Wedding disrupted by curfew

We are a couple from Dar es Salaam. Our wedding was on 1 November 2025. We booked a venue, paid in full, and made all the necessary preparations several months in advance. You may recall that three days before the event, government authorities announced a temporary lockdown due to the election issues and imposed curfews restricting all public gatherings in the evenings. The wedding reception had to be abruptly postponed. I called the venue and told them that once restrictions were lifted, we would choose a new weekend date and still hold our wedding party as planned. Soon after gatherings were allowed again, however, the venue informed us that they had no openings as the venue was fully booked for the entire year. They insisted that they cannot refund but are willing to give us a weekday date, as the lockdown was not their fault. However, these options are inconvenient and impractical given our guest list. We feel frustrated and cheated because they did not inform us of this when we called to reschedule. I want to understand our rights under the law. Please guide us.

JD, Dar es Salaam

We are sorry to hear that your wedding day did not proceed as planned. Your experience highlights important aspects of contract law, particularly how contracts operate in the event of force majeure. Such events are beyond the control of either party. Under the Law of Contract, a force majeure event does not automatically cancel a contract, instead, it temporarily suspends performance. This means the wedding venue was temporarily unable to fulfil its obligations, but once the lockdown was lifted, the contract revived, and both parties were expected to resume performance in good faith.

We have not reviewed the contract you had with the venue, however, we can tell you that the venue’s actions raise legal concerns. When you called to postpone the wedding due to government restrictions and the venue acknowledged the postponement, their contract remained active. Even though the lockdown was not the venue’s fault, the manner in which they handled the rescheduling was entirely within their control. They had the responsibility to inform you then that rescheduling was impossible and provide you with options at that time.

We must emphasise that since we have not reviewed your contract, our advice will be on typical remedies in similar situations. The first is demanding specific performance, asking the Court to compel the venue to provide them with a reasonable weekend date similar to the original booking. The second is that if the venue insists that all weekends are booked, a refund of the full amount paid because the venue is unable to deliver what was contracted. If none works, you may also claim compensation for reasonable losses incurred due to the venue’s refusal to cooperate, such as the cost of paying for another venue. In the meantime, get a lawyer to review your contract and consider issuing a formal demand letter citing breach of contract as the first step. We wish you all the best.