Thank you for all the responses. I have no idea how I should be dealing with this in court in 2 days time.

Any advice is really appreciated. I have received a claim and will be attending court on the 22nd of this month for a discussion with the judge. Thanks Stewart.

In addition. Our contract states that 100% of the total cost is due if the wedding is cancelled with less than 12 months to go. We never had 12 months, as when we booked our weeding was only 10 and a half months away. We effectively signed an agreement that we could potentially not get out of. My grevience here is surely with less than 13 months remaining when we booked. Surely they should have been offering a short term agreement, and not an agreement they knew we had no out with, if we had to cancel. Which obviously we had to. We have and didn't respond. As it stands we are attending court on the 22nd of this month as I had requested a recall so we can give our side of things. Thanks for responding so quickly.

Hi. I am looking for some advice on how to handle a small claims procedure? The story is that we booked a wedding with the vu in bathgate on the 7/2/2017. The wedding was to be held on the 30/11/2017, and when we signed the agreement we didnt read or were told about the cancellation fees. We paid £500 up front the total cost was £5000. We are going to court as we had to cancel the wedding on the 27/04/2017, because our house was robbed and the money we had saved for further payments was stolen. The Vu are claiming 100% of the total cost according to their contract. But I find this disgraceful, as if we were able to pay the entire cost we would not have had to cancel in the first instance. I feel that the £500 deposit I paid should be more than enough for a cancellation. As they do not have to pay staff wages, catering costs or such likes for that date on 30/11/2017. I don't know how to find out if a wedding took place on this date as this would cancel their cancellation fees. To expect us to pay the entire amount and not have our wedding. To me is incomprehensible. Like I said if we could have afforded this we wouldn't have cancelled. Thank you for taking the time and for any help that anyone could provide us. Forever greatfull. Stewart.