Destination Wedding Contract

[lisa_sweet1]

<p>Hi All,<br>

I am new to this forum however I am in need of some serious advice on a destination wedding. I own a photography company along with my partner/co-owner and we just this past year had merged our "wedding photography" into this new business. I met with a couple yesterday and was under the impression I was gathering information on a formal wedding he was having AFTER him and his new bride came home from their Vacation... a Bahama Cruise. Halfway through our conversation, they tell me that they wanted to know if we could do the photography for them for the week too. He said he would pay for both myself and partner to come aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line, pay for our rooms, meals, etc. IT's a huge commitment as I have 2 children 14 and 12 and my partner has 6 and 8 year old. We are willing to do this as it's not really a vacation... we are at this couple's disposal whenever they need us the entire time on the boat. They also have roughly 60 people coming with them for the week and a 2 year old son too. After the week is over, Sat-Sat, we are home a week and then shoot their formal wedding of over 250 people at a venue they have booked. They agreed to a package for that wedding, however they are still waiting on a quote from us for the wedding ceremony on the island away and all the photos taken during excursions and gatherings... all of which he said he would cover. How do I make out a contract for all this?? I'm concerned on the expectations of this client. He also has been in the wedding industry himself a while ago, first as a photographer himself, and now as a DJ. <br>

My question is what do you think is a fair price for the Sat-Sat trip with them? His wedding back home is all set so he has already agreed to 3,800.00 for that. IF anyone has any idea how to word this or has a sample contract for destination weddings like this can you help me out? I would really appreciate it. thanks so much, lisa ~</p>

[savagesax]

Maybe look up, google, what corporate, commercial, and product photographers charge? Ask to view their

contracts? You may be able to use your present wedding contract and just add an "Amendment," - meaning a

change to a Formal Document.

 

Don't go on this trip without the revised contract. Everything must clearly be documented, such as all of the

expenses being covered, the hours per day that you will needed, even breaks, such as an hour break every 8

hours of work. Do you want to charge by the day, 1/2 day, or per hour? Avoid making a contract saying you are available anytime for the whole week, because you may get stuck working 14 hour days or having to shoot until 4 AM! Make sure your room and food is

covered. One time this happened to me. I shot a wedding in Ohio and they, the couple, said that the room was

covered. When I went to check into the motel the desk hostess asked for a credit card, because the room

hadn't been paid for yet. Well I told the bride and groom about it and they promised to take care of it. They

didn't. Upon checkout time I was stuck with the bill and the B&G were long gone on their honeymoon. They

never did pay that bill and when they returned they never sent a check to me. It wasn't worth suing them,

because they lived in Ohio! Be sure to check and double check anything and everything, even things like tipping

your room waiter should be talked about. Make a list. Write things down such as hidden taxes for the cruise. Call a

travel agent and see what the hidden fees may be on these cruises.

 

What a blast this will be for the both of you! Keep us posted with how things work

out.

[john_h.1]

<p>These kind of things are very risky. Either you are dependent on the client but still get blamed when things don't work out or the client's plans change and you are paying for in advance for things that may turn out to be incompatible. Its a logistical nightmare as it is anyway. You can get whacked for all sorts of things beyond your control. In just one example, what if you get sick? Who pays for the on board exorbitant medical/medication fees or medivac if needed? Sure there is prepaid insurance but what about your gear? The shots crated so far. Who gets refunded? by how much? The potential contingencies are many and the subset of contingencies when those contingencies arise is daunting. <br /><br />The there is the normal but often forgotten stuff. Tips. Tips galore. Meal.drink fees. Cruise lines photography rules and restrictions. Taxi cab fare. Excursion fees (to follow the clients on excusion) and on and on.<br /><br />What a contract it would take to cover it all. Id the client going to agree to an enormous contingency expense retainer paid far in advance so you won't be left holding the bag on anything? Probably not. Will they dispute some things paid for after? Maybe.<br>

<br />This is all before you even get to how much work for how much fees.</p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>I would first give them a quote before I would invest energy and lawyer fees in writing up a contract. They are paying $3,800 already for the wedding back home do you really feel they will pay an additional minimum $7k to 10k for your fees for the 7day cruise? This is not a barter.</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<p>I guess it depends on the client, but presumably they already know that such an expense is going to be significant. If you are charging them $3800 for one day already, they've got to be expecting several times that for you to shoot their 7day cruise -no, it's not the same, but I'd still be surprised if they weren't expecting a cost (minimum) somewhere in the $8-10k range (plus expenses). They <em>might</em> have had the mistaken impression that you are 'getting a vacation out of it!', but if they work in the industry, they know this is not true.</p>

<p>Michael's absolutely right though, a firm quote is the only way to know how serious they are. I would quote them pretty simply. 1) Total shooting fees = your hourly rate x #hrs per day x #days. (pretty easy to itemize) 2) Expenses. I would prepare an 'anticipated' expenses sheet (including the fees for all 6(!) of you), based on you quoting, independently, the cost of you taking that same trip unattached to their party (ie. use your travel agent to help determine your TOTAL 'anticipated' expenses), and include that in the quote. If they can swing a sweet deal, it saves them money, but you are disclosing from the outset that ALL the expenses (whatever they are) will be their responsibility. </p>

<p>I would caution you that, assuming they accept the shooting fees, I wouldn't demand that your partner & kids are included. You are getting paid a pretty high premium, and you should be just as committed to the results as you are for their ceremony. having your partner, and 4 kids attached is going to impact your focus, and impair your capability (BTDT) - making doing your job that much harder. If you've never shot an event in which your 4 kids were guests/attendees, I would advise you did before attempting this.</p>

[lisa_sweet1]

<p>Hi, thanks for your response.. this trip and work would only be for myself and my partner, no kids. Anyway, I just spoke with my partner. We kept this initial quote pretty simple. For the week of the 14th- 21 (Sat -Sat) PLUS the all day wedding on May 28th... we thought this might be in the ballpark of what we should do... let me know what you think of this. I'm keeping the hours per day on the vague side because if he is serious about the initial quote, we can put the up to 10 hrs per day in the contract. <br>

So, 14-28th: Plus the wedding on the 28th:<br>

quote is in the ballpark of : 18,900 and this is how we broke it down. <br>

It's $4,000 for each wedding (1 on ship and 1 on the 28th) so $8,000.00 right off the top which includes their package products. Ex: 12x12 Album, gallery wrap, 5x5 albums , engagement shoot prior to the trip and basically all edited images, high res on usb from the trip AND the all day wedding on the 28th after we get back. This 18,900.00 will also cover our time, products, expenses on our end, etc. I would say that yes, he would be responsible for all excursions, meals, travel, and room on the boat. If we factor in how much we spend on products we would both walk away from everything in the ballpark of 7 or 8 grand each which includes their home wedding too... then have to pay taxes on that so take off about 2 grand roughly. Does that sound about right? so send him a initial quote of $18,900.00 but we would still tell him that the additional expenses for travel, room , meals would be his responsibility. Does that sound too high of a quote for us to be splitting? what are your thoughts on that? ~Lisa</p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>Expenses are always additional. That said I would say in this scenario you can't compare a regular wedding rate to this as we are talking 7 days of work which would qualify for a reduced rate, not to mention you are on a cruise ship. No one would expect 24 hour call of duty. a reasonable rate of 7 to 8 hours per day is in order. I have done a three day job on location with boarding and expenses included and found that it can be difficult to determine consecutive hours to be billable. You may have a few hours that are downtime but then an hour later you are called to work. You have to consider the whole scope of this senario and be prepared to take pictures at any hour if appropriate. Generally I would expect the client to be reasonable and accepting of you to enjoy your stay as well but ready to take a picture when necessary. Billing a flat rate per day that your happy with regardless of how many hours you may or may not work taking pictures is you best solution for everyone. Remember this is a guaranteed weeks work of pay which is not guaranteed in the wedding business. I personally found myself going above and beyond the call of duty in this type of senario which is to say the least a cool gig. I personally would not include a number of hours per day in your contract as this is hard to calculate in this type of senario. I would just say you will cover each day of events.</p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>I would also add that you and your partner would rotate in covering the events of the day giving each of you personal time to your self. Again I can't imagine the client being strict on your working performance given the scenario.</p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>$18,900 for the total rate charged to the client sounds great if you can get it. A client who requests two photographers on such a scenario should pay the given price. If not then I would consider a single photographer rate. I personally find it to be an excessive expense to hire two photographers in this senario unless the client is well off and can afford such expense. I am sure you have a gut feeling if this is such a client. You are basically saying you both want a $1,000 per day which is reasonable. So let your client know that and let them make the decision of one or two photographers on the boat.</p>

[lisa_sweet1]

<p>Thanks Everyone for your responses... it is making me think twice about it. It sounds like a great opportunity, however, we have never done a destination wedding away for 7 days and it's a little different given we are on private property the entire week either on the boat or on the cruise's island. The liability for shooting on private property adds a whole new spin to this. I am also thinking of the thousands of pictures we will be editing which is hours behind the scenes as you all are very familiar with. I don't think he is going to go for this number but I'm going to send out a rough quote to him with the intent to confirm some ballpark amount initially. Like you all said, why waste hours on this thinking of everything when you don't even know it's a go.? So, i'll keep you posted and hope this all goes well. Thanks so much for your responses... im so grateful for everyone's input. take care, Lisa S.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>To start, I think $3800 for a major all-day wedding in on the low side. But taking that as a basis, i would assume that each day on the cruise ship could be the equivalent of shooting another wedding, and it takes up at least as much time as a wedding. So that would work out to $3800 times seven equals $26,000-plus. Rather than offering any kind of discount for seven days in a row, I would actually charge extra -- that's too much work for too many days in a row to be any fun at all, cruise ship or not. Doing it on board a cruise ship arguably makes it harder than being someplace where you can go back to your own home each night or at least to your own hotel room and having the option to escape the confines of the ship.<br /><br />I also find that every hour of shooting time equals roughly three hours of work by the time you include prep and post production. So a week of shooting could mean theoretically three weeks of work.<br /><br />Before agreeing to this, I would talk to the cruise line. They all have their own photographers on board and some of those are third-party businesses that have an exclusive license for professional photography on board. <br /><br />Personally, I would take a pass on this. Way too much work with way too many uncertainties.</p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>You are free to take pictures on a ship but you just can start charging the passengers. You will not however be able to bring on studio lighting and umbrellas. Everything will have to be portable keeping safety a priority. This type of photography is not to be compared to wedding photography. There is no comparison. You can't charge by the hour in this type of scenario you have to come up with an average per day quote because your not going to be on a standard working schedule. This is a vacation for the client mind you. It is going to be a casual working relationship. The average person is not going to pay $3,800 per day on a 7 day cruise. Please let us now what the client chooses to do. </p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>I personally would do it for $10k plus my wife gets to come along. So if they wanted two photographers it would be $20k. But two photographers is not needed. I have done this before and it is not such a burden as some of you think. When you work you work but when you play you play. The client understands this.</p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>Now if you had to then make a slideshow or show pictures at the end of each day then that would be a different story. That is done with corporate executive vacation trips who hire photographers to do just that. That scenario is more demanding and a much higher pay rate. I personally would not do any processing on my personal time on the ship. Enjoy yourself with any free time you get.</p>

<p> </p>

[lisa_sweet1]

<p>Hi,<br>

So I sent a proposal for the entire thing... the week away and the wedding the week after they get home. I told him $18,900.00 and that includes his 2 photographers, plus our packages and products that comes with the 2 weddings.. so, 2 Albums, Gallery Wraps, etc. He would be responsible for all travel, meals, lodging and any other incidentals. I haven't heard back yet but he's either choking on this quote, or he's thinking this is a steal. I can't put anymore effort into this client from here on in until I hear back from him. We'll see... I'll definitely keep you posted. Thanks for all your help everyone, I appreciate the feedback. </p>