When to collect balance of fee?

Hi,

I am working on my business model and have made an assumption that for an event like a wedding you would collect the balance of the fee the day of the wedding prior to starting the shoot? Is this standard practice or do most members recommend something else? Thanks in advance.

Fred

Wedding days are busy, what if they forget? Personally I have a retainer payable on booking, a large chunk of the fee payable 1 month before the wedding, and a small amount payable after the wedding. I have some payable later for a couple of reasons, one of them is to give people even more confidence that i'm not going to take their money and run. I think most photographers have the balance payable at least two weeks before the wedding.

Tim - good info and by the way - thanks for the time you take to share here. Those of us just getting started sure appreciate your insight.

Regards,
Fred

50% at the signing of the retainer. the rest two weeks before the wedding date or i don't show up. JK JK.

fredlef wrote in post #5459068
Tim - good info and by the way - thanks for the time you take to share here. Those of us just getting started sure appreciate your insight.

Happy to help. Pay it forward

Retainer up front, Balance, prior to delivering proofs or finals......
JB

Thanks again to the people that responded. Good info and a few different approaches.

Fred