My hold date got booked! (Small rant)

What do you mean you put a hold on the date? For most venues, the first person who signs an contract and pays the deposit gets the date. It sucks that someone beat you to the punch but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Yeah what Mandi said. Most of the time when you have a date on hold and someone else wants it, they call and give you 24 hours or so to put down a deposit or it gets released to the other couple.

@Mandi We told them that we were looking at that date and the girl offered to put a hold on it for a week. If that wasn't an option, especially one that they suggested, I would be way less annoyed. It's like... my trust has been broken with them.

@KW They didn't even do that though! There was no notice... I actually called to make an appointment to come and put down our deposit and they said that someone had accidentally booked it. They've been very apologetic at least.

Why didn't you just give them a check?

This happens to us more than I'd like. People think that since they talked to us, we're booked.

By hold do you mean you requested they contact you to give a heads up if someone else was also interested in the date? We had several venues offer that however those are usually just a courtesy and nothing is guaranteed unless you signed and paid

We had multiple places offer to hold dates (and vendors) for a limited amount of time. Not sure why when they don't at all owe you anything, but it's not unheard of! It is pretty crappy to not at least call (although we had a venue do that too, when their policy was to call and give you 24 hours to book - luckily we had already decided not to book there).

@Celia FH is way more cautious and I'm very decisive. I was totally ready, but didn't push it since he wasn't ready. We talked about it afterwards and he was set though.

@Muchkin I thought so! They said that letting someone else book was an accident and shouldn't have happened. I would've rushed my ass over there if they'd given me a heads up!

@Erika It is pretty crappy... good thing you guys had moved on though!

Definitely not a good use of the word violated...our venue does courtesy holds but only for 72 hours and if you don't get back to them it's released. Perhaps that is how that venue works as well.

Why didn't you put a deposit if you loved it so much?

Erika, most of us (vendors and venues) talk to dozens of people for any given day. While I'd love to say I call EVERYONE who has talked to us for a date before we give it away?

Can't.

How did they just book on ur date?

My venue spot asked for a deposit to be booked. ?? Sorry to hear about that. I would be pretty upset

@LissyLoo Yes, it's definitely not a small decision! We were really grateful to feel like we were able to digest everything, and not feel rushed. There are a few different event coordinators, so I think you're completely right and that's probably what happened. At least something along those lines. We're still deliberating on what to do now. They said they would contact corporate to see if they can give us a Saturday for the same rate.

We wanted to book our place for 12/8 and it was available when I emailed to set up a time to come look at it. Sunday was the earliest they could meet us and by the time our appt came, they had already booked our date. We we're super disappointed but just went ahead and booked the next week. Our new date actually works better with my schedule. I know it's disappointing now but it won't matter to you as much in a couple of months!

@celia That's totally fine, but this was a venue that had a policy where you could put down a date and they would call you and give you right of first refusal if someone else wanted it. Obviously they weren't in any way obligated to do that (and we actually pulled our videographer out from under a bride who was taking forever to get back to him), but I do expect if the venue states a policy that they follow it. I treated none of my vendors like they were mine until contracts were signed (lawyer!). But in the case of the venue it's basic professionalism to follow through on an explicitly stated policy. I wouldn't have felt great about their communication skills if we had ended up going with that venue after that.

That happened to us, it was the week of our anniversary. It felt like the end of the world at first, and we were frustrated, but we have booked and signed our new date now!

You booked your videographer before your venue? Is he willing/able to do whatever date you end up with?

The reverse happened to me. We really wanted the 2nd of December but someone else had a hold on it and was still hemming and hawing about it. They refused to put down a deposit, sign anything, and some how convinced the coordinator to block that date for 3 weeks while they decided. I had the contract printed from the email and the full venue fee in hand in cash and they wouldn't give me the date, even after the coordinator called the girl (after holding if for 2 weeks already) and she asked to coordinator for more time to decide. The owner gave us 30% off any date because FH is active duty and part of me thinks that had something to do with it, but I might just still be salty.

In the end though, the 30th works out better for family and friends, and our honeymoon so maybe this is the universe giving you a gift.

@Jo-Jess THANK YOU! Seriously I was wondering the same things and trolling the comments for someone to ask! I was thinking, "Am I the only one that doesn't get it?"

@Goldfisch We put it on hold last Friday and we were told it was a week-long hold. I called today to see if we could extend it until Tuesday because I'd made an appointment to come in that day, as it was the closest day that worked with our and their schedules. The girl remembered me and said "yes sure" she could extend the hold, and then called five minutes later to tell me that someone had accidentally booked it. Sigh. Not sure if the other couple was also promised a hold, but something definitely got mixed up, which is not ok. Sorry it happened to you too! An hour before--that's heartbreaking!!

@Lval Awwww... what were the odds right? It was meant to be though, if it worked out better! We will definitely reconfigure and things will be fine... the initial slap-in-the-face feeling sucked though for sure!

@Jo-Jess, @Malei and @MrsWrs LOL you're 100% right. I'm from the US, so the month is first for me. Also, I kept saying 9-1-19 in my head, so it was only a palindrome the way I was informally thinking of it, but not in actuality.

@Jacqui Yikes!! Sorry that happened! Yeah, things are dramatic right now, but it'll work out haha.

@catlady That's totally what I'm hoping for! FH and my mom were even more pissed than I did and took turns calling and complaining (I'm a total pushover). We're hoping they at least honor the price for a Saturday date!

@Jessica That's ludicrous! Unless they were really hurting for business (which I'm sure they weren't) why in the world would they feel obligated to accommodate a hold that long? But hey, if there was an advantage for you in it, that's awesome!!