Empower yourself by learning more about defenses to the law, loopholes, fine print, and hidden terms. Many commercial contracts include what is known as a “force majeure” clause. Individual contracts vary, but generally, these clauses are about performance — meaning that if something unpredictable happens that makes it impossible for someone to perform the responsibilities under the contract, they are not in breach of contract. For many, March-May is 50% of our income for the entire year. And even though a reschedule represents, for many vendors, a total loss of the original “product”, rescheduling fees are typically significantly less than the full cost of the services — i.e. Based on prior years, I can also assume I’ve lost many thousands of dollars more on weddings that theoretically would have happened but hadn’t booked me yet, too.). What they mean is that whoever is affected (couples AND vendors, in this case) have to resume their obligations once the adverse event no longer prevents them from doing so. As this goes on, many vendors are seeing that our entire 2020 wedding seasons are effectively cancelled. I’ve got you covered. The forced shutdown and stay-at-home orders made not only executing a wedding but opening a venue to the public, unsafe and thus prevented the terms of these contracts from being performed. Under these contracts, it helps to show evidence of actual cancellations by prospective attendees due to COVID-19. This isn’t fun money for us (though we love our jobs) — it’s the same shit you do with your regular paychecks: pay your rent/mortgage, buy groceries, keep your utilities on, etc. State to state, the doctrine of impossibility has been upheld in certain circumstances, though, it is hard to prove. There should be a clause in your wedding contract that spells out exactly what happens if either you or the vendor has to cancel. Many force majeure clauses set out specific triggering events, which tend to vary by contract. That’s where the compromise comes in: What wedding vendors are giving up is a devastating amount of income and a lot of our 2021 days off in order to move your wedding; What you are giving up is either keeping your wedding at the same budget or keeping it on a Saturday or keeping a high guest count or possibly more than one of the above. But now we’re in summer, COVID is no longer an unpredictable complication, and even if it was, in most places, weddings are allowed to happen. For those of us who, like me, lack French fluency, force majeure means “superior force.” A force majeure clause is a contractual provision that excuses performance by a party—either temporarily […] And it *is* unfair. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has warned wedding venues against unfair treatment towards couples whose weddings have been affected by COVID-19. I realize I just wrote an essay more than a comment, but, in closing, I would just like to say that no one is in this business to make a bunch of money and fleece you out of it — mostly because it’s frankly not all that profitable and also we have to work on so many weekends! Here’s what I said to her: First, I completely understand and agree with your safety concerns. This will, of course, depend on the contract and the venue. Now, when a contract becomes null, it affects both sides. A complete and total shitstorm, where everyone loses. The closer it is, the less likely we can book another client for the date — i.e. This pandemic was not an event any couple, or vendor for that matter could have foreseen when signing their contracts. 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