Everything answered plainly, so you know how this works before you get in touch. No fine print surprises.
Your date is yours once you have signed the agreement and paid 25% as a booking retainer. Until then it stays open to anyone else who asks.
You can pay the rest off however suits you. Plenty of my couples book a year ahead and pay a bit each month across that year. There is no interest, no fee, and no minimum. Tell me what works for you and I will fit around it.
Spread across a year it is a far smaller number each month than it looks like in one lump, and you have a venue and a dress to pay for too.
The balance needs to be paid in full a month before the wedding. That is standard in New Zealand. Wedding photography is paid for before the day, not after it.
No GST. I am not registered for it, so the price I quote you is the price you pay. Nothing gets added at the end.
The retainer stays with me, because by then I have turned other weddings down for your date. If you cancel in the last month, the full amount is still owed, because the date cannot realistically be filled that late.
If I am free on the new date, everything you have paid moves across at the price you originally booked, as long as it is within 18 months. If I am not free, I will help you find someone good.
A natural disaster, a public health order, a restriction on gatherings. Your booking moves to a new date and there is no penalty. I would want to be treated that way too.
If I am seriously ill or something goes badly wrong, I will move heaven and earth to find you a photographer of the same standard at no extra cost. If I cannot, you get every cent back.
I will be there for the hours on your booking form. If the day runs long and you want me to stay, just say so and we will sort it out afterwards.
Your gallery is usually ready in six to eight weeks. If anything delays it, I will tell you rather than leave you wondering.
The gallery stays online for three months. Please download everything in that time.
After that, your files are your responsibility. Keep two copies in different places. Do not rely on my storage as your backup, and do not rely on one hard drive or one laptop. I have seen too many people lose their wedding photos this way, and it is always avoidable.
I choose which photos go in, using the same judgement you hired me for. Blinks, duplicates and unflattering frames do not make the cut. You get colour and black and white, whichever suits each photo.
Print them. All of them. Any size you like. Put them on your walls, give them to your parents, post them anywhere you want. That is what they are for, and you never need to ask me.
Two small things:
A credit if you post is lovely and never required.
This one surprises people, so here it is plainly.
I hold the copyright, and you have a licence to use your photos forever, for anything personal. That is the normal arrangement in professional photography, and it is written into the agreement because New Zealand law would otherwise assume the opposite.
In practice it means you can do anything you would want to do with your own wedding photos, and I can keep using my own work in my portfolio. The full detail is in the terms and conditions.
I would love to show your photos on my website, on social media, in award entries, and when I talk to venues. It is how couples find me.
If you would rather I did not, just say so. Tell me when you book, or email me afterwards, even years afterwards. I will take them down and I will not ask you to explain yourself. It is your wedding.
If there are children in your photos, I will not post them without a parent being comfortable with it.
After the wedding I design a full album of your day, start to finish, as a story.
You are under no obligation to buy it. I design it either way, you see it finished, and then you decide.
Most couples do buy it, and it is not because I push. It is because seeing your day laid out properly, in order, is a completely different experience to scrolling a folder of files.
Included with every wedding. I turn your photos into proper magazine covers, one for the bridesmaids and one for the groomsmen.
The artwork is yours, so print it wherever you like. If you would rather not think about it, I can arrange printing with a local printer who does beautiful large format work, and you choose the size and what you want to spend.
Fair warning: the groomsmen usually lose it.
Talk to me first. Almost everything is a misunderstanding and a conversation fixes it.
If photos are ever lost to equipment failure or theft, you get your money back, in full if nothing is usable and proportionately if part of the day is affected. Your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act are not affected by anything in the agreement, and I have not tried to limit them.
For what it is worth: I shoot to two memory cards at once and back everything up to more than one place the same night.
Let's have a coffee before you decide anything. No pressure, no sales pitch. I would rather meet you than trade emails, and it is much easier to photograph people you already know.
If your ring is ready, bring it. I will usually shoot it while we are there, so you have something beautiful for your invitations.
This page is a plain English summary. The full terms and conditions are what you sign, and they govern if the two ever differ. Nothing here is a surprise version of them.