Every event runs on other people's promises. The venue holds the date. The caterer turns up with the food. The band arrives on time. The furniture hire company collects on the Monday. Most of the time it works. When it doesn't, the contract you signed months earlier decides who carries the cost. And for a lot of event planners, particularly early on, that contract was skimmed on a phone screen and signed because the date was slipping away. Here's what to slow down and read properly.
What exactly you're getting
The most common source of event day arguments is not bad suppliers. It's two people holding different pictures of the same booking. Make sure the contract states, in plain terms:
- Exactly what's included, with quantities and timings
- What is not included, particularly things people assume, like setup, breakdown, staff meals, or parking
- How many staff will attend, and for how long
- Arrival time, setup time, and collection or departure time If a supplier has quoted you on a call or in an email, check that everything you discussed made it into the written version. Anything that only exists in a WhatsApp message will be very hard to rely on later.
The payment schedule and what the deposit really is
Look for three things: how much is due, when it's due, and whether the deposit is refundable. Many event suppliers work on a non-refundable deposit, often twenty five to fifty per cent, with the balance due somewhere between two and six weeks before the date. That's normal. What matters is that you know it, and that your own client contract lines up with it. This is the part that catches planners out. If your caterer's balance is due four weeks before the event but your client pays you two weeks before, you're funding the gap from your own pocket. Check that your money comes in before it goes out.
Cancellation, on both sides
Read the cancellation table carefully. Most suppliers work on a sliding scale, where cancelling six months out costs you the deposit and cancelling two weeks out costs you the lot. Then look for the part people forget: what happens if the supplier cancels. A fair contract says something about substitution, a refund, or reasonable efforts to find a replacement. A contract that's silent on this is telling you something.
Postponement is not the same as cancellation
Since 2020, most event suppliers have separate terms for moving a date rather than scrapping it. Check whether postponement is allowed, how much notice is needed, whether fees apply, and whether it's limited to certain dates or a set window. This matters more than it seems. Weather, illness and venue problems move far more events than cancel them.
Liability, insurance and what happens when something breaks
Three questions to answer before you sign:
- Does the supplier hold public liability insurance, and for how much? Most venues require at least £5 million from anyone working on site.
- What are they liable for if something goes wrong, and what have they excluded?
- Who pays for damage, and how is it assessed? Look for a liability cap, which is usually a line saying their liability is limited to the value of the contract. That's common and often reasonable, but you need to know it's there, because it means a £900 hire company will not be covering a £15,000 event failure.
Force majeure, in real terms
This is the clause covering events outside anyone's control. It sounds dry until you need it. Check what it actually covers, whether it includes things like supplier staff illness or transport strikes, and what happens to money already paid. Some contracts allow a full refund, some hold the deposit, some offer a credit note. None of these is wrong, but they are very different outcomes.
Who owns the photographs
For photographers and videographers, check the licence. Specifically: what you can use the images for, for how long, whether you can use them commercially, whether they can use them in their own marketing, and whether your client has any say in that. If you're an event planner using images in your portfolio, make sure the contract permits it. Many assume they can, and the licence says otherwise.
Practical things worth confirming in writing
- A named contact and a mobile number for the event day itself
- Access and setup times agreed with the venue, not just with you
- Whether the supplier has visited the venue or needs a site visit
- What power, water or space they need, and who provides it
- How changes to the booking are agreed, and by when
The habit that saves the most trouble
Read the contract the same week you receive it, not the week of the event. Ask your questions while there's still time to negotiate, because once the deposit is paid your position is much weaker. And keep your own paperwork matching. Your client contract should reflect what your suppliers have committed to, so you're never promising something upstream that nobody downstream has agreed to deliver. Working from a consistent set of documents, rather than piecing each one together from scratch, is what turns event planning from firefighting into something that runs.