Wedding Cancellations
 

I just had a client cancel because the wedding was called off. The wedding was set for July 30th. I have her deposit of $500.00 but am unsure of where to go from here. This has never happened yet so what do I do. Do you let it be or sue for loss revenue due to the booking being over a year.

Thanks

Offer the family that made the $500 deposit another video product, say a video biography or video memorial.

Then scout the newspapers quick for those pre-nup announcements and see if can't call them and offer to film that weekend.

This would be a good clause to have in your contract if you don't already. How you set the terms is up to you, but if it's in your contract and is signed, you are protected. However, that doesn't prevent you from being 'a nice guy' and refunding a portion of the deposit. Or, keep the money and offer to waive the deposit if the client re-books with you in say, a year. It's a fine balance of good PR and theoretical loss of revenue (you may not have gotten a booking that weekend anyway).

Just my opinion,

-gb-

Jason, this situation depends soley on what you have in your contract. However I strongly advise to have a clause in the contract that states all deposite/retainer fees are non-refundable. The date was removed from availability from other potential clients- thus you may have lost a potential job because of it.

I do, however, offer a voucher for the amount of their deposit if they book again in the future or hire me for other video or photo related work.

Tough call, I write into each of my contracts a contigency for this issue and offer 1/2 of the deposit back. Although in the two years and 30 weddings I've done this has never been an issue I've had come up.

in my contracts, the deposit is non-refundable. we have some military couples who actually purchased wedding insurance in the event that their significant others are shipped overseas.

haven't had a cancellation yet, and even though i am not required to, i would offer to transfer the deposit if they changed their dates and re-booked... as long as the date isn't already taken.

In my contract, which I downloaded off the internet and only did a few changes to, states that the deposit is non-refundable, but can be used on a future event, if that event is with in a year and the date is not already booked.

Everytime I read a new post here I keep thinking "but you could have possibly booked a different one for that day". If the contract states that the money is non refundable then they have to pay again, it sucks but you have to make money and you are selling your time in advance. Now if I knew for sure nobody wanted that day I may let them transfer the money to a different day but it would hard to know for sure.

Where did you find this contract? I am in the process of drawing one up and it would be great to have something to start from.