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| - This is quite a hefty story, but I'll share in hopes that it may help couples who may fall into the same situation. In no way are we bashing any business here, merely, sharing.
We were so so very excited to have our wedding at Regency. Our initial walk through in June 2016 was swell and we instantly loved our chemistry with Tony and Linda. They were prompt in responding to our initial inquiry as well! It felt like "family" even though it was a venue. When we were taking our tour, Tony made it very clear that the date we were thinking of (March 4th) was one of their MOST SOUGHT AFTER dates of the year. Soooo...we decided to move forward with paper work THAT DAY! My father was going to be paying for the venue, so he wired the $1,500 deposit to put down to hold our date of March 4th, 2017. We were told verbally that Regency is very flexible with the financial side of thing and that they would work with us on payment schedule, and that only the $1500 would be non refundable should something arise to have the wedding not work out at RG.
My dad was laid of the very next weekend, and he let us know he was no longer going to be able to make the three payments so that we could have our wedding at the venue. Instead of cancelling our date, we were determined to find a way to just have our special day, so we continued to hustle and find ways to make the first payment. By the grace of God, some friends of ours heard about a lot of what we/my family was hit with (a lot that I won't include) and reached out to us. Her mom had just passed away and had left them some inheritance. They so gracefully went to Regency Garden and paid our 1st payment of $4,718.45.
A month or so later when it was time for the second payment, I was hit with a huge health scare, our vehicle AND house both were hit with huge repairs and despite our massive efforts, we couldn't afford to even purchase groceries. On Sep. 9th, we went into Regency and spoke with Tony. We let him know the situation and told him that we completely understood that they needed to keep the $1,500 deposit (as they told us verbally), but we asked if they could please return the money to our friends since they donated that to us selfishly to help US also considering the fact that neither Regency Garden nor any of their affiliated vendors had done any work or planning. Tony refused multiple times stating that if Steve or I were hit and killed by a car accident, he would be willing to deal with the situations "case by case" and refund the money, but that he couldn't budge for this. I asked what we paid that $4,718.45 (plus $1,500) for considering there was NO work or services given and he had no answer, just kept stating that business is business. He hinted toward the idea that if he could fill our date with another wedding, he would return the $4,718.45 to our friends. We literally just had a 20 min meeting that cost us $6,218.45.
I've worked legal and after scouring the contract, Regency is completely covered contractually to keep our friend's payment/our money and I suppose my husband and I learned the very very hard way not to take verbal promises no matter how nice and helpful someone seems (yes, we got married in my parent's backyard, so there is a positive to this! :)). We waited after the wedding date to write/share in hopes that after the March 4th date, they would find it in their hearts to refund the money they took in payment for NOTHING...but unfortunately, they told us that they couldn't fill our date (the most popular date of the year) even though they had close to 6 months. On top of this, we had an acquaintance drive by Regency Garden the night of our wedding (March 4th) to see if they were having an event, and it appeared like there was (not positive though).
Anyway, the venue is seriously so darling. Tony and Linda are great as long as you don't have lighting strike in your life 3 times in a row. I hope that no bride/groom has to experience a fraction of what we did through all of this. We are currently starting our marriage living with a friend to be able to pay back our friends money they donated to us that we didn't even get to touch :(. Wishing the best for you on your wedding planning journey!
-C
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