My fiancee and I were set to get married here in O...

My fiancee and I were set to get married here in October and were very excited but once the pandemic hit things really went south with the venue. We didn't get any communication at all from the venue until we reached out and were really never given any reasonable options. The first time we talked they told us we could either hope it all works out and that they would only give us a refund if there was a shelter-in-place order still on that day or we could move our date but we would have to not only eat the deposit we had already paid but pay for the deposit for the new date. As a result we continued hoping the pandemic would calm down and we would be good for October. Knowing we owed the rest of our deposit 3 months in advance we reached out to the venue a bit before that asking what our options were. Still they refused to really show any understanding or flexibility. We could either once again hope it all worked out (they wouldn't even give us a discount if we couldn't use the inside space - saying that was our choice...even if public health guidelines prohibited it), cancel and eat the deposit, or postpone and have to pay the new 2021 rates, which would cost us $2500 more. So essentially they gave us the option to hope it all worked out, with zero assurances or protection, or pay them more money because of a global pandemic we obviously had zero control over. I understand the unfortunate circumstances the pandemic has put them in as well but they are unfairly putting all of the burden on the clients. We had 5 other friends who were supposed to get married this year who were able to postpone without penalty. None of them can believe what OVY did to us. We decided to cancel and cut our losses because we felt we had really no other good options. We were either forced to roll the dice even further with the health of our guests, as well as with our money, or pay them even more money to postpone because of a global pandemic. Needless to say I wouldn't book this venue unless you are confident nothing will go wrong...which is hard to know these days.

On top of this they tried to sell the ridiculous options they gave us as being especially generous multiple times. At one point they bragged of how their cancellation policy was better in the 2021 contract...which did not help us. They also claim that the cancellation policy in the 2020 contract which cited "acts of god" as a reason for a full refund, did not apply to our situation. They also said they would "do us a favor" and let us book a new date a little more than 3 months before the wedding yet were going to charge us $2500 more for a date next year. Part of the reason we chose this venue was because we supported the cause but were very disappointed to see that the venue was trying to capitalize on a pandemic to make more money off of their clients when we had already paid them thousands. So considering the uncertainty that still exists I would definitely suggest finding a venue that is flexible and accommodating, I know we certainly will.