Weird to pay in full early?

This does seem odd. Even though I have the money to pay off my vendors early, I'm still not doing it because I don't want to be out all the money if something happens and they cancel or don't show closer to time. Is your DJ a professional with a real business?

I don't pay mine early even if I've the money too. But I guess some places have those type of deals where if you pay it all now it's a better price. Not sure why it matters though to pay early for a better price on terms of their business but normally vendors ask for payment installments

View Quoted Comment Yes. He’s the dj for a few bars around here, and he did our friends wedding going on 2 years ago. That’s one of the reasons we booked him, because we loved our friends wedding. My company has also booked him for 2 events on my recommendation.

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Well that's a good sign. If it was a random person it just seemed like they may take your money and run lol. Does the DJ have a contract?

View Quoted Comment Yeah I didn’t want to book anyone that didn’t have a contract. He also said that he would send me a new contract with the new figures if I decided to

We paid my photographer & videographer (they're in the same company) in full upfront so we could save $250. We have a contract that protects us if something was to happen with their company, etc.

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I would just make sure you can get the money back if something happens.

View Quoted Comment I’ll have to confirm the details with him. Thank you!

View Quoted Comment That makes me feel better lol I do have a contract too, the whole thing just made me a bit nervous 🙈

If you decide to do this, I would highly suggest paying on a credit card rather than a check or cash. That way if it goes south, you can at least dispute the charge.

If you have the funds, and he's well established, with stellar reviews, I'd consider it. Daughter's photographer was phenomenal; he was the photographer for the wedding of one of her closest friends (she was a BM in that wedding), so she witnessed the way he worked and the product he produced first-hand. He offered what amounted to a $1300 discount (about a third off) for paying in full at the time of booking ($1000) and NOT paying by credit card ($300)). She went for it and got an incredible package for a total of $2700 (almost 12 hours of wedding coverage with a second shooter, full digital access/rights to 1100+ fully edited & gorgeous photos, a 150 page photo album, and a 5-6 hour-long engagement shoot in multiple locations (240+ photos)). It would have been a great deal at full price; for the discounted price, it was an AMAZING deal. However, you have to completely trust the vendor and have a very clear contract to fall back on.

EDT: he's shot well over 400+ weddings, this has been his sole business for more than 6 years, and on multiple platforms he doesn't have anything less than perfect feedback.

Just a word of warning, I had heard this was a great way to save money, paying in full upfront. A videography company I had already been looking at sent me a deal where if we paid in full we would get 2 cameramen, 10 hours of coverage, drone footage, all raw footage and edit with toasts and music etc. for $2,200 (amazing price for my area!). We had a contract all was good. Except they went into liquidation! They owed of $300,000 in unpaid taxes! As well as other bills so they were forced to stop trading. We have filled in a form to hopefully get some of it back but the way the process works it is very unlikely. We are very very fortunate that this hasn’t crippled our budget the way it would some couples, and we found out with a fair bit of notice before our wedding. But please do your due diligence and see if you can find any complaints or outstanding debt against him. I would hate for anything similar to happen to anyone else.

It sounds like he needs money asap. That would worry me. If I could afford the extra $600, I'd just wait. As mentioned above, if he has a lot of debt and ends up going bankrupt, you get nothing back and no services.

View Quoted Comment My situation is super similar to this! I ended up calling him to ask worst case scenario questions, and he said he would put it in writing if his business went under, I would get the full amount back. Plus there’s protection in the contract. 😳

View Quoted Comment See that’s my biggest concern. I did call him back and ask worst case scenario questions and he said he would put in writing I would get my full amount paid back. Piece of mind, but still lol

View Quoted Comment That’s my biggest fears! I did call him back and He said he would put it in writing that I would get a full refund if anything were to go south meehhhh

That won't matter if he goes bankrupt. He won't be obligated to follow through.

It's a risk. $600 off is a tempting offer!

View Quoted Comment Right?! That would bring my original total of DJ plus photo booth down almost $800 😳😳😳

Have you googled his company name? Also look under things like the Better Business Bureau, or equivalent? All well and good for him to give his word, but that may not mean anything if his financial situation is dire. Saving $600 maybe be worth the risk, but how will you go if you loose everything and are left without a DJ? I hate to be negative because it may be fine. And again I had read articles suggesting that you can get discounts if you offer to pay upfront, so it IS a thing, just exercise caution.

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It's a terrific price. I'm a skeptic, so I automatically think "Why is he willing to cut the price so much?"

Bankruptcy basically says "I have no money and cannot fulfill my financial obligations to everyone I owe money to. I need my debts wiped out so I can start over." For example, if you have a credit card and spend $600, you are promising to pay the cc company that money back. You actually do have a contract with them to pay them back. If you take a bankruptcy, you are saying you don't have any money or property to give them to cover that debt. Through bankruptcy, you are relieved of your legal obligation to pay.