Hello! I am hoping I can get some advice or perhaps, reassurance. We recently canceled our indoor venue because they are currently closed and could not guarantee our October wedding could still happen until 30 days out, which in our opinion is too late, as we'd need to pay our other vendors at that point. The only option they gave us is to move the wedding to one of their outdoor venues, which is not actually a "venue", but really a green space (seriously, akin to a dog park, as it's just grass and nothing else - hence the title of this post). We initially paid a $3,000 deposit for two ballrooms in their venue. The ballrooms are both marble, with high ceilings, beautiful columns with a 1920s vintage charm. We loved it for the architecture and downtown setting, so the option to move it to a park was not acceptable for us. Our contract states we are allowed use of the ballrooms. Nowhere does it mention the green space - which is also 30 mins across town from the original location. They also do not have an 'act of God' clause existing and have since amended our contract to include that (without notifying us).
They told us they would not give us our deposit back and we'd have to use it toward rescheduling to a future date OR utilizing the new location, which by the way - and this is the BEST part - comes with luxury port-o-potties (wow), no lighting, no ac/heat, and NO tent. If it rained, we would be screwed and if we wanted to add those items, we'd have to pay extra. We are obviously upset and plan to pursue legal action if they don't give us a full or partial refund. I understand venues are suffering too, and are trying to accommodate city and state ordinances on indoor venues, but this is ridiculous to me. Do you think we have a right to our refund, as it stands? What would you do in this situation?
