that in the contract.

I would be very concerned. This is not the norm. Only way a vendor or venue keeps the deposit if you back out. If the issue is their fault you should be refunded your money in full. I hope you didn't sign anything yet until this can be clarified

So mine doesn't even say what happens if they cancel on us only if we cancel on them. It says deposit is non-refundable for if we cancel which is understandable. I am going to ask my coordinator that there isn't a circumstance about if they cancel on us cuz sorry you're not keeping $6,000+ dollars if you cancel on me and don't provide a service!

Thanks so much for the awesome input everyone!! We decided to move forward with the contract, I also did not love this piece of it, but I am pretty obsessed with the venue (lol) - and we are purchasing event cancellation insurance anyway, which would reimburse us for the deposit in the hopefully very rare event something were to happen.

Y'all rock! Thank you!

Our is that way as well. The barn floods with a lot of rain as well we found out after signing the contract and putting $1000 deposit down. But we had a tornado here a couple weeks ago thankfully didn’t touch the venue. Luckily we can pay the remainder of the payment the week before so we’re just not paying anything until then to ensure we’re not putting $4000 for nothing.