Good morning ladies and gents 
After enjoying a monumental Saturday (420 odd miles on my motorcycle with friends), myself and my fiancée decided to go to the coast on Sunday (along with everyone else in the country it seemed!), and picked Ilfracombe – a trip to the venue for our wedding in 2013 was on the cards too (link removed - Tunnels Beaches)
Long story short, we won’t be having the wedding there!
Firstly, I know I am stupid – stupid for paying for something without seeing it, for paying without properly researching it, but we both fell in love with this place; and the website and testimonials paint such an amazing picture.... I guess we followed our hearts and not our heads
With that grovelling apology out of the way:
Neither myself or my fiancée were as blown away with the venue in the flesh, as we were when we first saw it online – the initial impression was somewhat soiled by the chef sat smoking a fag at the main entrance, this continued to the gates hanging off – held on by push bike locks! I know this is a Victorian venue, but come on....!
As we entered the venue we saw that they had a wedding on at 16:00 – the same time we planned to have ours, and only 15 minutes away, yet all around us were holiday makers plodding towards the beaches in various states of dress – a small wooden shed nestled within the entrance selling tickets, and the romantic tunnel that my Bride was to walk through wasn’t the private secluded passage the website had us envisaging; but a public through-fare.
As we made our way through the tunnel the acoustics meant that we could hear holiday makers having a whale of the time one the beaches – the supposed beaches that the link above says are ‘private’ – and as we exited the tunnel we saw what was to be our venue... behind the cheap and rickety looking wicker partition; leaving no sense of privacy from prying eyes.
Looking around, there were a couple of small ice cream parlour style boards sitting near the entrance to the tunnels, written on (many months ago it seemed) in marker was a warning to the public that the tunnels would close momentarily, to allow the for the precession to pass – but after wards, they would be free to pass.
After having a heart to heart, we both decided that this place, simply wasn’t going to be suitable for our special day – considering the cost of renting the venue itself, I wouldn’t have felt it was unreasonable (again going by the way the website portrays it) to expect that there would be no public admittance.
A lesson learnt I feel, but now on to a further one (hopefully not though) – the deposit.
Our wedding was booked for August 2013, and in May this year, I paid a deposit of £1,500 – though it is stated on their website that deposits will not be refunded under any circumstances, I’m hoping that the fact it is so far away might change their mind; I’m also happy for them to take a fee to cover any admin costs (though I’ve only had emails and possibly one letter from them).
I emailed this morning asking for the refund; I simply stated that we had cancelled and not why – I offered that £100 be taken for admin costs incurred, just have to wait and see what they say now...
The reason for this post? Well, speaking to a local their yesterday (who told us the venue was a dive!) she suggested that if the website was misleading, and they wouldn’t budge of giving a refund, to look at tackling them on ‘misrepresentation’ – do the OcUK public think that this is acceptable? I mean, looking at the link above, two points stand out (to me):
The nice tunnel shot heading the page... looks empty, looks private.... kind of links to the write ups they have about being private.
The fact they list BEACHES as part of the ideal venue for your special day, yet in reality, you only actually get access to one beach and the rest will be taken up by the public... god knows what the noise would be like as the ceremony is taking place
I’m just feeling a little cheated... I know I know, I should have been more careful, especially for such a important day, and (potentially) one of the most costly things in our life, but with what I have seen in the flesh and that lady’s advice ringing in my ears... do I have a leg to stand on?
Thanks for taking the time to read.
After enjoying a monumental Saturday (420 odd miles on my motorcycle with friends), myself and my fiancée decided to go to the coast on Sunday (along with everyone else in the country it seemed!), and picked Ilfracombe – a trip to the venue for our wedding in 2013 was on the cards too (link removed - Tunnels Beaches)
Long story short, we won’t be having the wedding there!
Firstly, I know I am stupid – stupid for paying for something without seeing it, for paying without properly researching it, but we both fell in love with this place; and the website and testimonials paint such an amazing picture.... I guess we followed our hearts and not our heads
With that grovelling apology out of the way:
Neither myself or my fiancée were as blown away with the venue in the flesh, as we were when we first saw it online – the initial impression was somewhat soiled by the chef sat smoking a fag at the main entrance, this continued to the gates hanging off – held on by push bike locks! I know this is a Victorian venue, but come on....!
As we entered the venue we saw that they had a wedding on at 16:00 – the same time we planned to have ours, and only 15 minutes away, yet all around us were holiday makers plodding towards the beaches in various states of dress – a small wooden shed nestled within the entrance selling tickets, and the romantic tunnel that my Bride was to walk through wasn’t the private secluded passage the website had us envisaging; but a public through-fare.
As we made our way through the tunnel the acoustics meant that we could hear holiday makers having a whale of the time one the beaches – the supposed beaches that the link above says are ‘private’ – and as we exited the tunnel we saw what was to be our venue... behind the cheap and rickety looking wicker partition; leaving no sense of privacy from prying eyes.
Looking around, there were a couple of small ice cream parlour style boards sitting near the entrance to the tunnels, written on (many months ago it seemed) in marker was a warning to the public that the tunnels would close momentarily, to allow the for the precession to pass – but after wards, they would be free to pass.
After having a heart to heart, we both decided that this place, simply wasn’t going to be suitable for our special day – considering the cost of renting the venue itself, I wouldn’t have felt it was unreasonable (again going by the way the website portrays it) to expect that there would be no public admittance.
A lesson learnt I feel, but now on to a further one (hopefully not though) – the deposit.
Our wedding was booked for August 2013, and in May this year, I paid a deposit of £1,500 – though it is stated on their website that deposits will not be refunded under any circumstances, I’m hoping that the fact it is so far away might change their mind; I’m also happy for them to take a fee to cover any admin costs (though I’ve only had emails and possibly one letter from them).
I emailed this morning asking for the refund; I simply stated that we had cancelled and not why – I offered that £100 be taken for admin costs incurred, just have to wait and see what they say now...
The reason for this post? Well, speaking to a local their yesterday (who told us the venue was a dive!) she suggested that if the website was misleading, and they wouldn’t budge of giving a refund, to look at tackling them on ‘misrepresentation’ – do the OcUK public think that this is acceptable? I mean, looking at the link above, two points stand out (to me):
The nice tunnel shot heading the page... looks empty, looks private.... kind of links to the write ups they have about being private.
The fact they list BEACHES as part of the ideal venue for your special day, yet in reality, you only actually get access to one beach and the rest will be taken up by the public... god knows what the noise would be like as the ceremony is taking place
I’m just feeling a little cheated... I know I know, I should have been more careful, especially for such a important day, and (potentially) one of the most costly things in our life, but with what I have seen in the flesh and that lady’s advice ringing in my ears... do I have a leg to stand on?
Thanks for taking the time to read.
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