Terms, summarised.

A signed agreement and a 35% retainer reserve your date. Until both are received, the date stays open to other couples. The balance can be split into up to three payments, the last due 14 days before your wedding.

When we reserve your date, we turn other couples away. Most weddings are booked 9 to 14 months ahead, so a date given up later is rarely rebooked. Planning, consultations and preparation also begin as soon as you book. The retainer is our reasonable estimate of what an unfilled date costs us, agreed in advance because that loss is hard to measure, and it is not a penalty. It is non-refundable, except where these terms say otherwise.

Please tell us in writing. More than 180 days before your wedding, we keep the retainer and nothing more is owed. From 180 to 61 days before, 50% of the collection price is due, with the retainer counting toward it. Within 60 days of your wedding, the full collection price is due.

If we rebook your date with work of similar value, we refund what you paid beyond the retainer, less any costs we have already incurred. Services already delivered, such as an engagement session, are not refunded.

You may move your date once, to a date within 12 months of the original, if we are available. Your retainer carries over. If our published prices have changed for the new date, the new prices apply. A further change, or a new date we cannot cover, is treated as a cancellation.

We accept card and bank transfer. If a payment is more than 14 days late, we may pause planning until it is paid. If the balance is not paid by its due date, we may treat the booking as cancelled under the cancellation terms above. Galleries, albums and files are released once the balance is paid in full.

Coverage begins at the agreed start time and place and ends at the agreed finish time. Extra time on the day is billed at our extra-hour rate, and only with your go-ahead. For coverage of six hours or more, we ask for a short break and a meal for each photographer.

We work within the rules of your venue and officiant. We are not responsible for photographs missed because of venue or officiant restrictions, weather, lighting, timeline changes, late starts, guests in the way, or people who are not present at the agreed time.

We plan the day around your must-have list and make it our first priority. If a moment cannot happen on the day for reasons outside our control, such as someone not being present or the timeline changing, that is not a breach of the agreement.

The photographer you meet on your first call is the one we plan for your wedding. If they are ill, injured or facing an emergency, we send a trusted photographer with a close style, and editing is still done by HueWeddings. If no suitable photographer is available, we refund all payments you have made, and that is the extent of our responsibility.

Sneak peeks usually arrive within 72 hours. Your full gallery is delivered by the date set in your agreement, usually within 5 weeks. If something outside our control delays delivery, such as illness, equipment failure or an emergency, we will tell you promptly and agree a new date with you.

You have seen our work and chosen our style. We select and edit the photographs we deliver. We do not deliver unedited (raw) files or every frame taken. If a skin tone or colour looks wrong to you, tell us within 30 days of delivery and we will re-edit up to 15 photographs. Further editing is quoted separately.

HueWeddings owns the copyright in every photograph we create. Once your balance is paid in full, you receive a personal print release: a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to print your photographs, share them online and give them as gifts, for non-commercial use.

You may not sell or license the photographs, use them in advertising or for any commercial purpose, enter them in competitions, or alter them with filters or edits, without our written permission. Cropping to fit a social media format is fine. When you share online, please credit HueWeddings. Vendors may use credited images of their own work with our written permission.

By signing the agreement, you allow HueWeddings to use photographs from your wedding and sessions, together with your first names and your venue, in our portfolio, on our website and social media, in advertising, print materials and publications, in competitions, and for teaching.

If you would rather we did not, you can opt out fully or in part, for example no photographs of children or no names, by telling us in writing before your wedding. An opt-out made later applies to new uses from that point on. We never sell your photographs to others for their own advertising.

Your online gallery and private archive are kept for five years, or for life with the lifetime archive. Please download and back up your photographs. After the archive period ends, we may delete your files.

We use professional cameras that record to two memory cards at once and keep several backups. If, despite reasonable care, photographs are lost or damaged through equipment failure, theft, accident or data corruption, or if we cannot perform the agreement for any reason, our total responsibility is limited to a refund of the payments you have made, in proportion to what was not delivered. We are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, including the cost of restaging events.

If events beyond reasonable control prevent either of us from going ahead, such as severe weather, natural disasters, public health orders, venue closure, travel disruption, power or network failure, or civil unrest, we will first offer to move your booking to a new date. If that is not possible, we refund payments made beyond the retainer, less the value of any services already delivered.

Your signed agreement and these terms are the complete agreement between us. Any change must be made in writing and accepted by both of us. If any part is found to be unenforceable, the rest of the agreement still applies.

This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Michigan. We will always try to resolve any concern with you directly first, and we are open to mediation. Any dispute that cannot be resolved that way will be heard in the courts of Kalamazoo County, Michigan.