Photography Deposit

My advice would be to make sure the contract states something along the lines of, "In the act of God that something happens and I cannot fulfill my duties as the photographer on the wedding date, the client shall get a full refund." It's important that they have something like that in case they for some reason can't make it to the wedding.

As far as deposits go, that's up to each photographer. I paid $200 deposit.

Check the contract for sure.

Our photographer required 1/3 for the deposit. Another 1/3 at 3 months out and the balance due one month out.

Thanks, both of you! I'm having a destination wedding and hiring a photographer who, though based in the same country as my wedding, mainly travels for clients. She's requesting a 40% deposit, so I'm a little anxious putting that much down this far in advance.

My photographer required a $1k deposit. Her total fee is $2.5k. The balance was due two weeks before. My deposit was nonrefundable. That would have terrified me if I didn't know the photographer personally.

My contract also listed a clause saying that should she be unable to photograph my wedding for any reason, she would do all she could to get me a replacement. If a replacement could not be found, she would refund everything, including the deposit.

Some vendors may have an "Act of God" clause, but in general deposits are non-refundable. This is because you are paying to reserve that person's time and prohibiting them from booking any other business for that day or night (or both). Unfortunately there are a lot of changes in the wedding planning world (couples breaking up, changing dates, changing locations, changing plans, finances changing), so wedding vendors do have to protect their business.

ETA: My band had to invoke the Act of God clause in their contract because there was a hurricane the day of my wedding and the highways were shut down by sheriffs so they literally could not make it. The booking agency found us a last minute DJ replacement and refunded us the full difference between the two services. This is very different though from a client deciding to cancel a vendor contract because of life or planning changes.

Most of my vendors required a 40-50% non-refundable deposit to hold the date, but some vendors required much less!

My refund was 50%. The other half was due upon receipt of the edited photos.

ETA: It was nonrefundable unless the photographer had an emergency.

We had to do a 50% deposit for our photographer. A bit scary, but we booked a photography company so if our photographer can't make it, they will send someone else.

Mine required a 50% deposit. I can't remember the refund clause but I be it was something like 50% of the deposit back if we cancelled 90 days prior to the wedding.

Ours wanted a 50% deposit, but since we booked 2 years in advance they agreed to 25% down, 25% due 1 year prior to the wedding, and the rest due 7 days out. Once the deposit and contract were submitted there was no cancellation allowed.

We put down a 50% non-refundable deposit. Her contract stated that if for some reason she could not attend then she would find a reputable replacement to take the pictures and she would still do the editing (though she has never had to do that in her 10+ years of wedding photography).

Our deposit was 30% non-refundable. The rest was due 1 week before the wedding.

My deposit was 25% with the full amount not due until the day of and there was an act of God clause included as well as if for any reason she could not attend due to illness or a car accident then she would be required to find us a replacement with another company.