Local Bride Denied $29K Deposit After Venue Cancels Wedding

Covid-19 strikes again. This story may be one that several brides-to-be have been going through.

Nicole, who works in Colts Neck and is a loyal Point listener, has already been so emotional after planning her dream wedding and then waiting with baited breath once Covid-19 took over the world to find out if her wedding reception would be cancelled.

Turns out, it was indeed cancelled. But the venue that she gave her deposit to won't give her the $29,000 back. That's a lot of money to lose on top of realizing your dream wedding has been dashed. Here's Nicole's story.

We were supposed to get married June 6, 2020 at a certain wedding venue in NJ. They have my $29,000 deposit.  Due to the Coronavirus and Governor Murphy’s executive order, as well at the State of Emergency, they were closed for our wedding.

 

Now, they are keeping our money and telling us they will not be providing refunds. We tried to speak with them several times and work something out, but nothing!  They originally wanted to move me to a Monday night. I explained I wasn’t paying $325 a head for a Monday night wedding. On top of that, I would have had to coordinate all of my vendors otherwise I would have lost all of the deposits.

Nicole says she wanted to go public with her story so that other brides in this situation know they are not alone. On the other hand, she says she has heard of other venues that did refund the brides or were extremely accommodating on moving their weddings.

Here are the details that Nicole is able to share:

-- She entered into a contract with a venue we will refer to as "TG" to provide her with a June 6th indoor wedding with at least 175 guests.

-- She paid TG a $29,000 deposit.

-- TG was then unable to honor her June 6th wedding because of the caronavirus pandemic and Governor Murphy's executive orders limiting gatherings.

--  Nicole and the venue couldn't agree on a replacement date because TG wanted to move her wedding to a Monday night 'sometime in the future.' Nicole told them she wasn't going to pay $325 a head for a Monday night wedding.

-- In late June, she asked for a refund of the $29,000 deposit, but TG refused to refund the money and instead told her she would be subject to their cancellation policy. Except that Nicole doesn't feel that she was cancelling the wedding. She feels as if the venue wasn't able to provide her the wedding she was supposed to get for the kind of money she was being charged and that she tried to work out a replacement date with the venue but couldn't. And that's when she requested a refund. She says,

We never got to enjoy 1 minute of the beautiful indoor wedding reception that TG was supposed to give us.

-- The venue's contract states that it isn't responsible for unexpected things that arise outside of its control. But the contract doesn't say anything at all about the venue not returning Nicole's $29,000 deposit because it couldn't provide her with here wedding for reasons outside of its control.

-- Nicole says she isn't trying to sue TG for any damages, or anything else for that matter. She just wants her $29,000 deposit back because the venue can't give her the June 6th wedding that she paid for. And without being able to give her what she paid for, she thinks they shouldn't be able to just keep her money for having done nothing. She's very upset that they're just not doing the right thing.

-- Nicole now feels forced into getting an attorney because she thinks the law clearly says she's entitled to a full refund.  And she feels the venue is making it as difficult as possible for her to get back her money for services not rendered.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Do you know of a bride-to-be that is having trouble getting a large deposit back due the Covid-19 shut downs? How would you handle this situation? What would you do if you lost such a large amount of money?