I don't normally post reviews, but I was so disappointed with my experience with Occasions that I had to warn others who are thinking of using them for their big day.

My fiancé and I organised a beach wedding in Koh Samui in June this year with our family, and a larger event on July 30 at Occasions with our friends to celebrate our wedding. We booked and paid a deposit with Occasions for the celebration party on 30/5.

Unfortunately, two days before our wedding my fiancé was robbed and mugged in Thailand, and suffered extensive facial injuries that required reconstructive surgery in a Thai hospital on our wedding day, meaning we had to cancel our wedding, and the later celebration party. I emailed Occasions on 9/6 while we were in hospital to let them know what happened and to cancel the booking and give them the best opportunity to rebook. Occasions decided to ignore our extenuating circumstances and not refund the deposit because ‘winter is hard for function centres and they have overheads like rent to pay'.

I understand that a deposit was taken to secure the date but I would have absolutely considered the terrible ordeal that we have been through to constitute extenuating circumstances. We only held the reservation for 8 business days, and we provided Occasions with 7 ½ weeks to readvertise and secure another booking. Occasions had the opportunity to respond with compassion rather than to obtain profit from our misfortune.

Let me contrast your response to the situation with the treatment we received from Faraway Weddings, the wedding venue in Thailand where we had booked our ceremony and reception (who I cannot recommend highly enough). We had paid in full for the ceremony, reception, food, alcohol, flowers, DJ, printed materials etc. We had to cancel our wedding, which we had held on deposit since February, and could only provide them with 2 days notice. They had absolutely no opportunity to try to source another event or wedding, and would have been fully justified in simply keeping the full amount we had paid as per their terms and conditions.

Instead their response was to let us know they would look after the situation, and due to the horrible circumstances they refunded us the full amount less a small amount for direct costs they had already incurred. In addition, they visited my fiancé in hospital with flowers the day after the surgery!

We originally went with Occasions as they appeared to be intimate, thoughtful and genuine; however their response has been incredibly insensitive, unprofessional and took me by complete surprise. After being fully aware of the all we had been through, rather than choosing to demonstrate compassion they chose to put a profit-making motive first in keeping the deposit they had held for a booking for 8 days.

Do you want these people managing your big day?