please delete

TamDaelynn

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MaggieW518

I'm not an attorney, so this certainly isn't legal advice, but I'll throw in my $0.02.

It's ultimately going to depend on what EXACTLY was in your contract. And what the contract stated in terms of cancellations.

Did the contract state 80 people WITH tent? Did it specify what kind of tent? Was this specific to the rooftop or just the venue in general? Did this 80 guest limit include verbiage pertaining to DJ and dance floor set up as well? The actual contract verbiage is going to play a major part here... Most venues are pretty good about "CYA" mentality with their contracts, leaving little room for what you're looking to do...

I'll also tell you my own experience... I got married May 2013... we visited 10 different venues before finding the "perfect" one... signed a contract in January 2012... the venue coordinator told us some construction was occuring that summer/fall (mostly cosmetic, nothing major) but would absolutely be 100% completed long before our wedding... As it turns out, it was *major* construction of the entire venue... and it wasn't even close to completed by the time of our wedding. There were dirt mounds... scaffolding all along the outside... wooden boards and plastic where walls and windows should be.... the room for our venue was in decent shape, but the attached patio barely had sheet rock up...

When I discovered this 2 weeks before the wedding (the venue wasn't super close, so though I had spoken with the coordinator over the phone and via email many many times, I hadn't seen the venue in months), I was a total wreck. There was nothing in the contract about this exact situation, and of course it was too close to change anything... Luckily, they knocked several thousand dollars off the bill to try to make up for their "f" up... Everyone still had a great time and our photographer actually brought a shovel to the venue and we got some GREAT shots of DH and I digging in the dirt and climbing on the scaffolding... turns out, they're some of our favorite pics from the day.... in the end, the day is what you make it. A little rain... a little dirt... a little construction... it only ruins the day if you let it.

 

Good luck!

hoffse

Sorry, but I think this is ridiculous.  You booked a venue that was an unfinished space that had never actually hosted a wedding before.  That's on you.

I'm a lawyer but I can't give you legal advice because you are not my client and I am probably not licensed in your state.  But I can give you some practical advice, and since this is the MM board, let's talk finances for a second.  

If you hire a lawyer you have two options.  First: the shady one - which is that your lawyer charges a 1/3 commission on everything s/he "wins" for you.  In other words, you get your money back, minus 1/3.  A lot of people in the legal profession feel that this is unethical - because lawyers really shouldn't have financial stakes in the outcome of their cases - but no states have completely prohibited it, because the ethics boards in many states (at least in my area) are full of solo practitioners who make their living this way.  Personally, I would rather get some neutral advice, rather than advice from somebody who is in it for the cash.

So your second option: you pay an hourly fee.  That's great because your lawyer has no financial stake in the outcome of your case - but it's also very expensive.  I've been practicing about 2 years, and my billable rate is $200/hour.  I bill in 6 minute increments.  The partners I work for tend to bill between $500-$600/hour.  They also bill in 6 minute increments.  So at best you'd be looking at several thousand dollars to pursue this with somebody who would be giving you neutral advice.

My next piece of practical (non-legal) advice: cut your losses and move on.  At the end of the day you will be married to your H, and hopefully you will have better things to do than file a lawsuit over your wedding.  Seriously, there are vastly more important things in life that you should be focusing on once the wedding is over - example: learning to be married.  It's actually really different from being engaged.

I'm sorry this happened, but I think you took a big risk yourself when you booked this venue.  I'm not qualified to tell you if you have a cause of action on this or not.  That's going to depend on the laws in your state,and you would need to consult somebody licensed in your state to find out (in fact, they would probably bill you to research it, because they are unlikely to know off-hand for a situation like this).  But seriously - life will be better if you let it go and learn from it.

^^... and this is why I'm not a litigator.

ta78

Well, you can sue companies for whatever you want I guess. I mean retail and restaurants get sued everyday for ridiculous reasons.

It doesn't sound like it was written into your contract how many people it could hold. Did you have a written contract?

It was an inconvenience, but you could have pushed your wedding back further and not had to pay more for all of those things. You made the choice to after you found out. I wouldn't sue.

TamDaelynn

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