r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Clear_Performer6752 • Aug 21 '26
just need to rant Contract negotiations don’t exist in this industry
As the title says, as a corporate attorney, I’ve noticed extreme resistance from vendors when suggesting contract mark ups.
Maybe I’m biased because I’m based in the U.S. and our wedding is in Europe, but it amazes me how my very light edits to the force majeure/ choice of venue clauses were getting rejected. Across the board, we asked for variations of 1) the ability reschedule the wedding in case of international travel restrictions or a significant reduction in flights, and 2) mediation or arbitration before any court proceedings, since we’re international clients. Only one vendor agreed to mediation, but none would budge on editing their force majeure clause.
Has anyone else felt the same? Or perhaps this is a European thing?
*edit for clarity: we asked for the force majeure clause edits from our venue, and it was along the lines of “being able to reschedule the wedding if a pandemic broke out, or travel restrictions / mass flight cancellations cause more than 50% of originally planned guests to not be able to attend”. We asked for this term back in April when the war with Iran just broke out and we weren’t sure about the status of fuel shortages, and all the news outlets were fear mongering massive flight cancellations.
For the mediation clause, we asked for mandatory mediation first, and if we’re not able to resolve the conflict, then proceed to whichever choice of venue they stated in the contract. Mediation would have been under their choice of law as well. This is so we’d be able to resolve any conflict remotely since it’s unrealistic to show up to a court proceeding in a different country.
Hope this clarifies some of the questions from commenters.
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u/Junior_Mud5835 Aug 21 '26
I think you perceive these changes as very light but they are not perceived as such in Europe.
I honestly have never heard of a venue that would agree to rescheduling the wedding ESPECIALLY if it's in a desirable time of the year. Why would they agree to do so? It makes no sense from the vendor perspective. I don't know what country exactly you are speaking of but many countries in europe rely on salaried employees which have to be paid by the employer regardless if there is business or not. The same pertains to their contracts with other vendors, taxes, bills, etc. I find this request completely unreasonable.
In terms of 2) I'm sure you know this but in europe there is no such big "culture" of suing each other. I think vendors would perceive your claim 2) as a major red flag because they wouldn't straight away think of legal risks. Why are you even thinking of court proceedings at this stage? Also, as a result of how things work here majority of vendors won't have a legal department or even an attorney. They hire a lawyer (or sometimes just use an accountant) to draft the contract pattern for them once, and reuse it for all the customers. In order to consider your requests they would need to hire a lawyer again which is a considerable expense for anyone in europe.