How many of your Wedding Bookings are cancelled each Year?

[leelive]

A comment that Jim (Scotland's Party DJ) mentioned on another thread got me thinking.
He said that he had just had his first ever cancellation of a Wedding.

I have just had a quick look through my bookings over the last 8 years and the average is 3 weddings per year!
Now it may be because I do over 70 weddings per year.... but is this high?

Lee

[yourdj]

No don't think so. Depends on the market your in I guess or the type of client you attract?
With the risk of sounding snooty, I would hazard a guess that the lower payed bookings are cancelled more often?
This is a big generalisation however as wealthy people overstretch themselves too and everyone falls out or gets ill. it always upsets me when a couple cancel because of illness/death, must be horrible for them. The worst was a bride who died a month after a wedding. imagine that as a groom!

I get about 4-6 cancellations once booked from my venue (medium priced package deal) which is generally from health or financial reasons. I just factor this in and don't charge the venue anything even if its within a months notice. Generally about 1-2 (if that) from my own clients (who are very consistently middle class weddings in good venues).

I had one who never got back to me after paying the booking fee despite my best attempts to get in contact (my only registry office wedding, pub reception in 6 years, which says it all really ). Had another wedding that was cancelled last year actually as they originally booked my venue and ran out of money. they rebooked me all day at the new venue and then ran out of money for that and had to downsize, which made having a host a complete waste of money, so I just called it quits as they were nice people, wished them well and took the night off.

[DazzyD]

From memory, I can't remember a wedding being cancelled. I guess I've just been lucky!

...The worst was a bride who died a month after a wedding. imagine that as a groom!

I knew a groom that died within hours of being married. They exchanged vows in hospital a few days a couple of days after his heart transplant failed. The bride was my brother's mother in law.

[fullcontact68]

Very new to all this, but I did have a wedding booked. It was the only wedding I had on my list to do.

They cancelled last week due to not having enough funds to get married.

[Imagine]

Just getting back into the swing of things after 15 years out (and thankfully the order book is now filling up at last )

Thankfully, I never got into the high-end wedding stuff back then (people were just starting to go mad with flash hotels and five course sit down wedding breakfasts at the time) - I much preferred the back room of the pub / local working men's club function room type weddings. They just seemed to work and didn't used to get too many cancel back then from memory.

I've only got the one wedding booked this year so far, and touch wood it stays that way. It's one of the old fashioned weddings where the whole family's pitching in with catering etc. so should be a good night. The bar opens at 4pm, so come around 10pm it's going to be Agadoo and YMCA right through until the end

[yourdj]

it's going to be Agadoo and YMCA right through until the end

Yes hotels/large venues seem to have taken over! I bet the less formals can have some characters and the whole family gets involved, making it more personal, but I would rather be stacking shelves in Tesco than playing movement dances all night week in week out.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Yes hotels/large venues seem to have taken over! I bet the less formals can have some characters and the whole family gets involved, making it more personal, but I would rather be stacking shelves in Tesco than playing movement dances all night week in week out.

One of the best weddings I've ever been to was my aunt's who had the reception in a community centre in one of the shadiest schemes in Glasgow.

The fact it was 70 odd p a can of beer helped a lot mind you

I've only ever known 2 weddings to be cancelled - 1 was an ex of mine and the muppet she ended up with 2 after me and one was a mentalist my sister in law works with who then went on to rebook the whole thing with the same guy down the line minus a small fortune in deposits. In fact so did the ex :facepalm:

I finally managed to get the bride to confirm that the wedding was indeed cancelled earlier tonight. Shame but I'm glad it's a rarity.

As for the type of gig being a factor, I couldn't really say - it was certainly in a very nice venue - my sister got married there and she's quite the snob, take that for what it's worth it was on a Monday though so maybe cost / money was a real factor to start with though from what little I know, it doesn't seem like a nice tempered pragmatic decision.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I think I've had 3 wedding cancellations since I started DJing. That's not bad going.

[Excalibur]

One point which hasn't been made I think. It's possible to have our bookings for the discos cancelled, but the wedding still go ahead. Either have no disco, the trusty ipod, possibly the venue has " persuaded " them to use the in house, or even forfeit the deposit and book a cheaper provider. Still goes down in our books as a cancellation, but the wedding still goes ahead.

[Imagine]

One point which hasn't been made I think. It's possible to have our bookings for the discos cancelled, but the wedding still go ahead. Either have no disco, the trusty ipod, possibly the venue has " persuaded " them to use the in house, or even forfeit the deposit and book a cheaper provider. Still goes down in our books as a cancellation, but the wedding still goes ahead.

I used to do a lot of weddings the first time around with this lark. Since coming back, yes I'm getting enquiries for them (i.e. via needadisco), but the budgets people are specifying at the moment don't seem to be much more than 15 years ago (£200 to £400 seems to be the average at the moment from what I'm seeing).

It may just be that I'm aiming at the lower end of the market at the moment, I really don't know. However, I think there's a valid point there that people maybe are going for cheaper alternatives at the moment.