Think about your wedding suppliers - As I continue to read through the wedding forums on Facebook I see a constant theme emerging. "I'm postponing my wedding in ..." September. Or October. Or November. Or December. Or even in 2021 as I have just read.

Which of course, is your prerogative. However there a few points you may wish to think about

Think about your wedding suppliers - Point 1

If you cancel outside of any government guidelines or lockdown (and currently marriages are allowed to happen, albeit on a small scale) then you may well have to pay any cancellation charges, providing they are fair. You can no longer rely on the "lockdown" / "quarantine" reason. The closer to your wedding the larger the cancellation fee may be, to cover costs and potential loss of profit. This has always been the case, despite what Martin Lewis may suggest.

Think about your wedding suppliers.

CMA advice form 2016 covers this - click here to read it

TLDR;

If you cancel the contract, the business is generally only entitled to keep or receive an amount sufficient to cover their actual losses that directly result from your cancellation (eg costs already incurred or loss of profit).

Businesses must take reasonable steps to reduce their losses (eg by re-selling the goods or services).

Non-refundable deposits should only be a small percentage of the total price.

Cancellation charges must be a genuine estimate of the business’ direct loss.

GuidanceCancelling goods or services
Published 2 March 2016

Think about your wedding suppliers - shouting and screaming at your suppliers for 100% refunds will get you nowhere. Demanding they pay or face court action will get you nowhere if the supplier has fairly and reasonably worked out their costs. Going onto social media and making untrue statements or defaming them will more than likely end up with you in court for libel / slander (been there by the way - I won.).

The updated CMA guidelines applies to excessive cancelation charges / fees. Notice the term excessive because if you want to take your supplier to court you have to prove to the court, and have the court accept your point, that the fee or charge was excessive. And don't expect to be in court anytime soon - there is a huge backlog (think years not months) and your case, though important to you, isn't important to the court. The CMA will only step in for the big boys - the likes of an 80% cancelation fee perhaps. And if the case goes to appeal the lower courts will not hear any other cases until the higher court has made a judgement. And it may go to the Supreme Court to make the final decision - again don't think in months but in years.

This isn't to scare you, the wedding couples, from taking legal action. It's to point out the situation we are currently in. Unscrupulous suppliers may still insist on the large cancellation fees and bluff you to taking them to court knowing it will take years to get there.

This is my view on wedding refunds.

In any case, the vast majority of smaller suppliers have now been in touch with various legal entities, either via their current business insurance or via social networks that recommend specialist legal advisors to the wedding industry. Back in March, April and May and possibly June many were willing and happy to help out and move dates, accommodate changes and to do so and no cost to themselves. This despite the extra admin time and effort it takes that small business to do all of that. Even when dates have changed from, say, March 2020 to August 2021 many many suppliers haven't charged any extra premium. They have taken the losses upon themselves.

Think about your wedding suppliers - they still need to pay for fixed costs in order for the business to be viable.

What does that mean? Basically every business will have a Cost of Doing Business That total costs incurred by the business in order to run. That is split into Variable Costs and Fixed Costs.

Variable Costs generally occur when the wedding supplier actually delivers the service. Fixed costs occur all the time, irrespective of whether the supplier is delivering a service to a client. It is those Fixed Costs that suppliers have had to pay out for March, April, May, June and now July with no outlook of any income into the business. As an example, if my own Fixed Costs are around £400 a month bare minimum, that is what I have to pay to stay in business So I may have paid out £2,000 with no income except a government grant of £1,900. And right now you are saying that I'm ok because the grant covers the Fixed Cost yeah? And you are right. What about my mortgage? My food bills? My home utility bills? My landline bills? All the other expenses every household, just like you, that I and my small business colleagues have as well. But we have had nothing to cover those. For 5 months. Think about that...

Think about your wedding suppliers - Point 2

So you move your wedding date, and it's in a new tax year for the supplier. And the supplier is now faced with the real possibility of going over the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) because of accommodating older bookings for 2021 and date moves from 2020 into 2021. That VAT threshold means 1 or 2 things...

1. An increase across the board for the suppler prices by 20%. Every couple and every client will have to pay regardless of when they booked. That's how VAT law works.
2. The supplier absorbs the 20% fee. They still have to pay that 20% to HMRC though, meaning they are immediately 20% down on income. A 20% drop in profit for the same amount of work.

A small business tracks cashflow like a religion and will know exactly when that VAT threshold will go over. Think about your wedding suppliers when considering the previous payment terms, and if you can offer to pay something.

Think about your wedding suppliers - Point 3

My third point is the seemingly lack of thought given by some couples to cancelling the services of small suppliers and the huge impact it will have.

As I have mentioned you won't get a full refund because If the business has any sense it will have figured out that it is legally allowed to keep a part of the booking fee or deposit and return the other proportion to yourselves.

The impact is deeper. It's on the mental health of the business seeing their business go slowly down the drain as money pours out but doesn't come in. It's the mental stress of not knowing where the money to pay the rent or mortgage is coming from. It's not knowing where the money to pay the food bill is coming from. It's the stress of trying, desperately, to do the right thing and not do things right - in other words give you a 100% refund instead of a proportion.

So when you cancel or move your wedding and your date is in October or December or even in 2021 think about your suppliers. We put on a nice face but underneath we are really really struggling.

Think about your wedding suppliers - Point 4

Many many smaller wedding suppliers are run from a kitchen table and provide an extra much need source of income. In some cases it could be the only income that keeps the family fed, clothed and watered.

With the myriad of cancellations and postponements, those small kitchen table business will go out of business. A large impact on you (you will have to find another supplier - another deposit etc), a huge impact on the wedding industry as a whole but potentially a devastating impact on the family that rely on the money - think about your wedding suppliers with a little bit ore empathy.

Think about your wedding suppliers - What can you do?

A few simple things.

1. Don't just arbitrarily change your wedding date without communicating with your suppliers. That won't stand you in good stead should the matter go to court by the way. Work with your suppliers. Set up a Zoom session so you can all discuss new dates. Be as accommodating as you can be to the majority of suppliers.
2. Be sensible when discussing refunds. Ask for a full breakdown of what the difference between the refund and the deposit is. If it looks unreasonable then question it sensibly and discuss it with your supplier. Don't jump to court action immediately. Definitely don't jump on social media and make untrue claims - that will just land you in court.
3. If you move the date and your suppliers can accommodate the new date then offer to pay a small fee, say 10% of the total balance. This will help the suppliers out immensely.
4. Don't be surprised if you get asked to make a voluntary donation in this tax year so that your supplier can avoid the VAT threshold next tax year! Be open to that request. it will also help the suppliers cash flow in the immediate short term as well.
5. Think about your supplier's mental health needs. I've been so lucky that any of my couples have reached out to me to check in with me and make sure I'm ok. They realise how hard it is for me - this is my full-time mortgage-paying food on the table job. I love them for that!