Paging Celia~ 12 days out ready to be done with

I'm not a lawyer, but under the cancellation, it clearly says if you decide not to proceed, not if they decide not to proceed.

Thanks everyone for the support. We have gotten in touch with 3 other officiants and will decide by tomorrow.

We met one, spoke to another on the phone and emailed another. Now FH and I are just deciding who seems fit.

This has been so stressful, finally being so close to being married and then this. Now all the other things I would worry about don't seem relevant at all.

That's ridiculous I would demand a refund. At least you're making progress. Deep breaths!

Update us and let us know what the officiant says in response to getting you money back.

This is a shit contract with ambiguous language at best.

It actually does say in the contract that if 'we' decide to not to proceed" there will be no refunds. To me, that means if either one of the parties decides not to...I'm sure that means if YOU decide not to, but that isn't what it says.

And I don't know how you could be charged more for 'changes to the contract' if no date or times are listed.

And it does say that 'all fees are deemed earned when paid", which I find kind of weird, but neither one of you signed that one....

How did your meetings go?

Yeah, I noticed that as well... The contract almost seems like it was written with loopholes on purpose so that they could back out last minute and still be paid in full- as if it were their plan all along. What do other reviewers say about this company/ officiant?

We decided to go with another bilingual officiant we met with in person yesterday. He seems nice, but then again everyone seemed nice in the beginning. We gave him half, and said we would give the rest of the amount on the day of, after services. I hated to tell him what happened, but I just wanted him to know that I am on my last straw and can't mentally deal with more problems! I may be exaggerating but that's how I feel. I still don't know if I should go on my day off in person with the original officiant and demand my money or wait until after the wedding. I just don't want to get mad all over again.

OP - write a letter to the original officiant demanding your money back. Point out that the no refund clause only states if you cancel which you did not and that it is not initialed. Give him/her a deadline to refund your money and send the letter certified. Advise that if you do not receive a prompt refund you will have no choice but to seek the counsel of an attorney. Keep emotion out of the letter and just stick to the facts.

ETA: Glad you found a new officiant!

Honestly I would fight them like everyone said. And the internet is a powerful thing. Semi-related I could never get Dell to fix my computer until I slammed them on Twitter...then they were real quick to respond. I'd just go at it politely and if they keep refusing, say you will put them on every wedding site there is and tell everyone how unreliable they are. Then they may be willing to fork over your $500 instead of losing many potential clients...just what I would do. Maybe I'm harsh though