Wedding catering contract numbers reduced

[Guest]

My fiancé and I had booked catering a year ago for our wedding for 250 people. However, in Oct of last year my parents separated and my father and his family are now refusing to come to the wedding, which means we are now down 100 guests as his family is very big.*

I attempted to speak to the catering company last Oct and again last Dec about reducing the number initially given to them. I have finally heard back and they are refusing to budge. I am not looking to cancel and have paid a £5,000 deposit already. It just makes no sense as I will not have that amount of people in attendance.*

our wedding is in May and I have been trying to sort for a while. They had issued a contract on which is does stipulate that changes are not accommodated but I was hoping for some discretion. We are not refusing to pay but just want to reduce and cater for the number of people actually coming. i should add I have not signed the contract.*

[ostell]

So suggest to the caterer that as there is no contract in existence then you will look elsewhere for catering.* I'm sure another compnay will be more than grateful to cater for 100.

I can understand if you done this at the last moment but 8 months in advance then sheesh, that's ridiculous.* That far ahead I don't see what they have committed to spend with other contractors but that's ridiculous.* Perhaps claim for loss of profit but that is ridiculous.

When My wife was running a catering company we used to get requests for a reduction on the day because 2 or 3 people wouldn't be turning up and these were refused as we had already spent on the food and preparation etc.* Up till about 2 weeks in advance we could always vary the numbers unless we had committed with another supplier but would still reduce slightly for the food.
*

[Lostbee]

Thank you Ostell, the issue is there is a contract in-place that stipulates that changes will not be accommodated. I’m happy to go elsewhere but he is refusing to give me my deposit back and is now saying they work with a min number basis- which I think is ridiculous! He is also now saying if I choose to cancel as per the contract I owe 75% of the total amount as we are less than 6 months away:*
I’m totally stuck, he is telling me he cannot cater for less than 250 people all of a sudden and is almost compelling me to cancel and pay him almost the total amount.

[ostell]

You said you had no signed contract?

[Lostbee]

It was sent to me but wasn’t signed by us. However, we have paid a hefty deposit as was requested...I am unsure whether this contract stands even through I have not signed it. I have no issue going elsewhere but he is refusing to give me my deposit back

[des8]

To save repeating previous advice suggest you read the following threads
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...g-cancellation
*https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...venue-contract
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...e-cancellation