I am feeling very bad for you, these venue holder have to inform us early. So that we can book some other lawn or resort for our function. These people don't understand our feelings. Anyways sorry for your problem.
Travzmom, That's for sharing your story. I like the divvying up the RVSP list idea! It's great to hear that there are ways to work around these unexpected events! Thanks, Rose C.
I've actually had this happen a couple of times, we live in a small area and are limited on choices. One year we got 2 feet of snow and the roof on our banquet hall collapsed under the weight one week before our event. It took a full day of phone calls but we finally managed to find a slightly smaller hall that could fit us on the date we needed. For another event, we found out the evening before that the venue had double-booked the banquet hall! We were there as a non-profit organization so the venue wasn't making money on us, therefore we had to change our date instead of the other group. I called my volunteers and gave them each a section of our RSVP list to call and explain that we would have to change the details. Unfortunately it happens, but it can be overcome and still have a decent event.
we are going to go ahead with the smaller location and make the event more of a party instead of a sit down dinner. The party room at the place avavilable is plenty big for all of our auction items, food and parents but may not be able to sit everyone in banquet tables. We decided to go with some hi-top bar tables near the buffet, have passed hors'dourvers instead of trays, and open the bar in the restaurant for drinks other than beer/wine so it feels more planned to be the casual instead of formal. We still have tables for sitting for those less social people who would rather sit with a small group than mingle witht the larger groups. We are also hoping that less seating means more looking at/bidding on the items.
The director has totally ruled out the original location ever again since this happened. That really stinks because the club location is great, they just ran into a little trouble this year with a renovation. If they had asked me in early Jan to move the date, we would have had no problem bumping it out a month but they assured me they would find us a replacement location at the same reasonable price and then failed to follow through.
Yes - our venue was sold about a month before our auction last year and all reservations were immediately canceled. We had to move the date to one that conflicted with just about everything else in town, because that was all that was available at the only place that we could find. We told our families the minute that we booked the new spot and tried to publish our catalog early so that anyone who could no longer make it could at least leave bids. Not pretty, but we didn't have a choice. Sounds like you're in the same boat - I'm sorry! It does affect your event, but it doesn't have to be fatal.
