Should a cancelled vendor provide goods equal to the deposit amount?

If you cancel, it's pretty typical that you forfeit the money you've paid. Cut your losses.

If I cancelled a vendor, I would not expect them to give me anything. When you signed a contract, you agreed to losing your deposit if you cancelled. Unless it says in your contract that they will provide flowers up to the amount of your deposit, then you get nothing.

Unfortunately, I think you'll have to cut your losses! The vendors I had to cancel with didn't give me anything - some of which, I had paid 2/3 of the total costs to at the time of cancelation. But they didn't agree to give me any refunds in our contract, so I had to take the money loss and move on. If the florist gave you any flowers out of kindness, I would consider that a treat and not expect more. Either way, it's no fun to deal with!

It was incredibly generous for your florist to give you anything at all. So be thankful.

Your vendor likely turned away other business on your date pre-covid, which is what that deposit is for. Yes, covid was an unforeseen event, but you could have still gotten flowers that day with a changed plan, so you cancelling was up to you, so you forfeit the deposit.

Situations like this world wide pandemic are what wedding insurance is made for and would have been what allowed you to recoup money (but not from the vendor themselves).

Don't push for more from them, they've already gone above and beyond, and have likely been very hurt by covid and are lucky to even still be in business.

Like everyone else has said, it looks like you'll have to cut your losses on this one. Your florist was very gracious to send you what flowers she did, so I wouldn't push for more. It sucks, but you signed a contract with clear cancellations rules and policies, so expecting or asking for more than you have gotten now isn't the best thinking.

Unfortunately I agree with everyone else, the $100 worth of flowers is definitely just a nice gesture. Sorry that you have to forfeit your deposit.

Hey Christie! I actually have a different opinion on this than the others. Your question was *should* a vendor provide services equivalent to the deposit amount.....and I personally believe that yes, they should (if they can). Do they have to? No, they are not required to do so. It will probably come down to the vendor's personality and also their business circumstances. And in the instance of multiple postponements/cancellations (I don't know if this is your situation - just throwing this out here), I think any hope of getting the equivalent amount back in goods will dwindle, as the vendors have (presumably) not charged the couple fees for postponing and instead relied on that initial deposit.

Side note: I happen to live in an area where large, pre-pandemic-esque (dancing, no masks, close contact while indoors) weddings have continued to take place throughout the past year, and I've seen vendors post about working these weddings (seemingly) every weekend on social media. I'm not saying their business is booming, because it likely isn't booming per se....but I'm just trying to illustrate what I mean about one vendor (maybe in an area with tighter restrictions) potentially having different circumstances than one in a not-so-restricted (or maybe just loosely enforced) area.

Agreed... cut your loses

It was extremely generous and kind of your florist to provide you with flowers after you cancelled. Read your contract again, because it almost certainly doesn't say that upon cancellation your deposit will be converted into "store credit" so to speak. You think you paid for a "good" not a "service" but that's not the case. You paid a deposit in exchange for them holding the date for you and not accepting other work on that date because they would be busy with your event. They put time and energy and therefore money into communicating with you, helping you make decisions, and may have even placed floral orders based on your event needs. You agreed to that deal when you signed the contract, and if you weren't in agreement that it was fair then you shouldn't have signed it.