Power outage at my wedding

@LadyMonk If she can figure out the cause and it was a driver who hit a power pole, maybe she can sue them too!

First world problems. Move on. There are way worse things going on in the world today.

OMG...I understand your frustration but you are blowing this way out of proportion. You lost an hour of your day....not the entire day. This is NOT something that could have been controlled by your venue. Sorry.

Ashley... liability insurance wouldn't cover it. They were not liable. Even if they had generators... it likely would not have been to the level of power you wanted... do you know what a generator like that costs?

This is actually something that could have been controlled by you if this is an outdoor reception. Our rental company insisted that we have a gas powered generator that can run ALL of our needs outside of the venue's grid due to distribution of power.

Sorry, but your venue does not owe you anything nor do they need to provide a generator in the eventuality of a power outage in the area. Did you have wedding insurance? Many of us have wedding insurance for our weddings since as you said we are spending a large sum of money on this day. Otherwise, I think you're up a creek without a paddle. And if you try to take them to small claims court, I think you're pissing into the wind.

You can't sue your vendor for a regional blackout, you'll loose.

This really, really sucks. There's not much of a way around that.

But you can't sue a venue for a power outage that was out of their control. You still had your venue the whole time (and it was outdoors, so it's not like you were locked in a dark room all of a sudden), which is what you rented. Maybe, in good faith, they'll refund a couple expenses, eg if you paid a corking fee or something like that, or if you had to pay to bring something in but never ended up getting to, or whatever, but not your rental fee, and even were they to return any, that would be a favour to you, not an obligation. I know first hand that even the housings for generators for buildings like that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Also, only an hour or a bit more to get power back on is incredibly lucky. We had places without power for two days in major city areas here just a few weeks ago.

I am really glad to see that you aren't holding your DJ etc accountable (especially your photographer, seeing as I imagine he kept working), since that's a loss to them too. I do hope that the people at your venue are polite with you and perhaps can explain better, because I understand that this is not fun or ideal, but I think what's to be done now is to look at all the good things. If nothing else, you're married, but I think I can already see a good few things that went fine.

Unless you can come back and tell us that the venue just turned the power off on you, I don't think there's a ton else you can do. Don't waste your money and energy trying to start this lawsuit.

There is a common misconception that everything negative that happens to someone is an actionable offense. It isn't. There is no lawsuit here. Power went out in the region. Power goes out every once in a while. Does it suck? Yes. Does it suck ten times as much when it happens on your wedding day? Yes. You are looking for something to blame -- maybe you can blame the power company, but that will get you nowhere. As far as the venue, you failed to asked about generators, and they aren't responsible for raising the issue. You can be as stubborn or tenacious as you like. All that will happen is your anger will continue to notch up as you hit one roadblock after another. Leave it alone. There is no money or compensation coming your way. The venue will continue to deny you because their attorney knows the law. Just leave it alone. If you don't, you will have done irreparable damage to the memory of your wedding day, and that is neither necessary or helpful.

Life happens. Your venue did the best they could. If a backup plan was so important to you you should have checked into that. Generators are meant to keep some lights on and to keep refrigerators/ running, not take the place of the local utility company.

I agree with pp who said you are sue happy.

The generator would of been so loud, you probably couldnt of heard the music anyway.

A generator big enough to run a venue is both very loud and 10's of thousands of $$$$. The one I have that is portable for my house and can run about half of it was $800 8 years ago! Be thankful it was a power outage, not a damn tornado taking out your day. Your blowing it waaaaaaaaay out of proportion.

Isn't that the very definition of the word "litigious"?

So the solution to losing an hour out of your wedding day is to lose days and days more engaged in a frivolous lawsuit?? OP, do you really want to associate the memories of your wedding day with a long, drawn-out, time-consuming small claims suit, that will be ultimately unsuccessful?

Unfortunately, I do not think you have a case. This is just an "act of God" and while I understand that they did not have a clause like that in your contract, they also did not have a clause that stated they would have a generator.

My parents have a generator that powers the whole house, in the event of a power outage. I know that the generator cost a lot of money and that is just for a house. So I can only imagine what it will cost to power a whole venue.

I agree no lawsuit here. OK so you lost an hour. Move on and be happy that it was not worse. I am pretty sure you still enjoyed. Instead of being so negative show WW some pretty pics

If they were not negligible, they're not going to be found responsible. If it was a widespread outage, then it's not like they had their lights turned off because they didn't pay their bills. Not having a back-up plan for something that may or may not ever happen is not negligence on their part.

I take their side. Why do they HAVE to have a back-up plan? Isn't that what wedding insurance (that the couple can take out) for? Or shouldn't the couple have a back-up plan?

And, honestly, an hour? That's not a bad time for the electric company to fix whatever the problem is.

I'm absolutely SHOCKED at all of the bashing happening here. This is supposed to be a community and the total time power was lost was 1.5 hours, over about 3 hours time, so the time lost was more than an hour. I can guarantee that if power outages were something they had on a regular basis, they would purchase a generator to run the lights/dj equipment so they can maintain their reputation and have good reviews of their business.

My husband and I are quite well connected in our community and professionally, and all of this feedback is completely opposite from these responses. Not to mention all of our vendors at our wedding had given us advice to reimbursed in some way and that the situation was not right.

No, we are not looking to be refunded for our entire wedding, but it's not right that this happened to us. Not to mention they shut down the open bar we had paid for during that time, no lights or candles in the bathroom during the outage, they were pitch black,

To suggest I am being as unreasonable as saying to sue a driver who hit a pole, or sue the hydro company, come on and grow up. If you didn't have any useful feedback why even bother engaging in this conversation?! Move on to the next and do something worthwhile with your time. Grow up.

Lol, ok.

1. If you feel so confident to post that you are entitled to some sort of compensation and that your contract does, in fact, fail to protect the venue from "acts of God" pursue it. Don't get pissed when people here tell you that it is highly unlikely that they failed to include a clause to protect themselves from things like this. They hosted your guests and maintained the terms of their contract during the hours that they did not have power. In terms of liability and risk, they would have been within their rights to close down the event because if something terrible happened like, one of your guests fell, they would be liable. Which also is why they would not want to have lit candles throughout the area.

2. This is a community that offers common sense advice. It is not likely that you will succeed in receiving any sort of compensation if you choose to pursue this legally.

3. You are right, it is not right that it happened to you but, life fucking happens. It was beyond your control and theirs. What did you want everyone here to tell you?

Well this will go well.

Disagreeing (not to mention answering your questions) isn't bashing.

Everyone agrees this sucks, and that it's fair to be upset. That doesn't mean you can sue people who had no control over it.

(ETA- however, trying to say that your social status should allow you to do that probably will open you to bashing. Really comes off as '[I think] I'm important, I can do what the fuck I want,' even if that's not what you mean, and if other people are saying you should sue, it sounds like that's how they feel)

"the total time power was lost was 1.5 hours, over about 3 hours time, so the time lost was more than an hour."

OP - your math skills are never lost on us.

"My husband and I are quite well connected in our community and professionally."

Not quite sure what social circles you are connected with that lacks common sense. Obviously, this is not a legal issue.