Switching dates at venue..losing deposit?

Yup. Well i havent had it happen to me but my contract does say it.

I spoke with FH (an attorney) and he said that if you change your date, that's the same as cancelling. They can legally keep your deposit. However, you can, and should, try to negotiate a reasonable settlement with the venue.

Seriously it isn't like you are changing the date and the wedding was for next week. They still have a year to book that date and most likely will. I agree with Jean talk to them and insist that the deposit should be moved. I doubt they would want to lose out on the thousands of extra you are going to pay on top of the deposit then just the deposit itself.

We called back and talked with the owners (because the first time it was the manager) and they aren't budging. Luckily, if they do keep the deposit, and I switch to this year, the price for the venue drops significantly so I ultimately am saving money.

Thanks for everyone's feedback. It is a really silly thing and doesn't seem like it would be an issue but I guess there is more to it than I realize!!

Was the deposit going to go toward the cost of the venue anyway? I'm confused. This seems a little shady.

It was going toward the venue. So I have to give another deposit for a new date. They are treating it as a cancellation.

My contract says if I cancel I lose my deposit, BUT if they re-book the date then they'll refund the deposit. Maybe see if they'll refund you your prior deposit if they re-book that date so they haven't lost potential income.

I have 90 days from my date to cancel my venue and still get a full refund. That's sucky that you lose your deposit if you change the date. They could easily rebook your original date in July this far in advance. I know it's policy and there's nothing you can do about it. Jus saying it's a sucky policy.

Yes every place has that which we checked into. That is why we did so much planning before putting deposits on anything and booking things. Most placed say if they book the day you choose not a big deal but sometimes you see people saying that no one booked the date and they lost money anyway etc.

I will say this. You think that it's too far away but that time will pass by quickly. Take your time in planning and keep the date, it will be here before you know it. I would just take your time, relax and do the things you need to when you don't have to be stresses about it!

BTW watch doing things at the end of the year. It can be hectic with holidays etc. I don't know that I would want to add a wedding on top of those things. Just my personal opinion. I had a winter wedding the first time and it was horrible, snow, etc. No great outside photos taken, etc.

They can do that. It's not very cool to, but they can.

Wow, I guess that could happen, we switched our date but our venue transfered the deposit and the rate we got because we got a special rate. Do you think they would work with you at all, can you beg them. of course that depends on deposit my deposit was just under 2k.

With my venue if we switched our date the deposit would be transferred over, but if we canceled we would of lost the deposit. It was in the contract that we signed. Guess every venue is different.

We switched our date from 12/13/14. When we booked and the found out we didn't want to spend $30k on a wedding (after our deposit was down!) we requested to switch dates. They allow 1 switch and as long as it is within 365 of the original date. Since 12/13/14 is a premium date, they knew they would book that faster than anything, so they were willing to work with us! We were happy! Especially since our original quote for a wedding would be 2x what we will be spending on the day now! Its a relief to save money!

With my venue the deposit would've been transferred over BUT we would have to pay a 300.00 date change fee.

Every contract is different, and I know for a fact that most of my clients don't really read mine. I'd just leave it as it is, honestly.

This is what would happen at my venue. There is a bit of a clause that says if you do need to cancel and if the space is booked X amount of days before the date itself they will release the deposit back to you.