Hi All, congrats to you all on your engagement!!! Hoorayyy!!!
I am not sure if there is a topic on this already but I wanted to share with you my story, and hope that I can at least share with you a lesson i've learnt.
Our wedding planning started the in the Summer of 2012, we have been engaged for 10 years and decided it was finally time to tie the knot!!
With two children and a mortgage already, we decided it would be best if we tried to keep wedding costs down. We researched venues and drew up a list of possibilities, narrowing down choices to a top 3 - giving us something more structured to stick with. Top of our list ticking all of our preferences on location, cost, and appearance was the LIVERPOOL MARINA, more presently known as THE LIVERPOOL YACHT CLUB (due to new management).
We contacted the Liverpool Yacht Club in September 2012 and were told that no bookings for 2014 were currently being taken. We were advised to call back in October 2012, as menus were currently being amended and they were not taking provisional bookings, but they would take our details and would call back.... no call back!!!
We called the Liverpool Yacht Club in October.. "menus not yet arranged but should be available by November"... "we will contact you as soon as they are in" we waited till December but no contact - not even an update!! We contacted the venue in December and they informed us that the menus are now in print and will be ready soon....
We then waited till late December 2012. We were starting to worry due to the lack of communication from the Yacht Clubs's side, and after numerous attempts in offering our deposit to confirm the date, we were still no further forward. We were persistent in contacting them and despite them not being very good at getting back to us - at this stage we weren't put off as we felt the venue was ideal for us.
Whilst in the city centre one day, we decided to call in and request to look around the room and see if we could get any further by talking to someone face to face. There were no managers or events coordinators around, but managed to speak to a member of staff. We were still told that the Liverpool Yacht Club had not set up their diary for 2014 yet, but they were taking provisional bookings in the back of their 2013 diary. The lady took our name and contact number and marked our date off in the 2014 calender at the back of their 2013 diary. She assured us that now our names were provisionally booked in for our wedding date, no one else would be offered this date - we would have first refusal and we would be contacted when the menus and diary was available to make a formal booking.
January 2013 - still no contact. So we contacted the Yacht club and made an appointment with the wedding planner. We met up with a lady called Claire who was very helpful. She went through all our requirements and although new menus were still not available, she priced up our wedding breakfast and evening reception in order to give us a guide price. She wrote down our run of the day from the church ceremony till the end of the evening reception. Finally we were getting somewhere, something to get excited about.
Late February we rang the Yacht club back up and asked if menus were available yet. We were advised they were and would we like to arrange a meeting with the new wedding planner - NEW WEDDING PLANNER - news to us.
We arranged a meeting with their new wedding co-ordinator (Mally) who sounded very helpfull over the phone!!... When we met with her, she told us that the planned provisional booking that we made in 2012 had now been given away to another bride.... No contact with us to advise us of this nor an offer to pay a deposit - our date was just simply given away. We demanded to know why this had happened and we were told that all provisional booking were contacted and given two weeks to pay a deposit, we were not contacted at all, no missed calls, no messages - nothing. We asked what proof they had of contacting us (even though they never), a list of names and numbers were clipped to the diary of couples they had contacted over provisional bookings - they refused to show us the list. (we know we were not on that list). Disappointment and upset set in - I began crying in the middle of the restaurant surrounded by other diners.
But as she seen that we were quite upset that our date was given away, she was quite quick to make me and my partner feel like we were in safe hands reassuring us offering us a new venue in a marque at the grounds of Speke hall with a tailor made menu at the same price as what we were offerd before. This was more than enough, we were very pleased. We signed our terms and conditions for the new venue, and agreed our prices. We paid our deposit of £500.00. All secured - we were very happy.
Mally advised us that the marquee was planned to be erected in May 2013 and we would be able to view it when it was up. We had been in contact with Mally asking various questions about the venue, but had not heard any thing about going to view the marquee. I text her to ask if it was still planned for erection in May and if so could we view it. We had no reply and had to ring her to chase it up. I spoke to her, she was quite vague about it and we were told that she did not want to worry us and that there was a planned weekly meeting with Directors and she would ask about the marquee and then contact us on the Tuesday (21st May).
Tuesday came and we had not heard anything, so we thought it was a good idea to phone up AGAIN and try to find out what was happening, when we spoke we found out that the company was still in nogatiations with the national trust and they could not guarantee Speke Hall for our date. Not again, more disappointment and now no venue - 14months before the big day and we had no venue - something a lot of brides have sorted years in advance.
We given two options - a refund of a deposit and a list of other venues for us to consider, or have a marquee set up at the rear of buildings, right by the original room that was we booked that had been given to another bride.
This was the second time we had been let down by this company - why would we want any more help from them.
We accepted the offer of a refund of our deposit, but wanted to know more about were we stood with this breach of contract. On checking our confirmation pack we had no copy of our signed T&C's. So we asked for a copy. They were very reluctant to give us a copy and in fact refused to give us them.
After lengthy conversations we finally have our deposit and a copy of our T&C's.
But we are still not happy with the level of service they provided us with.
So please any couples who are considering this venue, please reconsider - the staff and management are unprofessional, and will lie through their teeth to save themselves some grace. The wedding planner has no interest in making your day special - they are only interested in taking your money.
Anyone who has booked here i suggest you dont make our mistake and make sure you have a copy of your T&C's. Make sure you get everything in writing as they will not honour anything they tell you verbally.
If any of you have been offered a booking in a marquee at Speke Hall, then please question this - as it is only through persistent questioning that we found out that this venue currently any may not ever exist - the directors are still at the negotiations stage.
I hope this has been a help to you with your plans and good luck xx