Hi All,
Huge word of warning for any brides planning a wedding, especially weddings abroad and in France.
We had planned our wedding this year and everything was going perfectly. We'd pretty much finished planning and paid our balances for the venue and suppliers in February 2020.
Then the reality of COVID hit and our wedding was completely up in the air. We got in touch with our venue (La Cannonerie in the South of France) to confirm that should things not be possible to go ahead we could postpone. They replied a harsh email to say that our date was our date and regardless of the situation we wouldn't be able to postpone or get any money back.
We held on for 5 months, and each month it was becoming more and more evident that the wedding was not going to be possible, with guests numbers, cancelled flights and travel restrictions getting worse and worse everyday.
Now the wedding date has passed and we are without a wedding, without any money and arguing daily with the venue to try and recoup our money back. The venue are refusing to refund anything more than 50% so we are thousands of pounds down with them.
Our suppliers also haven't worked all year, so they haven't worked all year and have spent the year living off the money that their brides and grooms paid them in advance. Some suppliers are being reasonable, the florist refunded us less the deposit straight away. The furniture hire company are negotiating with us on a payment plan, although it seems like we won't be getting the money back anytime soon.
Naming and shaming the caterers 'The Hog King' have been so awful, they have spent all of the money we paid in advance (over 4,000 euros) and are refusing to give us the money back or even agree a date on when they can pay small instalments back. Their emails are so rude, they barely say anything back on the phone.
Please as a word of warning do not book this venue or these caterers if you are planning on getting married in the South of France! And please do not advance pay your venue/suppliers in full until as late as possible, as it's a real struggle to get any money back and the most agonising thing arguing with these people who have no empathy for your situation.
I really hope no one else is in a similar situation to us I wouldn't wish it upon anyone!!!
