Venue Contract Changes

Ok I need advise and help. Sorry for the long post but it’s a lot of crap this venue is trying to pull. If you could get thru it and have input it would be much appreciated.



Backstory:
So due to COVID my fiancé and I booked our wedding venue March of 2020 for our wedding August of 2022. Before signing he told us we could go the day before to set up and we said ok cool. 2 months before the wedding we went to the venue to see it again and get an idea on where everything will be placed. When we arrived one of the workers mentioned that we hadn’t paid the $500 cleaning fee for the wedding. I told her that when we signed the owner told us that cleaning was included and we told him that we’d help clean up after the wedding. Also our contract that we signed doesn’t state a cleaning fee but only mentions that we have up to 2 hours after the wedding to gather up trash and leave for them to take away after. After going back and forth telling them our contract doesn’t state that the owner said that he would honor our agreement. Fast forward 19 days until our wedding we contacted the venue via social media to ask what time the day before we could go drop stuff off so the day of wouldn’t be crazy. They replied that they booked a party the day before and we wouldn’t be allowed to use the venue until the day of the wedding after 10am. Our contract didn’t state we could set up the day before so I agreed with that, however…our contract stated use of the venue from 6am-12am and then we are allowed up to 2am for cleaning the day of my wedding. I called them and spoke to the lady and she argued to me that we weren’t allowed until 10am. And that we had until 12 am to clean up. I told them that we have a contract stating the hours and that because of that schedule I had vendors scheduled to set up early (before 10 am because our wedding is in a big venue and our guest count is 350) so that nothing would be rushed for my ceremony @3pm. She then said that they didn’t have on the schedule that my ceremony was @3 and I said well my contract states I have full access to the venue and that my ceremony isn’t breaching my contract. Plus they never once asked me for my wedding event schedule. She proceeded to tell me that we can’t start the wedding until 4pm. She then said if I wanted to use the venue before 4 they would charge me $150 per hour because they needed that money to pay their staff to come in earlier. They are also again trying to charge me the $500 clean up fee and if I don’t pay they said I have to take my trash home with me after the wedding, I said I’m not paying that because that wasn’t in our contract and they are adamant saying I have to pay. The lady also told me that her record showed we had a leftover balance of $6,700 to pay for the venue (after $2,000 deposit) and I corrected her and told her that she’s misinformed because we have $6,500 left to pay which is stated in our contract.