It’s so exciting to find and say “yes” to the wedding professionals that will assist you throughout wedding planning. And be by your side and a source of support on your wedding day. Then rather quickly that excitement can get a tad overwhelming with understanding wedding contracts.

Every wedding professional you hire should have a detailed contract. Without one, who’s to say they will support you the way you want up to and on your wedding day? You’ve likely done your due diligence and picked amazing humans. Though I’m a better safe than sorry kind of gal.

Why Do You Need Contracts?

You need your wedding professionals to confirm the exact services you’re going to be receiving as well as the investment you’ll be making. There are wedding details you probably haven’t even thought of, and don’t need to worry about because vendors have your back. Those types of things are spelled out in my contract as well as other types of vendors’ contracts.

I have clauses to ensure you’ll have your wedding gallery in three weeks, the amount of shooting time and locations you’ll have for your engagement and bridal sessions, and the minimum number of photos you’ll receive.

Additionally, our contract is in place to sustain my business. As thrilled I am to photograph your wedding and no matter how personally attached I am to my couples I still need our payment schedule in writing. However, it’s a misconception that contracts are bad for you and good for me. They are an absolute necessity for us both!

Before Signing Wedding Vendor Contracts

The wall of text, blanks to fill in personal information, and the dotted line for your John Hancock. It’s intimidating! And legally binding. So I advise you to ask questions if you don’t understand the verbiage. Any reputable business owner will be happy to meet and discuss what each contract clause actually means. You don’t have to decipher wedding contracts on you’re own!

Possibly most importantly if you anticipate having an issue with the contract, no matter how small, don’t sign. Discuss any sections that you’re iffy about with the vendor. It’s possible there’s a miscommunication with the contract or that it can be tweaked to accommodate your personal situation.

For me and my business, we both need to understand and agree to what we’re signing.

What To Do After Signing

After we both sign our contract it will be housed in my client management system alongside our workspace. You’ll find that most wedding vendors will have a similar situation that you can access the document at any time.

I always recommend taking our contract a step further though and printing a copy. Yes, it’s 2019, but I’ll always be a paper person when it comes to important documents. Not to worry Crate and Barrel and CB2 have beautiful filing cabinets!

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