Function enquiry reply and quote template: the email, the sheet, the deposit and the two dates that matter

"Wedding venue enquiry email" is searched by couples and, from the other side, by venues wondering what to send back. The answer that wins is a price, the same day, with the dates and the deposit stated plainly. The maker builds the reply and the quote sheet from the numbers you enter, with terms that a careful customer, or their solicitor cousin, will accept.

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Function enquiry reply and quote maker: the email, the sheet, the deposit and the dates

Venue Enquirer Event Event date Guests Menu per head (£) Drinks package per head (£) Room hire (£) Deposit to hold the date (%) Final numbers and balance due (days before) Signed by

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What the reply does

It answers in the first line that the date is free. It gives the total and how it is made up. It names the deposit, says how long the date is held, and gives the final-numbers date, because couples plan around that date more than any other. It offers a visit or a tasting, which is the step that converts. It is under 200 words, because the enquirer has emailed four venues and will read the one that is easiest to compare.

What the sheet does

The quote sheet lists the menu, the drinks package and the room hire per line, with VAT included in every figure, because a consumer-facing quote that adds VAT at the bottom is both a surprise and, for consumers, a pricing practice the regulators have been clear about. It then states the deposit, the balance and the two dates, and the terms in one paragraph.

The terms, and why each is written that way

The date is held for 7 days and confirmed on deposit. A held date without a deadline is a date you cannot sell. Seven days is long enough to decide and short enough to protect the venue.

The deposit is returned if the date is re-booked. This is the clause that keeps the deposit lawful. Under the Consumer Rights Act a term that lets the trader keep sums paid when the consumer cancels, without the trader having lost anything, is on the list of terms likely to be unfair; the CMA's guidance, updated in July 2026, added examples on exactly this. A deposit kept to cover a loss is fine. A deposit kept when the date was re-let to someone else is not, and it is the one that ends up in a dispute on Reddit.

Numbers may fall by 10% before the final date without charge. Guest lists shrink. A venue that charges on the first number given will spend the last month arguing; a venue that allows a modest fall and charges on the confirmed number will not.

Late cancellation is charged at confirmed numbers less the food and drink not bought. This is what the loss actually is: the venue has turned other business away and has bought some of the food. Charging the full price including ingredients never purchased is the charge most likely to be cut down.

Dietary requirements with the final numbers, confirmed in writing. Allergens at a function are the venue's legal responsibility whatever the host says; our guide on Natasha's Law for restaurants and pubs covers it. The clause makes the information arrive when the kitchen can still act on it.

The two dates

The final-numbers date and the balance date are the same date on purpose. One date is kept; two are confused. Fourteen days is the default; set 21 or 28 for a wedding with outside caterers or a marquee.

What the maker leaves to you

The menu and the drinks package are yours; the maker prices them, it does not write them. Room hire is often waived above a spend, and the field can be set to zero. Service charge is deliberately absent: if the venue adds a discretionary service charge, say so on the quote in words, and know that whatever is collected goes to the staff under the tips law, not to the venue.

Deposits and the third parties

Venues using an events marketplace have asked, in the owner forums, whether to accept the platform taking a cut of the deposit. That is a commercial question, but the consumer-law answer does not change: the deposit is the customer's money held against a loss, and if the loss does not happen it goes back, whoever took a commission on the way.

The no-show cost calculator covers the same principles for ordinary table bookings, where the sums are smaller and the deposit is a card hold rather than a bank transfer.

This is general information for consumer bookings in the UK, not legal advice. Corporate bookings are business-to-business and the unfair terms rules do not apply in the same way.