Strange one

[gemandrhys2]

Hi guys I hope I have posted this in the right section ( my first post). I am trying to find out where we stand after we had to cancel our wedding. To cut a long story short. We booked a wedding venue but only paid 3/4 of the deposit, we had to cancel the wedding due to me losing my job. All it says in the terms and conditions is they only accept signed T&C's or full written conformation to book the wedding. When we e-mailed them to cancel the wedding they took ages to reply to make sure we were within the 12 weeks and therefore liable to more charges. They are now refusing to give us our part deposit back although we never signed anything and also take us to the small claims court over the remaining charges. The manager says that the money we have paid is as good as a signature. We don't know if this is true ( if it is it's ridiculous). Any help would be amazing. Many thanks in advance.