Engagement Photos

In my experience, they typically ask for a deposit up front and then the remaining balance before the shoot.

I paid for my engagement shoot in full. I didn’t think twice about it bc we booked a few weeks out and it was the lowest of my wedding bills. My other vendors I paid a deposit and balance later since they were large amounts and I booked months or over a year out.

It seems to be the norm, yes. Our photographer had us pay monthly installments as soon as we signed the contract. We booked them early February, wedding was 5/24, now 7/25. We still haven't done our engagement photos ;(.

If it jus for your engagement photos and you are not using for your wedding, then it does not seem unreasonable that they would want the entire balance paid in full. Here is a question, how far out is your Enge me t session? If it is less than two months, then it make sense to me that it is paid in full, due to the time constraint. The photographer will want to ensure that you are vested by paying it off entirely, so that they know that the date is booked solid. On the other hand, if your date is further out, I would say that a deposit is the only thing I would pay (unless you just want to pay it off), because anything can happen and that is why you have a clause in your contract that affords you the ability to cancel or postpone without having to shell out the entire balance, in case the deposit is on-refundable. I would be a little leery of a professional photographer attempting to make you pay the balance in full if your wedding is not within a short time frame. Especially because of this pandemic, there are a lot of business that are trying to make up for lost wages due to cancellations. Protect yourself and use common sense. If it doesn’t feel right then it usually isn’t!

If you are just using this photographer for your engagement session, it doesn't seem unreasonable. Engagement only sessions are usually a few hundred dollars, so I could definitely see needing to pay in full beforehand. If this was a photographer you were hiring for a couple thousand plus dollars worth of services for your entire wedding then I would feel more comfortable paying a 50% deposit and the rest later.

Most of my vendor deposits have been 1/2 up front, and the remainder 30 days prior to completing their services.

I paid half up front and half after we received the photos, but as long as their website and reviews check out I would have not thought twice about paying all up front

Not unusual at all.


Especially since engagement shoots cost much less than day of wedding shoot. If you decide to book them later for your day of coverage, they might give you a all credit or discount on that. In fact we were able to negotiate a discount on my wedding coverage by paying the entire fee up front. Money in hand might be worth a lot to vendors right now if you want to press for a better deal and use sameness photographers for engagement and wedding.
It’s either the full amount or deposit now and fill balance due before engagement shoot. Diff vendors have diff policies, remainder could be due the month beforehand, week before, day before.

I coordinated with almost 9 photographers before selecting mine. Most of them broke the total price in two or three installments. All of them included the love story/engagement session in the photo package, so it’s like you are paying ahead for that. I’m having a destination wedding (not sure if that makes it different) but most of my vendors asked for 50% deposit when signing the contracts. I would be a little hesitant paying the full amount with this pandemic. I would try to negotiate that unless your wedding is far in 2021.