My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

[johnnyt]

Hi all,

I wondered if you could advise me? My daughter is due to get married a week on Saturday and telephoned the owner of the venue last night to find out the times that the caterers can arrive and start setting up.
Whilst on the phone the lady in charge of the venue happened to say, "You will be removing the marquee after the wedding finishes won't you?"

My daughter explained that the marquee was due to be removed on the Sunday (the day after the wedding) but the lady said this wasn't suitable as she had booked another event for the Sunday so she wanted the marquee removed the night of the wedding.

The marquee is holding the reception so that would mean packing it all up at 1.30am when the reception finishes. Including moving all the caterers tables and clearing everything up etc.

There was no mention of this all the way through the organisation of this wedding (it's been planned for a year and a half) and the lady only happened to mention this last night on the phone 9 days before the event.

My daughter is now frantically trying to find somewhere else to hold the reception as the company who do the marquee have said it's impossible to pack it up after the wedding as they are busy miles away from the venue on Saturday night.

A new reception venue would obviously mean all the fancy invites she has sent are incorrect. Luckily the caterers have been very flexible and said they will set up anywhere.

As an aside... the same owner of this venue only mentioned after months of planning that any marquee we set up could not 'dig' into the earth as it was protected ground. Because of that we had to pay for a much more expensive marquee (£2,000) so that it wouldn't need any stakes in the ground.

If my daughter finds a new venue we may be able to go back to the cheaper marquee but I'm sure we are going to lose some money in our marquee deposit.

If we can't find another reception venue then the wedding day is pretty much ruined as we'll all have to chip in at 1.30am to try and get the tables cleared away (hire a van etc) and get the marquee packed away as per the owners new wishes.

My (long and rambling) question is this...

Does my daughter have any legal recourse of this at all or is she just beholden to the owners wishes ?
Many thanks for reading this far and for any light you can shed on this situation.

John :-)

[PAWS]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Oh John, what a blinking nightmare. I have no idea what your legal position is but someone may be along soon with some solid advice. I presume you have already paid this woman for use of the grounds. Might be an idea to give a rough indication of the area this is in in case anyone on here can suggest an alternative site.

[Amethyst]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Possibly ask the venue owner what time the event is due to commence on Sunday and when it will be being set up for and see if you can make the marquee disassembly earlier on the Sunday. I don't know if the marquee can be disassembled by a few of the gents attending the wedding first thing the next morning but might be worth having a chat with them, the venue and marquee peeps to see if that would be a decent compromise and save your daughter a whole heap of stress.

Legal wise - is there a written contract/agreement between your daughter and the venue ?

[nemesis45]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Much here will depend on size and structure of the marquee, some are quite complex and have very heavy components, my daughter had one for her wedding and it took 4 men around 4 hours to assemble it and somewhat longer to take it down, overnight rain had increased the weight of the canvas.
The health and safety risks are high for unskilled wedding guests who may well have had considerable amounts of alcohol during the day.
Another point is where the disassembled marquee will left?

nem

[wales01man]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Whats in the Contract with the landowner that must be the issue here .

[johnnyt]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Hi all,
A big thank you for all the replies so far. Wow! You lot are quick!
So to try and answer some of the questions and add a bit more detail.

The contract doesn't mention times when the marquee needs to be put up or taken down.

Originally my daughter had a meeting with the marquee company, the owner and herself. The owner said that they could erect the marquee on Thursday prior to the wedding. And they stipulated that they wanted the marquee taken down on Tuesday (the marquee company had originally said they would dismantle it on Monday but the owners said that Monday was their day off so could they make it Tuesday). So that was the original plan.

Since this bombshell the owners have said they want it out the way by 10am Sunday for another event. The owners have also said it can't be erected until Friday (but the marquee company can't do Friday so this is still a bone of contention and we're hoping they allow the original plan of erecting it on Thursday).

My daughter spoke to the marquee people who said it would be a struggle but they could hire a few extra bodies and remove the marquee for 10am but it would have to be early Sunday morning, they would have to start dismantling at 5am.

The owners of the venue have said that's not acceptable as they'll be tired after the wedding and don't want to be up at 5am so the marquee people will need to dismantle immediately after the event.

The marquee will have decorations etc inside it that don't belong to the marquee people (that my daughter is hiring) so as it stands she will have to remove all the decorations at the end of the night (in her wedding dress) and take them home with her in the various taxis booked to take guests home (as the owners said they wouldn't let her store them on the premises).
All the tables etc would also need removing immediately after the event.

She has found another hotel that will allow her to hold the reception there. They would even allow her to hold the ceremony there but it's too late to change the marriage license from the council as that stipulates this place as the venue.

So, a big thank you for all the advice so far and I hope that there's a bit more detail in there for you to advise further.

Thanks again

John :-)

[nemesis45]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

My view is that the venue owners are in a business that must quite often require early starts and late finishes when catering for such events, do they need to be up at 0500 to " supervise" the contractors removing the marquee I think not.

A very unreasonable attitude imo.

What type of establishment is the venue?

nem

[johnnyt]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Hi nem,

It's a small castle (a kind of ruined castle) with a nice chapel inside it (which attracted my daughter in the first place).

Thanks

[ostell]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Is there any documentation around with the minutes of the meeting between your daughter, the venue owner and the marquee people? Mentioned in post #6.

[nemesis45]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

[QUOTE=johnnyt;560959]Hi nem,

So everything is outsourced e.g. catering, bar etc.?

nem

[johnnyt]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Firstly, there aren't any minutes of the meeting. It was purely verbal attended by the owner of the venue, my daughter and her betrothed, and the owner of the marquee company.

Hi nem, everything is outsourced (catering, disco, marquee) she is basically just hiring the chapel for the ceremony and the grounds for the marquee.

Thanks :-)

[Amethyst]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Originally my daughter had a meeting with the marquee company, the owner and herself. The owner said that they could erect the marquee on Thursday prior to the wedding. And they stipulated that they wanted the marquee taken down on Tuesday (the marquee company had originally said they would dismantle it on Monday but the owners said that Monday was their day off so could they make it Tuesday). So that was the original plan.

That forms part of the contract. If your daughter is forced to move to a new venue then she should be refunded in full and likely be able to claim compensation from the owner for the additional costs and hassle of having to change everything at such a late stage as it is the landowner changing the terms of the contract unilaterally. I think that should possibly be communicated (pleasantly) to the landowners when discussing whether it is possible to remove the marquee on the sunday morning.

[johnnyt]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

She did mention to the owner that these new conditions were unreasonable and the owner said flatly that if she didn't like them she could just have her money back and go elsewhere.

Obviously though this would mean us losing a lot of money (deposits etc) and having to start organising the wedding again from scratch.

Plus a lot of family have arranged to travel a long way to come to the event - booking trains and hotels etc.

So we are a bit nervous to upset the venue owner now in case she just cancels the wedding outright.

We wondered about having the ceremony there and then potential trying to take them to the small claims court afterwards for things like extra cost for the marquee removal etc?

Not sure whether we would be able to do that legally if we've already had the ceremony there (i.e. have they then honoured their side of the contract)?

[Amethyst]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

Sounds like she's had a 'better offer' for the Sunday and doesn't give a fig about your daughter's wedding now. Disgusting behaviour. Do you know what the Sunday event is?

Their side of the contract is to allow set up on the Thursday and removal on the Tuesday, hold the ceremony and reception on the Saturday.

Yes I would think taking them to small claims court would be feasible after the wedding.

You could always 'say' you will remove the marquee on the night and just not. Get your day out of the way and ensure your daughter is happy, and deal with the consequences after .....

If you have a copy of the written contract that might be of help - if there really is nothing in there about set up and clean up then the conversation on booking the venue will be the key to any further action.

Oh and I'm sure a review or two across the wedding sites after the event might be a good idea.

[Tools]

Re: My daughers wedding nightmare. Please advise.

The original agreement (whether written or verbal) should still stand and I would be inclined to carry on regardless and deal with the consequences after the event.

If the venue then decides to kick up a fuss after then that is their problem. If they were to take it to court (for whatever reason) then I am sure a court would side with you and your arguments.

You could also put forward the idea that you are happy for the guests of the Sunday event to make use of the marquee once any decorations etc have been removed.