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I am wondering if I have the grounds to sue my wedding planner and get my $1240 deposit back?

• I am wondering if I have the grounds to sue my wedding planner and get my $1240 deposit back on account that she did not provide the wedding services promised in the full wedding planning package and she has caused me a lot of frustration. The wedding services contract was signed on Apr 11, 2008 for a Jul 11, 2009 wedding date and the deposit does say non-refundable on the contract. The total cost was $2480. Due to personal issues we had to put our wedding plans on hold and on Jul 28, 2008 I told her she can book another wedding on the Jul 11, 2009 date because we didn't know if this date was possible for us anymore and she granted that our deposit can be used for another date before end of 2010. On Sep 9, 2009 we continued our wedding planning for Jul 31, 2010. We met on Sep 25, 2009 to discuss the contract and given that we were only 9-10 months from the July 31, 2010 date I expressed concerns that we needed to make decisions on videographers and photographers soon since I was already in contact with some of them and they were booking up fast for July next year. She told me not to worry and that she will get me a summary timeline of what needs to be done and when. A week later, I still did not get her summary timeline and have not heard from her with any updates. So knowing that my vendors are booking up fast I decided to complete some of my own research on videographers and photographers. I sent her an update email of my research and asked her to complete additional research for me because again I stressed that I needed to make a decision soon. At this point I was frustrated that the wedding planner was not ahead of me and I felt like I needed to manage her work. She replied back basically telling me I needed to trust her and that she sets a scheduled plan so that every brides gets treated fairly. At this point I still have not gotten her summary timeline and I felt I had decisions to be made and that each wedding is different and planning should be flexible so that urgent decisions can be made in a timely manner so deadlines are not missed. For me at that time, I felt an urgency to complete research on videographers and photographers and this urgency was justified since the videographer I was most interested in contacted me on the Sunday and said he has a client meeting scheduled for Wed and that if this couple books that will be the last July wedding he can take. I forwarded this to my wedding planner hoping she'd now see the urgency but instead she told me to "hang tight" and that since I was already in discussion with them already that I should continue and let her know what happens. Then on Monday she sends me an email telling me that this videographer is the best priced but does not give me any specific vendor names or prices so I’m not sure if she's even done the research. At this moment we lost all confidence in her wedding planning abilities since a seasoned wedding planner should have a list of vendor contacts and prices on hand and should not take too much time to do some additional research if needed. Feeling a lot of frustration I told her on Monday (Oct 5, 2009) that I don't think this wedding planning is working out and that we need to renegotiate our contract and she agrees but sets up a meeting to discuss on Oct 23, 2009 (3 weeks later). By the time the meeting came along I've already booked my reception venue, videographer, photographer in Edmonton, and photographer in Vancouver without her help because she dropped all contact with us since Oct 5, 2009. She offered to change the contract to the Day of Service for $1250 but we feel the service is unnecessary and over priced. Is there anyway this information justifies that she has not done her job and that is the only reason why we wanted to renegotiate the contract and that she should give us our $1240 deposit back?

• Answer:

  I am assuming that you have a copy of the contract, and thank goodness you have a contract. NON-refundable means "I'm not going to give you any money back" but that does not mean a wedding professional should do nothing to earn that money. My suggestion to you is . . find out if this person is a member of a national professional organization like the Association of Bridal Consultants in New Milford, CT. And if she does, start with that organization. Wedding vendor organizations take "complaints" seriously, and they will investigate. You should also check the status of this person's business reputation with your local Better Business Bureau. I would not file a complaint with the BBB at this time. Answered by: A Certified wedding specialist / A Professional bridal consultant / A Wedding ceremony officiant