Solve It 7: Wedding Worries

Sometimes it’s love at first sight and sometimes, like a flower, love blossoms over time.

“We met at work a long time ago,” says Tyler Ray of his fiance Melea Devitt. The couple went from co-workers to friends and then slowly it grew into something else.

“Eventually that blossomed into a romance,” says Tyler.

He popped the question to Melea two years ago at the top of Loon Mountain.

“She turned around and immediately snatched the ring and went, ‘Yes!'” he recalls.

“I was very excited,” says Melea.

The couple started planning their wedding and found the perfect venue.

“As soon as we saw it, we knew it was going to be the right place,” says Tyler.

A charming summer camp right on a lake in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, with plenty of room to host all 185 of their guests.

“They could sleepover in cabins, spend time on the lake, have bonfires,” says Melea.

To secure the date for their August 2020 ceremony, Tyler and Melea had to put down a 30% deposit – about $7,000.

“A big chunk,” says Melea, or as Tyler says, “a huge amount of money.”

With the deposit paid, the couple continued planning their special day, until COVID-19 brought everything to a screeching halt.

“In June, we had a conversation with each other and said, ‘We don’t think this is going to happen,'” says Tyler. “[We] tried to communicate that to the venue.”

But the folks running the venue said, according to New Hampshire’s COVID guidelines, they could still host all of the guests. The bride and groom to be couldn’t say “I do” to that.

“If we walked away and one person got sick, we wouldn’t be able to live with that,” says Melea.

Tyler and Melea asked for some of their deposit back, but the venue refused and pointed out that if they canceled, their deposit was non-refundable.

With the wedding worries piling up, the concerned couple called Solve It 7.

We contacted the wedding venue and explained Melea and Tyler’s safety concerns. The venue representative told us she would reach out to them directly.

“They send an email almost immediately,” says Tyler.

After some negotiating, the venue agreed to issue a 50% refund, giving $3,500 back to Tyler and Melea.

The money will go towards the small scaled-down ceremony the couple held last month in their back yard!

It wasn’t the huge wedding they were hoping for, but that’s ok with them.

“At the end of the day, we’re getting married so yes, we’re super happy,” says Melea. “Thank you immensely for helping us with our wedding worries.”