Venue -closed-

You need to get someone on the phone to speak with directly about your wedding. Preferably whoever you signed the contract with or who was designated your coordinator. You have enough time to find a new venue but if the venue is closed you will want to find out about the state of your deposit since they are the ones who are essentially canceling on you. If its just that they are under new management and renovating and still plan to host your wedding then you would want to clarify that as well.

I would call and ask to speak to a manager and get some answers before I did anything else

Uh oh. A venue that doesn't have a contract is a HUUUUGE red flag to begin with.

You paid without a contract!? What would make you do that?

I would count the money gone and find another venue.

Well that's a huge red flag right there. You should ALWAYS get a contract for all venues outlining all of the terms for the day itself but also who is responsible for what if either you or they should cancel the wedding. I'm not sure you will be able to get any money back at this point. I would still call and inquire with them about the renovations but you might have to just cut your losses and count yourself out the money.

Yes but an invoice is only proof that you did pay. An invoice does not outline who is responsible to pay or owe any money back if they should close or cancel.

An invoice is a proof of payment, and with that you can certainly fight to get your money back but without a contract it will be more difficult. My contract clearly outlines the terms for me receiving my money back and what portion of it I will receive - both for the idea of me canceling but also if my venue should cancel for some reason. So I have a clear reference for what to expect should something unexpected happen. It's a legally binding agreement between the venue and I.

An invoice just is proof of payment but it doesn't legally hold them to anything and they can come up for a reason why they don't have to give you the money back since there was no contract tied to it. You can certainly hire a lawyer and try to fight it but depending on how responsive they are it's probably just better to count yourself out the money this time and to try make sure you receive a contract and read it thoroughly before putting any more money down.

I hope that works out for you.

PSA to other brides: Don't give anybody ANY money without a contract. That should include dates payments are required, what happens if you/they cancel, and what is included with the venue.

I find it odd that they pulled the whole website rather than placing the renovation information on the website. A venue with no contract and takes deposits by paypal raises red flags for me. I would probably start looking at other venues.

Yeah I also would start looking unfortunately without a contract or anything legally binding I would be freaking out. Also call and talk to the person you had been emailing back and forth with about your concerns, maybe they are closed now with the intention to be back up and running by 2019.

I would ask for a contract and if they can't supply that I would move on. I'd have it mention to renovations, who's going to be in charge of your event, when they are promising to have the renovations done, and what the terms are for breaking the contract, at the very least.

Even so they could have emailed you a contract to look over before signing anything.

I would call - ask to speak to the person in charge, a general manager whoever that would be. Ask to be supplied with a contract, find out all the information about what is going on, get some clarity on the situation and then go from there.