Ten Things to Check in a Wedding Vendor Contract

Over the course of planning you will sign somewhere between eight and twelve contracts with people you met once. Most of them will be fine. The point of reading them is not suspicion — it is that the three questions you will actually need answered are all in there, and none of them are in the email thread.

This is a checklist, not legal advice. For anything with real money at stake, a lawyer in your jurisdiction is worth an hour of their time.

1. Names, date, times and address

The most common error in a wedding contract is a clerical one. Check the date, the year, the venue address, the start and end times, and the spelling of both your names. A contract for the right service on the wrong date is worth nothing.

2. What is actually being delivered

The scope should be specific enough that a stranger could read it and know whether it had been fulfilled. "Photography coverage" is not scope. "Nine hours of coverage beginning at 1pm, two photographers, a minimum of a defined number of edited images delivered within a stated number of weeks" is scope.

If the sales conversation included something the contract does not mention, it is not in the contract.

3. Who, by name

For anything where the individual matters — photographer, videographer, band, planner, hair and makeup — the contract should name the person, or state clearly that it does not and explain the substitution process.

4. The payment schedule

Every instalment, every date, every amount, and what each one is. Note especially whether the deposit is described as a deposit or a retainer, because those words often carry different refundability, and put every date in your calendar the day you sign.

5. Cancellation, both directions

• What you lose if you cancel, at each stage.
• What happens if they cancel: refund only, or an obligation to find and fund a comparable replacement?
• Whether their total liability is capped at what you have paid.

A cap at the deposit means that if they cancel two weeks out, you are refunded a deposit and are on your own for the difference. That may be normal in your market — but you should be choosing it knowingly.

6. Postponement

Distinct from cancellation, and increasingly the clause that gets used. Is the deposit transferable? To which dates — any date, or a limited window? Is the price held or re-quoted? Is there a fee?

7. Force majeure

Read what actually counts, who can invoke it, and what happens to money already paid. A clause that lets the vendor keep everything for an event neither party controls is a clause worth negotiating before signing, not after.

8. Insurance and licensing

Many venues require vendors to carry liability insurance and provide a certificate naming the venue. Confirm the vendor carries it. If you are hiring anyone serving alcohol, confirm who holds the licence and the liability.

9. Images, recordings and your name

Most creative vendors want to use images of your wedding in their portfolio and social feeds. That is normal and usually fine. What you want is to know it is happening, and to know whether you can opt out.

If any part of your wedding needs to stay private — guests with public roles, family circumstances, anything at all — say so before signing and get the exception written in. It is a conversation nobody minds having early and everybody minds having late.

10. What is missing

The last check is the hardest and the most useful: read it once more asking what is not in here?

Overtime rate. Travel costs. Vendor meals. Delivery and strike. Who sets up. What time they arrive. What happens if the venue changes. What happens if your guest count moves. Whether prices can be adjusted before the event, and whether that is capped.

Anything you discussed and cannot find is a gap. Ask for it in writing — an emailed amendment attached to the contract is usually enough, and any professional vendor will send one without complaint.

A note on how the money flows

On United Vows the vendor is the merchant of record. Your contract is with them and your payment goes to them, which means the terms in their contract are the terms — there is no platform layer quietly rewriting them. That is worth knowing precisely because it means the ten checks above are yours to make.

Once contracts are signed, the dates in them are the thing to stay on top of. The free planning checklist sequences the whole timeline, and if you would rather it dated itself against your wedding day and tracked what is done, planning on United Vows is free for couples.