Everything You Need To Know About Wedding Contracts
What to know before signing on the dotted line.
You wouldn’t buy a house or a car without knowing exactly what you’re getting into, right? The same holds true for a wedding. A wedding is a significant financial undertaking, and wedding contracts ensure you know exactly what you’re getting, when and how you’ll pay for it, and, perhaps most importantly, what happens if those services aren’t able to be delivered in full. You‘ll have contracts for your venue and important vendors, so don’t sign on the dotted line without spending some time with the pages.
“As elementary as it sounds, read the contract,”says Caroline Fox of The Engaged Legal Collective.“This is a really big investment. You shouldn’t throw 10 or 15 thousand dollars at something without knowing what’s going on.”
But, what’s included in these agreements for your vendors and wedding venue? What’s the proper protocol for signing one, and what does all that legal jargon actually mean? Read on for everything you need to know about wedding contracts.
Why Are Wedding Contracts Important?
Wedding planning can often feel like it’s all romance and butterflies, but, at the end of the day, working with a vendor is a business transaction—and it’s crucial to ensure the components of that transaction are clear to both sides.“A contract makes sure everyone is on the same page,” says Fox. „It also protects both parties from potential issues.”
To that end, you should expect a contract from pretty much every vendor participating in your big day. One-off purchases—an Etsy cake topper, for example—will be the exception, but anything involving custom work, payment installments, or goods used and services performed on the wedding day should come with a formal agreement. That means the creator of a custom escort card wall, the shop that sold you your wedding dress, and your caterer will all require a contract.
“Making sure that everything you expect from the vendor is in the contract is the most important thing,”says Fox.“If it’s not in the contract, it doesn’t necessarily matter. You could have something in an email, but that doesn’t necessarily count. If you want it, put it in the contract.” For the rest of the document, think like a journalist: Determine the who, what, when, where, why, how, how many, and how much of your agreement, and be sure those items are included.
How Are Wedding Contracts Organized?
Want to know how to read your wedding contracts. They are typically broken into sections called clauses. Ahead, we break down the key clauses to look for.
Services Provided
This clause should include a specific rundown of what you’ll be receiving from a vendor. It should go beyond a general description of their business. “If you’re getting photography services, what does that mean?”explains Fox.“Are you getting a certain number of hours, a certain number of photos? That’s what should be included in the service section.”The service section should also specifically detail who is providing the services. Are you contracting with an individual, or are you contracting with a company?
That distinction can become important later on if a conflict arises.
This section is also where you’ll find logistical details, as well as communication guidelines. The latter is especially important when working with a planner. Clearly knowing what’s included in a month-of, day-of, or full-service wedding planning package will help you understand when you can expect their services to kick in and how quickly you should expect to receive a reply from them during the wedding planning process.
Travel
If your wedding is happening outside of a vendor’s standard radius of service, what additional costs are you expected to take on to get them there? Is it a per diem, or are you agreeing to book or reimburse flights? Are you reimbursing their meals? Are you booking a hotel room for them? If they will be driving, will there be a mileage charge? Knowing the answers to these questions is crucial for budgeting purposes.
Payment
Your contract should also spell out all things around payment for the service or good. What is the non-refundable deposit? When are payment installments due? When are additional payments refundable versus non-refundable? What are the overage fees? What are the penalties if you are late on a payment? These financial details should be clearly listed out in this section
Postponements and Cancellations
Your contracts will also likely address if a wedding date has to move or is canceled. What is a vendor’s rescheduling policy? If the event needs to be pushed back, is the retainer fee transferable? What happens if you need to reschedule and the vendor cannot accommodate your new date? Having clear expectations about how to move forward in situations like these can save a lot of headaches down the road.
Termination
Termination is different from cancellation in that it results from something that happens within the relationship between the vendor and the couple, not outside of it. It should be treated as a separate clause from Postponement and Cancellation. If you as a couple are not happy with the services being provided by the vendor, how do you get out of a contract that’s not serving you? How do you move forward, and what happens to the payments you made along the way?
Force Majeure
Sometimes, a major natural emergency will get in the way of services taking place, which is known as a force majeure. As a contract clause, this French phrase is a way for a party to excuse their performance of a contract without penalty where there are situations beyond the control of said party that were not foreseeable in any way. Per Fox, a force majeure clause does need to name a specific event as a force majeure event in order for that event to be counted under the clause. Examples of force majeure events include hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis, destruction of a venue or wedding location, and, yes, pandemics.
In the U.S., the degree of specificity required to enforce force majeure clauses varies from state to state. “Some states say you have to be really, really specific,”says Fox.“If it’s not in the contract, they’re not going to expand upon it. Other states will take that language and say anything that’s similar will count. Maybe a measles outbreak wasn’t technically declared a pandemic, for example, but it had similar impacts on society. That may count in your state.”
Contingency Plans
Contingency plans are needed in case there is an issue with the event itself. They might not might not always be explicitly listed in the contract, but it is still something you’ll want to discuss with your vendor in advance.„For contingency plans generally, those are going to depend on the vendor. For some types of vendors, the contingency plans will be present in the contract, but for others, there‘s just a general‚we will have to make backup plans‘ and it is less clear,“says Fox.