Wedding Contract Issues

Can you give a bit more info on what the venue wants, that your attorney is not happy with?

That sounds like they can get away with murder on your wedding and you can't tell the police... No Way!!!!!!Agreement under which one or both parties agree not to hold the other party responsible for any loss, damage, or legal liability. In effect, this clause indemnifies the parties on a unilateral or reciprocal basis.

The contract for my venue says that they are not responsible for anything that happens while the venue is under my care and custody. Pretty much it says that if someone (God forbid) jumps in the lake drunker than Cooter Brown and (God forbid) drowns, they are not held responsible for it.

Most all venues will have a clause in their contract to tell you that the responsibility for anything (good or bad) that happens at your ceremony or reception falls squarely on your shoulders. To go back to my drowning example, if (God forbid) that did happen, any liability would fall on me, and I would be held responsible for repaying and damages they recover (should the victim's family choose to sue for their family member's idiocy).

If your contract has something like this in it, your attorney needs to get over it, because you're gonna be hard pressed to find a legitimate venue that doesn't have a clause like that in their contract.

If it's something like Kristina describes, it kind of depends--like if they have a dock on the lake, and someone falls through it, then it doesn't matter what their contract says. They have legal liability for the structure, and anything in a contract saying that they don't is an illegal clause and therefore unenforceable. They're still liable. That's the kind of thing your attorney should be pretty familiar with, though.

THe contract is asking us to indemnify the venue against any and all liability if they were to be sued for anything connected to my wedding. So if their kitchen has a fire and one of my guests is injured or if they haven't cared for their property properly and someone is injured - we're liable. This is pretty ridiculous in my mind and my attorney agrees. I would just love to see some examples of other people's hold harmless clauses if you can copy them into a post so I can compare.

We are considering purchasing additional insurance of our own but right now our agent is telling us that even if we did purchase additional insurance that it would be nullified by signing a contract with the hold harmless clause as it's currently stated.

That sounds like an illegal clause to me--you can't just sign off liability like that when you're renting out a space. This is like various waivers that extreme sports places have clients sign: they aren't actually legally binding, because existing case law supersedes them. If someone did get hurt they would have every legal right to sue. I'm kind of surprised that your attorney isn't saying something along these lines--I realize that it would be a huge pain in the butt to sue if something DID happen, but I really don't think the clause in the contract would make much of a roadblock.

Again, I wouldn't do it... I've heard of venues asking for that, a few that I've looked at but I never felt comfortable... Basicly it's like going to a petting zoo and them telling you they have a wild goat in there but don't worry it can't hurt you but could you pls sign this release form...

My attorney is definitely questioning whether or not the clause is actually enforceable but the problem is if we change the language and the venue agrees and we don't get it perfect then it could be enforceable b/c we've changed it to our liking. So its a tough debate... like I said it would be great if anyone had a clause they would be willing to share with me so I could compare.

Thanks!

Http://www.bradleyspond.com/downloads/contract for website.pdf

Look at section 13. This is an example of the contract I signed for my venue, only without all my personal info lol.

I was wondering what ended up happening with your contract. I am running into the same concerns and the liability insurance we are getting has all kinds of exclusions that I'm assuming would hold us liable if the venue is absolving all liability.

Same here! My problem is I already signed the contract, and now a family member has brought to my attention that we are assuming big risk. I'm inclined not to worry about it now, but I do of course want to be responsible and do my due diligence. We have event insurance but I am looking into what the coverage is and if there are other options. We may also talk to an attorney, but I don't know what we can do at this point. Just breathe, pray and trust I guess. We will have shuttles too and no open bar!