Court sides with couple in wedding gone awry
HALIFAX • The claimants were the bride and groom.
The defendant was the rental company, set to supply three tents, tables, chairs, linens, dishes, cutlery, a dance floor and other items to a rural property an hour outside of Halifax.
The contract was for about $10,000.
“This is a case of wedding plans gone seriously wrong,” says Nova Scotia small claims court adjudicator Michael O’Hara.
In a written decision released Tuesday, he ordered MacFarlands Limited to pay the newlyweds $5,419.
Although the 17-page decision reads like a suspense thriller for anyone who has ever planned their own wedding, the adjudicator said that “at its core” it’s a contract case.
O’Hara said the contract called for delivery and setup of the rental items to take place on a Wednesday last September, yet it was not completed until Friday evening.
“That is not what the contract called for,” he said.
“It seems to me that however one views this, MacFarlands has breached the terms of its contract.”
Ryan and Kristen Johnstone began planning their nuptials nearly a year in advance, with the bride seeking quotes from MacFarlands for a number of wedding accoutrements to accommodate roughly 200 guests.
Delivery of the rental items was initially set for the day before the wedding on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017.
A month before, the bride called and requested to change the delivery date to Thursday.
The delivery date was changed again to Wednesday after a storm was forecasted.
While MacFarlands delivered and set up some items on the Wednesday, the company did not complete setting up until late Friday — leaving the couple’s 20 or so friends and family who had volunteered to help set up scrambling late into the night.
“This significantly affected the enjoyment of the wedding and the post-wedding reception which if not ruined, was significantly altered in a negative fashion,” the decision said.
In the end, “there were a lot of tired and stressed out people,” the decision said.
The groom’s parents organized a post-rehearsal lobster party for Friday night, but the father said guests were too busy setting up to attend.
A witness for the claimants — the bride’s best friend and co-maid of honour — described the rehearsal dinner as a “go get it and high-tail it back” type of affair, as wedding guests worked well into the night.
The company suggested the wedding party should have started setting up the venue much earlier and that they misjudged how much work was involved.
“The picture that is painted is not one of the volunteers blithely standing around with their hands in their pockets waiting for something to do,” O’Hara said in the decision.