Not Sure if We Can Trust Our Venue Anymore

I work as paralegal. I would think if you are signing a brand new contract the terms of the new contract do not have to be the same as the original contract that you signed. While it doesn't seem morally right for them to exclude the paramedic, I don't think they are doing anything illegal.

I don’t think it’s wrong, I think it makes sense that they are thinking about to allow during a force majeure. Honestly, I hate that my contract is so vague regarding force majeure because it’s hard to understand if we will get our money back if we ever need to cancel/postpone.
What does the new contract say? Will you be able to get some money back or do you forfeit everything? Like with any contract you can try to negotiate terms if you don’t agree with them.
Since you did get a new contract, I don’t think it’s shady that they make some terms more specific but you should be comfortable with the terms before signing.

I think a lot of the vendors are changing their contracts going forward. Unfortunately this would be considered a new contract so I believe the new wording would apply.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for commenting, especially since you have legal experience! I get that. I guess it just feels kinda cruel, as we have a lot of money tied up into this venue and caterer. They won't even allow us to postpone out to next summer (even though we would take Monday-Thursday) when we'd feel much more comfortable trying to have the wedding. It just feels like we've lost complete control over our wedding and our large investment. I totally get them trying to protect themselves and their interests, but it feels like they could do better with meeting us somewhere in the middle.

View Quoted Comment Anais, thanks for commenting... I understand to a point, but we would be forfeiting EVERYTHING 😓 We plan to negotiate, but don't want to not negotiate properly and make matters worse, if that makes any sense? We have zero experience with anything like this and it's so much more scary when there's so much money involved

View Quoted Comment Thanks for your input Stefanie! That's what I'm starting to worry is going to be happening more often too. Just feels like a betrayal. I get they need to protect their interests, but does that mean that ours cannot be protected? I thought that was the point of the force majeure. If you change it when such events are actually happening, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of the force majuere?

View Quoted Comment
Old force majuere above
New force majuere below

I crossed out the name of the venue to be fair.

View Quoted Comment Popping over from the other forum. What is their reasoning for not allowing you to have a wedding next summer? What do you think their thoughts would be if you kept making your venue payments as if you were keeping your original date? They would still be getting paid so I’m not sure why it would be an issue for next summer. Also, how many people are expected at your wedding and are they all from in state?

View Quoted Comment Thanks Felicia!! So, we actually stay completely paid off the venue fees right before the pandemic. The fee for the venue itself was due a week after we signed the contract last summer. All other fees they charge (outside DJ sound fee, ceremony fee, etc,) were due for our original June date early March. We have an added amount to pay the caterer that they work with now that we switched to a Sunday, but we'd previously paid off the original amount for that as well back in early March.... They feel that they'll lose money by allowing us to move into a "new wedding season". I don't understand how that could be when we're willing to take a weekday and, while their weekends fill up quickly for years in advance, they are never able to fill up their weekdays.... People from all over the country are invited to our wedding. None of my family even live in the state where we're having the wedding, MN. My fiance is military, so we have friends from all over, but are getting married in his home state. We were originally expecting 125-150 of the 220 we invited, as it's out of state for a good amount of our guests.

View Quoted Comment Ahhh I see! I have a similar issue with my venue. We were supposed to get married October 2020 but want to push it back until September 2021. They initially told us that we would have to cancel and sign a new contract with 2021 wedding rates (aka jack the price up on us) - I have my wedding planner negotiating because we too have a vague force majeure in our contract. We won’t be cancelling and worse case scenario we will pay the new rate (if it’s reasonable.) I can see your venue trying to do the same thing. If you don’t sign the new contract will you get your money back? I think there are three options for you. Either take the new August date with the realization that people might not be able to come, try to get your money back and find a new venue for your preferred date, or ask your venue what the 2021 rates would be. Even if they did up the rates you would have time to pay the remaining balance by your summer 2021 date. I know that isn’t ideal, but a lot of venues are doing this. If you don’t feel like this venue is for you anymore then don’t sign the contract. Bringing a lawyer into it would unfortunately cost you money. If lawyer fees comeout to the same amount as the venues summer 2021 rates, I would just pay the rate instead. Either way, this day is about you two and the love you share. I know that these are dire times so I’m sorry to see you stressed. Just know that you are not alone and there is no bad decision.

View Quoted Comment Ugh I hate you have to go through a similar situation!! This is so stressful!.... So I wish we could just get our money back and start all over for next summer, rather it's with them or another venue, but we've already signed the new catering contract for the caterer that they work with. So we'd already committed to the new date with them before seeing that our venue decided to change the force majuere for our new date 😓We did not see this coming. So, we may have a chance of getting the money back that we paid the venue since we're still technically slated for June 4th under the original contract, but I doubt we'll be able to get the money back from the caterer (actually even more than what we paid our venue 😫). Girl, this is horrible. I have no idea what to do. We're talking tens of thousands. That's why I was wondering if it's worth it to see if we could pay a lawyer a couple thousand to help us negotiate the new contract or get all of our money back to just go another route.

View Quoted Comment Ugh! Is there any chance you could talk to the caterer first? If there’s one thing I know, it’s that everything is negotiable. I wish I had a better answer for you! Morally, it doesn’t feel right that the venue can do this to you. Talking to a lawyer would probably give you a couple of options you haven’t thought of yet. Perhaps, they could be the ones to smooth everything over. Keep us updated! Good luck!

View Quoted Comment Thanks a bunch for taking the time to give me some advice and pointers! I'm going to try going this route that you suggested first before spending more money to consult with a lawyer 😫... We'll see what we can get done tomorrow. Good luck to you guys too!! I'll keep you posted for sure 👍🏽❤️ Keep me posted too!!

Its shady but not illegal as they gave time to read it. Dont sign it without them taking that out though, which is your right as negotiating a contract is normal, as the original (only signed contract) is what will be followed.