TORONTO -- An Ontario couple is worried they may lose their $10,000 wedding deposit after they postponed their nuptials due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July 2019, Andrea Staffiere and Andrew Infusino put down the $10,000 deposit for their April 25, 2020 wedding. But due to COVID-19, they postponed the wedding to July 4, and then again to October 9.
The couple said that now it’s looking like their wedding may not happen at all.
“I’m pretty devastated, I’m heartbroken,” Staffiere told CTV News Toronto on Thursday.
York Region has moved to Stage 3 of the province’s reopening plan, which means gatherings of up to 50 people are now allowed indoors, and 100 people can congregate outdoors.
But Staffiere and Infusino’s contract stipulates 250 guests. They say their venue — near Jane Street and Highway 7 — is holding them to that.
“I said to him, ‘the government is not allowing me to have 250 people. I would love to have 250 people at my wedding,’ [but] he said those are my only options.”
A July 21 email from Bellvue Manor’s owner, Rob Marra, says the venue upheld its end of the contract by honouring the couple’s deposit, despite multiple event date changes.
“We are holding our end of the contract which indicates you will be 250 people. You are now asking me to hold your wedding for 50 people rather than 250 and that is not what the contract states,” the email goes on to say.
Infusino says, however, that’s completely unreasonable.
“It’s on the borderline of devastating that you’re withholding us from having our event because you’re holding on to the idea of having a 250-person bill,” Infusino said.
CTV News Toronto spoke to Marra late Thursday afternoon, and he said he would honour the couple’s deposit should they postpone their wedding to a later date.
“If we start giving back all the deposits, you know, we're in trouble as it is, the banquet hall industry. If we start doing that for everybody, we’re all closed. It’s done. Game over.”
Infusino and Staffiere, say, however, they didn’t ask that their deposit be refunded. They say they made alternate suggestions, instead, including hosting a 50-person wedding indoors, or having 100 guests outdoors.
“I then asked if they could hold my $10,000 deposit for a baby shower or baptism in the future — and he said no,” said Staffiere.
Marra says his banquet hall is shut down entirely for the foreseeable future due to COVID-19 and he won’t open it up “unless she’s prepared to pay me at least what it’s going to cost me.”
Marra added, “It’s not going to be the $10,000 that she left as a deposit, even for 50 people.”
The couple says they don’t want to delay getting married much longer. At 31 and 33, they want to have a baby and to move on with their lives. They say, at this point, they feel resigned to losing their deposit.
“We’ve put the money together ourselves, it’s a pretty big blow,” Staffiere said.
They said that what’s supposed to be a joyous time in their lives, has turned into one of the most heartbreaking.
