How much compensation should I expect?

I am not sure you should expect any tbh

you havent lost out financially have you? as for the food, its is actually only allowed for hygiene reasons to be left out for an hour and a half. we signed a waiver so that it could be left out for longer.

as for the staff chatting, a pain obviously, but a simple 'sorry' surely should suffice. did anyone tell them to shut up at the time?

I agree with Claires - I'm not sure what exactly you are expecting - yes these things are frustrating but you didn't really suffer any loss did you

Hi Kelly,

I did try to email you but couldn't get that to work! Sorry the following is a little long (I've tried to pay devil's advocate on the issues you've raised in your post - feel free to contact me (if the email works for you!)

I know this is feeling really raw at the moment, but please don't let this colour your memory of the day.

Did you notice all the things you have mentioned on the day or are these as a result of feedback/comments from your family/guests after the wedding day? Did you have a meeting to go through all the arrangements with the hotel - what was the agreement re. the arrangements and do you have these in writing?

This isn't an easy area - sorry that's probably not what you wanted to hear.

Venues will try not to set a precedent by giving compensation - this could open up the floodgates - particularly for those who really haven't got a complaint but are just trying it on.

I have to say that from what you say you are justified in complaining.

However having worked in a couple of venues and also for caterers they will say "Did you tell anyone, at the time, that you were unhappy" i.e. they will imply that you had the responsibility to point this out so that they could remedy anything you weren't happy with. By complaining after the event they will claim that customers didn't afford them the opportunity of putting things right.

Re. the talking in the ceremony - this is unforgiveable - did any of your guests 'shh' the staff or say anything or indicate to them that they couldn't hear? I don't think that this by itself is an area for compensation however definitely one for staff training! Did you have a video or did any of your guests have a video camera recording? If so can you hear talking on it? This could provide some evidence.

How the h did a 2 year old get alcohol served to them? Was this with the meal? Did the parents say anything? Did the little one suffer any side effects?again this goes back to raising issues as soon as they arise. Did this repeat itself after the staff were told or was this a one-off? Out of interest if food is being served a 5 year old may be served alcohol (obviously with parents' ok) I know seems obscene. If the staff were told and it continued then there is a licensing issue here - the licensee at the Hotel ought to be made aware of this.

Basic food hygiene dictates that buffet food should only be left on display for 2 hours before it is removed. Can you prove it was only an hour? Sometimes time does go quickly and what may seem like a short time really isn't - I'm not saying that yours was not only out for only an hour but make sure that you can back up any claim - again did you (or someone on your behalf) say anything to them at the time?

When you say the cake was served in the evening and hardly any of it was eaten - was this all plated up? If so this will be deemed to be part of the buffet and would have had to be dealt with in the same way - i.e. out for a maximum of two hours before it was thrown away. They may also possibly say something like they 'couldn't make guests eat the cake'. However are you saying that guests simply didn't realise it was there because it wasn't displayed properly?

If however you asked them to put some of it out and asked/told them to keep some for you for collection the next morning/later that night etc then this is an area that you could expect something back from them but this wouldn't be a huge amount.

I know how disappointing it is when venues/caterers simply don't get it right on the most important day of your life.

If you do press ahead with this, you will need to remain completely unemotional to put your case clearly - this isn't easy I know, particularly with so many emotions invested in the day.

HTH

Hi

just wondering - if the hotel people turned to you and asked 'how can we put this right?' what would you like from them? you don't want a free meal . night so what would you be happy to settle for? Did you or anyone else point out the areas of complaint at the time and if not why not? I am presuming that from your comments you are wanting some form of monetary payment? Did you ask for the wedding cake back at the time or ask why afterwards that you didn't get it back. Again one has to play devil's advocate

We made a 'complaint' after our wedding, i don't like to say complain becuase we had an amazing wedding day. Just a few issues

The wrong buffet was served, there was supposed to be seperate food done for my 2 nephews (one with severe nut allergy and one with severe Dairy. (however when i asked for their food it was no trouble and they were so quick to solve this) and a few other minor things that i can't even rememeber.

They refunded us half of the buffet cost if i remember rightly, and on our first wedding anniversary we already got complimentary meal, but they included champagne and a deluxe suite.

We felt that was more than accetable. I don't think in your situation you can ask for 'money' so to speak as asit has already been said you can only leave the food out for a certain amount of time.

We made a complaint after our wedding too and we did get monetary compensation. We raised the issues at the time and had a meeting with the manager after our honeymoon when he offered a refund on one aspect which we accepted. Our issues were:

1: tables dirty from wedding previous day - cleaned eventually but set a bad impression for our guests; 2: cake served by staff after meal, but some tables got huge amounts and some just 6 pieces on a plate for a table of 10! Too late to put right; 3: rooms not ready for guests on arrival and were told to get ready in a toilet rather than getting one room ready for them to share - this was awful for our guests who had travelled and unacceptable as the wedding was 1.30pm and check out for previous nights guests was 11am! 4: We'd paid for exclusivity in the hotel and there were several guests in our bar area - some of which I didn't mind and made very welcome, but one was a scruffy bloke drunk and smoking and he nearly walked into my dress! Plus a coach load of people arrived with KFC takeaway and sat down and joined the party!! They were politely removed.

We could have fought for more compensation but I was very happy that they refunded the exclusivity payment that we'd made and decided we'd had a lovely day and we hadn't really expected anything!

Remember all the good bits of the day - I'm sure there were loads!!!

Linda x