5 Checks to Run on a Wedding Vendor Before You Pay

A couple I know sent a $4,000 venue deposit on a Tuesday afternoon, forty minutes after a tour, because the coordinator mentioned another couple was looking at the same Saturday. The contract came through two days later. Buried on page three: the deposit became non-refundable at signing, not at some later date, and "signing" had already happened via an e-sign link they clicked on their phones in the parking lot.

Nothing illegal happened. The terms were right there. They just paid before they read, which is how almost every wedding deposit horror story starts.

So here are the five checks to run before that deposit clears. All five together take under an hour for most vendors. None of this is adversarial. Good vendors expect these questions and answer them fast. It is the ones who go quiet that tell you something.

01. the license check

Caterers, planners, and venues usually need a business license, and in a lot of jurisdictions so do bartenders and anyone handling food. The point is not to catch somebody out. It is to confirm the business you are wiring money to exists as a legal entity with a traceable name behind it.

Search your county or state portal before you pay. Most counties have a free business license lookup, and most states have a Secretary of State entity search. Type in the business name exactly as it appears on the quote. This usually takes under five minutes.

What you want to find:

1. The business name on the quote matches a registered entity
2. The registration is active, not lapsed or dissolved
3. The registered owner name matches the person you have been emailing
4. The entity has been registered for longer than a few weeks, especially for a large contract
5. For caterers and bartenders, any required food service or liquor permits are current

A mismatch is not automatically disqualifying. Plenty of vendors operate under a DBA that reads differently from the legal entity, and a brand-new LLC can belong to someone with fifteen years of experience. But a mismatch is a question. Ask it, and see how fast and how plainly they answer.

02. proof of insurance, on paper

Ask every vendor for a certificate of insurance, and get it before any contract is signed.

A certificate of insurance (COI) is a single page issued by the vendor's insurance carrier. It names the insured business, the policy numbers, the coverage dates, and the limits. You are specifically looking for general liability coverage. If a guest trips over a lighting cable or a tent panel takes out a parked car, that is the policy that responds.

You need to see the paper, not a promise. "We're fully insured" is a sentence anybody can say. A COI is a document with a carrier's name on it.

Three things to check on the certificate itself:

1. The coverage dates still include your wedding date (a COI pulled in January can expire before an October wedding)
2. The named insured matches the business on your contract
3. The general liability limit meets whatever your venue requires, since most venues set a minimum

Your venue may also ask to be listed as an additional insured on each vendor's policy. That request should go to vendors early, not the week of, because carriers take a few days to issue a revised certificate.

who actually needs one

Everyone who sets foot on site with equipment: caterer, bartender, DJ or band, photographer, videographer, florist, rentals, transportation, planner. A stationery designer who mails you invitations is a different risk category. Use judgment, but err toward asking.

03. deposit terms and the exact refund deadline

Deposits often run 25-50% of the total. On a $12,000 catering contract, that is $3,000 to $6,000 moving out of your account early, often a year or more before anyone cooks anything.

The percentage is not the thing to fixate on. The refund deadline is.

"Non-refundable" means different things in different contracts. Sometimes it means you lose the deposit only if you cancel inside sixty days. Sometimes it means the money is gone the second it clears. Sometimes there is a retainer that is never refundable sitting alongside a deposit that is refundable until a specific date. Those are three completely different financial positions, and the word on the invoice is identical in all three.

Get the refund terms and deadline in writing, and get them as a date, not a vibe. Specifically:

1. The exact calendar date the deposit becomes non-refundable
2. Whether any portion is refundable before that date, and how much
3. Whether the deposit applies toward the balance or sits on top of it
4. What happens if the vendor cancels (your remedy should be more than a refund of what you already paid)
5. What happens if you postpone rather than cancel, and whether a date change carries a fee
6. Payment schedule for the remaining balance, with dates

Write those dates somewhere you will actually see them. A deposit deadline you forgot about is functionally the same as a deadline you never negotiated. This is exactly what Altared is for: every vendor total, deposit deadline, and line item in one place instead of scattered across six email threads.

For more on what else tends to hide in the fine print, our hidden costs posts break down the charges that show up after the quote.

04. the substitution clause

Can your vendor send a substitute on the day? If yes, the contract should name who approves them.

This one catches people off guard because it feels unlikely until it happens. Photographers get the flu. Planners go into labor. Lead singers lose their voice. Most reputable vendors have a network they can pull from, and that is a feature, not a failure. The problem is when the contract gives them unlimited discretion and you find out about the swap when a stranger walks in with a camera.

Look for language covering:

• Whether substitution is permitted at all
• Who qualifies as an acceptable substitute (experience level, portfolio, same studio)
• Whether you are notified in advance and whether your approval is required
• What happens if no acceptable substitute exists (refund, partial refund, nothing)

This matters most when you are buying a specific person's eye or presence: photographers, videographers, planners, officiants, bands. For a rental company delivering chairs, a substitute driver is nobody's concern.

If the contract is silent on substitution, that silence is not protection. Ask for a sentence to be added. Most vendors will agree, because they would rather have the conversation now than at 2pm on your wedding day.

05. price lock

Confirm the quoted total is locked, and exactly what would trigger a price change.

A quote is a sales document. A contract is a commitment. The gap between them is where a $14,000 estimate becomes a $16,400 final invoice, and it almost always happens through language nobody questioned.

Ask directly: is this total locked, and what could change it? Legitimate triggers exist and should be named and capped:

1. Guest count changes (per-head pricing, with a stated deadline for your final count)
2. Overtime beyond contracted hours, at a stated hourly rate
3. Added services you request in writing
4. Fuel or delivery surcharges, capped at a specific percentage
5. Service charge and sales tax, which should be shown as line items, not buried in a total

What is not acceptable is a clause letting the vendor adjust pricing "due to market conditions" or "at the company's discretion" with no cap and no notice period. If a vendor will not commit to a locked total, that is useful information. Price it as an estimate, build a cushion, and compare it honestly against vendors who will commit.

watch for these

The checks are easy. The signal is in how vendors respond to them.

• Pressure framed as scarcity. "Another couple is looking at this date" may be true. It is also the single most common line used to prevent people from reading a contract. A real hold is usually 24 to 72 hours in writing. Ask for one.
• Venmo, Zelle, or Cash App for a four-figure deposit. Peer-to-peer payments carry almost no buyer protection. A credit card or a business check leaves a trail and gives you recourse. If the only option is a peer-to-peer app, that is a question worth asking.
• An invoice with no contract attached. An invoice says what you owe. It does not say what you get, when, or what happens if things go wrong.
• Verbal promises that never make it into writing. "We'll throw in the extra hour" is worth exactly nothing in a dispute. Every promise goes in the document or it does not exist.
• A business name on the contract that differs from the one on the payment request. Sometimes innocent, sometimes not. Always worth a direct question.
• Going quiet. A vendor who answers quickly about availability and pricing but takes nine days to produce a COI is telling you something about how they operate under pressure.

before you send the deposit

1. Search your county or state portal for the business license. Under five minutes.
2. Request a certificate of insurance showing general liability, and check the coverage dates against your wedding date.
3. Get the deposit refund deadline as a calendar date, in writing, plus the full payment schedule.
4. Confirm whether substitution is allowed and who approves a replacement.
5. Confirm the quoted total is locked, with any price-change triggers named and capped.
6. Pay by a method with a paper trail.
7. Log the total, the deposit, and every deadline somewhere you will look again.

Save this for contract week and send it to whoever just announced their engagement. Then add your quotes free and keep every vendor total, deposit deadline, and line item in one place.