Covid-19 Wedding Rescheduling

Ugh I do think she should, actually! Is there anyone she can send in her place for your date instead

View Quoted Comment No, she is a single photographer, her solution was to photograph my private ceremony on the 4th with only our parents and minister for less than an hour for $1600... she charges $500 for 60-90 minutes and she wouldn’t even refund me back $1100. She also only has a wedding on September 6th but won’t do 2 weddings in a weekend. So I feel like thats her decision and not on me to pay her for services not delivered!

Seriously, I know these vendors are losing money over this but I wish they would be a little more understanding of the situation at hand. It’s hard enough to reschedule without have to deal with that stress.

View Quoted Comment Have you had engagement photos taken? Could you ask her to do an engagement shoot in addition to the private ceremony on 4/4? It seems like small businesses (such as wedding photographers) are really hurting at this time, and need to keep cash deposits to stay solvent. But most are willing to do work “in kind” for payments already received.


For example, our hair and makeup team originally didn’t think they could do our postponed date, but they also run a hair salon - so my plan was to go in for $100 worth of hair treatments (equal to the amount of my deposit). Ultimately they were able to fit us in, but that’s just one scenario where the vendor is able to keep the deposit *and* the couple also gets some benefit for the money they’ve paid.

That’s tough. I see her side too if she is willing to reschedule. But I also see this is unusual. When I rescheduled I made sure all my high-cost vendors were available on the date I choose and would have moved to another date if my photographer wasn’t available (mine was like $4k though so I really cared about losing that).

View Quoted Comment Right, we tried to but after reviewing the contract she at least owed us 50% of our retainer and its hard to continue to work with them if they lie to keep your whole retainer! But I wish things hadn’t escalated as quickly as they did and we may have been able to come to a conclusion! My mom lost her job and we have to find another photographer and loosing $1600 for nothing is a lot for us as well. I feel like she handled it poorly!

View Quoted Comment If you have a contract that says she is only entitled to keep 50%, then she doesn’t get to just change her mind. Circle back and say what you write above about being sorry that things escalated so quickly and see if you can come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

View Quoted Comment Ah okay this makes sense! I misunderstood and thought her contract said she owed you 0%, so you were trying to figure out some mutually beneficial solution without losing your entire deposit. I guess you could keep thinking of different photo shoots you’d like (christmas cards? anniversary? no reason other than you look cute?) and asking her to do them until you reach $1600 worth of services rendered lol.

Thank y’all for all your responses! Really makes me feel better that I can get this resolved! Never would I have imagined this would happen while planning a wedding. Makes you step back and realize the importance of a wedding in the first place! Thinking of all the other brides and grooms having to postpone their big day!

So look through the contract and find a clause. If there is anywhere stating anything about “act of god” then you 100% can get your money back. Because your venue had to reschedule you, it was not YOUR doing.

View Quoted Comment

Oh that’s interesting. So it totally is her professional decision not to be available on the date you chose to postpone too. I’d challenge that and push her harder. There’s nothing in her profession that would or could stop her from being available (although I do know some in the industry won’t as a matter of course and business professionalism). I’d also look back through your contract and see if anything says you’ll work “collaboratively” towards mutually agreeable dates in lieu of cancellation or something like that. My contract also states they have an obligation to substitute if they become unavailable (like what would the contract say if she became sick on your date?). I’d interpret her personal decision not to shoot on your date as not being collaborative at least!

View Quoted Comment It has an “act of God” clause for if the photographer cannot make it and I felt like that was more acceptable than the reschedule clause because your right, my venue and the state of Texas made us reschedule, not me!

View Quoted Comment Then you absolutely should get your money back!

Lol I had a backup date too of Oct 9th but when my photographer said no go for him I went with his schedule everyone else thankfully could fall in line too. Sept 4th is my backup.. see what your photographer has available and then go from there with everyone else if need be!! I seriously just went through the same thing today lmfao it will be ok hun!