Do I have a case to Legally Demand a Refund from a Wedding Reception Hall?
Question by COLTFREAKSdotCOM: Do I have a case to Legally Demand a Refund from a Wedding Reception Hall?
Basically my wedding reception was a disaster.
The fire alarm went off during the introductions of the wedding party. The room did NOT have to evacuate, so we know it was a false alarm, but the wedding coordinator instructed everyone, including the band, to just “push through” and they entire introductions were ruined by an ear screeching alarm.
After the fire alarm threw some things off, the agreed order of the night was completely abandoned. The speeches, the dinner, the cake cutting, the first dance, all of these usual things were all thrown out of order. It may sound like nothing, but to a mother of the bride who spent months planning this out, it was disastrous to see all of this get thrown out of order.
When we approached the coordinator about the order of things, she held up a hand written piece of paper and said, “Here’s the instructions I just got from the bride and groom.” We don’t think she actually got it from them, but regardless, she shouldn’t have thrown the agreed order out the window for anybody.
The champagne was poured at the wrong time, so many of those glasses were drank before the toasts even began. For this reason, we asked them to re-pour the champagne. They DID re-pour and they did admit they were wrong, and for this they gave us free champagne on the house for that second pour, so I can say they tried to fix this one issue.
During the speeches, there was a clear cut-off in terms of which areas of the audience could hear the speeches. If you were too far away on either side of the speaker, you could hear nothing. I would say about 25% of the guests heard absolutely none of the speeches.
Although I can’t complain about the band’s performance, they were totally out of the loop and never seemed to know what to do next. During the first dance, the song wouldn’t play (they were a live band, but they played the first dance song on an ipod) so we sat there and listened to the song start over about 5 times. I had asked the coordinator about this weeks ago, when I said, “How is the band going to know the order of everything?” The coordinator’s BOSS assured me, “Don’t worry, we will both be here keeping things on track.” Well, the boss didn’t show up, so that was a lie right there.
I guess overall, I just feel like a very normal, polite, reasonable person who isn’t fully satisfied with the product I received from this outfit. I have about $ 10K worth of the charges on a credit card, so I am going to first file a dispute on that charge with the credit card company, but I wanted to ask here, what are the legal ramifications? I feel like about 10% to 20% of the reception was truly ruined by human error, and the reception hall did not fully live up to their end of the contract.
I tried to give it a couple days to take the emotion out of this issue as best I could, but I still feel like I didn’t receive the product that I agreed to.
Anyone have a suggestion on how to handle this? I feel like I am owed a refund, but it is hard to quantify the dollar amount.
Best answer:
Answer by been there got the t-shirt
You MAY have an actual case for breach of contract. Read over the documentation you signed when you booked the venue. It should spell out exactly what they agreed to do. Start listing all the things they didn’t live up to.
It’s highly unlikely you’ll get your whole $ 10k back. But you may get some.
If you are serious about this, your best start would be to contact an attorney – if anything to get a professional analysis of the situation.
I am so sorry. That sounds terrible.
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