Canceling Covid-19 Brides - Refunds?

I don't know unfortunately. We postponed our date, and all of our vendors accommodated us. Is it possible that you can talk to them again and point out the circumstances? Would you consider eloping now and still having your big ceremony later?

View Quoted Comment That's what we've discussed, eloping on our date, have a reception next year. But our wedding planning process has been extremely stressful (money, family drama etc.) so I feel like at this point we are just fried lol.


I'm also having a really hard time coping with getting married now and celebrating a year later, I know that's silly but we put so much work into this day.

View Quoted Comment No I feel you! My FH and I had the same conversation, and if we hadn't gotten Augusut then we probably would have just eloped as soon as our family could get here. It sounds silly to us too to have the party after you've been married. We might elope on our original date and have the wedding later in the year - that would be the only way I would be comfortable extending us getting married so long! Because at some point you just want to be married.

Although I have not had any personal experience with this, I would assume that most if not all would be sticking to whatever it states in their contract. If you cancel, you forfeit any deposit/payments but if you move the date and they have it available, they will usually just keep everything as is and issue a new contract with the new date. However, this whole Covid 19 thing may be a special circumstance but you should probably reach out to your vendors individually because that will be the only way to know for sure. I would also strongly urge you to get any agreements in writing and follow up to make sure they do in fact have you on the new date if you choose to move it vs cancel.

When I was talking with my vendors:
cancellation = they keep deposit
reschedule = no additional fees and I can keep my original pricing rates

So with most vendors, their contracts state if the clients cancel they keep the money. Since nothing has been mandated by the government, the virus wouldn't fall under any category where all money is to be returned.

It varied by my vendors. The AirBnB host said they would refund or reschedule. Hair and makeup said reschedule but if we cancel they keep the money, hoping airlines will allow reschedule, waiting to hear back from the photographer. Thankfully I didn’t have to pay too many other vendors yet (all payments were due in April or at the time of service in May waiting now to see what happens)

We opted to move our wedding entirely to next year. We spoke with vendors & if we cancelled we would lose our deposits. We were thinking of eloping and having a reception later but the restrictions kept getting worse & worse so we made a call.


Still heartbroken our date is has been moved but it is what it is. I do feel some relief in now we don't have all these open tabs to pay lol. Trying to think positive!
Still praying for all other brides affected by this ❤.

I’m trying to get everything refunded. We simply can’t postpone, so I’m trying to go down the route that if the Government has executive orders in place that prevent the performance of the contract, the contract becomes void on the grounds of impossibility. These mandates are law now, and contracts are not enforceable if they are illegal. Right now having a large event in California is punishable by law.

My vendors aren’t returning deposits even though some of the contracts have acts of God language in them. Their position is - the money isn’t there, good luck getting it back. Unethical really.

I just canceled my 4.18 wedding and half the vendors were understanding and others weren't. We were planning to get married here on the east coast before planning to move to the west coast in June. So I am physically not able to postpone and some vendors totally understood but others kept the money! Most say deposits are kept but refund the rest, which I understand, however I had 2 that kept everything even though no services were rendered. We were planning to get married in Outerbanks, NC which currently is not allowing non-residents onto the island so we physically couldn't get to our wedding venue even if we eloped. I absolutely get keeping the deposit because it's in the contract and I also know that a lot of folks are out of work/ it may be hard for them to refund but I think keeping the full amount during a time like this is wrong. I'm sorry you had to move your wedding, I feel for you!

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Hi, any update on your circumstance regarding getting a full refund? I ask because me and my fiancé are experiencing the same here in CA. Any information would help. Thanks @miki

View Quoted Comment So my venue is giving me a full refund of all funds paid. I was able to work with my florist to get a partial refund since I paid in full, but still anticipate needing a bouquet for my small ceremony. The DJ I have just on hold, but have socialized my stance on full refund if we truly can’t reschedule a larger reception later.


Since CA does have Gov mandates in place, you really can’t argue with contract law. Since my current contracts are voided, I am signing new contracts with my photographer and videographer for different types of services (we are just doing editorial-type fashion shoot in our wedding attire).
At this time, I am having difficulty with one vendor for rentals. I am actually taking the owner to small claims court and have already filed for mitigation through the county court. I did consult with my lawyer and have a valid case.
I know it’s hard to fight this, but truly... in states and counties with Government mandates in place, and your contract is “illegal” to perform, the contract is no longer a valid contract (large gatherings, no food service in venue, maintaining 6ft social distancing, stop of all non-essential” business).

Interesting. I think we are going to have to do the same with just one vendor, our photographer/videographer.


It's really strange. So the company we booked is a husband & wife duo and one of their selling points they like to say is that they are a two person team who only do one wedding a day and essentially there is no limit to the amount of camera time we would get. Well when COVID-19 hit we immediately told them about needing to postpone & they said regretfully they have a wedding on our new date already (I totally understand) BUT that for $2000 MORE they had a mysterious "second slot" available. They are/were one of the most important vendors to us so we said we would like to discuss options & what this extra $2000 includes and all we got back was a "Let us know when you decide!". I talked to our Officiant and she said it kinda sounds like they might be hiring an outsourced photographer so we would be paying $2000 more for not even them. I for the life of me cannot find an actual contract we signed with them (& I keep EVERYTHINGGG lol) so now I'm worried about getting our deposit back.
Technically there is no contract so I don't think there is really anything protecting us on getting the money back :/.

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How did this work out? We want to get our money refunded for the same reason in North Carolina. Want to know if it's possible. Just saw your answer. Good for you!

My wife and I are in the same boat, in fact we ended up just going up to the mountains and getting married. But, on top of it all we received orders to move due to I am in the Army. Our venue became very hostile at the thought of a refund and did not grasp that we are moving out of the country for years, and did not comprehend or just doesn't care about the financial strain it would be for flights from overseas

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Thank you for this message as I am also not able to postpone. Please let me know if you have any advice/ updates. I'm going to start working with my vendors this week and not anticipating easy conversations.

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Here are two websites I found with legal references that support a fighting chance to get money back. Sometimes all it takes is providing a convincing legal argument. Most vendors don’t want to deal with legal issues, not to mention negative reviews that highlight unethical and unlawful practices:

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/contracts-in-the-age-of-coronavirus-are-62850/

https://www.hansonbridgett.com/Publications/articles/2020-03-19-covid19-contractual-performance-defenses

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Thank you so much! Yes, I'm doing some research on the mandates placed on Georgia now (we are located in Washington). These websites are super helpful!

View Quoted Comment Thank you for sharing. My wedding is on 6/20/2020 in California. Ultimately we would like to get married as scheduled but if the restrictions are still in place, we want to cancel and not postpone. My venue is currently saying a refund is not an option but I am going to write back citing these laws and do plan to consult with a lawyer in case we have to go this route.