March 3, 2025 • 22 mins
What if you could safeguard your wedding business against unexpected challenges and legal pitfalls? Join us on this eye-opening episode of Wedding Empires as we welcome the formidable Leah Weinberg, a former wedding planner who has seamlessly transitioned back into law to become a pivotal force in the wedding industry.
Leah shares her unique journey, unveiling how she established Weinberg Legal amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to champion the needs of wedding and event professionals.
Her background provides her with a rare perspective, enabling her to dispel common legal misconceptions and underline the necessity of clear, comprehensive contracts. Leah's insights are not just about preventing legal headaches; they are about empowering vendors to manage expectations and secure fair compensation for their hard work.
Throughout the episode, we dive into the critical importance of force majeure clauses and the ramifications of unforeseen events on weddings. Leah enlightens listeners on essential strategies to handle contract rescheduling or cancellations proactively.
Our discussion also navigates the murky waters of legal blind spots, such as poor communication, which often lead to disputes. Leah stresses the significance of working with an attorney to build robust contracts and the risks of relying on generic templates.
Delving into the nuances of passing credit card fees to clients, she highlights the legal variances across states. Ultimately, Leah's message is clear: investing in professional legal advice is not just prudent; it's a strategic move to future-proof your business.
Connect With Leah
Website: weinberglegal.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leah-weinberg-50655a19
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to Wedding Empires.
It is now season four, episodetwo, and I have with me the
lovely Leah Weinberg.
How are you, leah?
Good?
How are you today?
I'm great.
I'm so excited to meet you,because it's not often you get
to spend time with a lawyer whoalso happens to have been a
(00:22):
wedding planner.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yes, I'm a rare unicorn in this world.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
A unicorn that I'm very happy to spend time with
because I have lots of questions, you know, just around sort of
the legal things that we allneed to know, and I guess how
things have changed since COVID.
It's certainly changed for meas a wedding planner, so we'll
get into it in a second, butjust by way of introduction.
(00:49):
So Leah is the founder ofChroma Law.
She is an attorney, arecovering wedding planner, as
we've discussed, and she's alsothe author of the Wedding
Rollercoaster.
We'll talk about that too.
After nearly a decade in thewedding industry as the owner of
Colourpop Events, which was aNew York City-based wedding
planning company, leah isreturning to her roots as an
(01:11):
attorney to assist her formercolleagues in the events
industry, along with otherentrepreneurs and business
owners.
A wedding pro educator with theKnot and WeddingWire.
You might have seen her around,because Leah travels throughout
the country and internationallysharing insights with her peers
at conferences andorganizations such as the
Wedding MBA and a special event.
(01:32):
So again, thank you for joiningme, leah.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, thank you.
Quick update for you.
So I had to change the name ofmy new law firm.
It's now Weinberg Legal insteadof Chroma Law.
So yes, it's a recentdevelopment, so surprise
surprise everybody, was it forlegal reasons?
Yeah, legal technicalityreasons, not because anybody
else had the name, but different, yeah, state requirements and
(01:57):
things like that.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Gotcha Okay, all right.
So let's talk about the journeyfrom wedding planner to
attorney.
What inspired you to return tolaw and specialize with wedding
and event professionals?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, well, you were talking about how COVID sort of
changed everything and that,honestly, is what accelerated my
exit from being a weddingplanner.
So it was 2020.
There were no weddingshappening in New York at the
time and a friend of mine hadher own firm and I asked if she
(02:31):
needed any help in terms ofdrafting contracts, sort of from
a paralegal perspective, and soI started drafting contracts
again for her, really enjoyed it, and then had a really bad
wedding in 2021 and decidedthat's it and so finished out my
weddings for 2022, but decidedto go back to practicing law.
(02:53):
But you've got this uniqueinsight?
Obviously, yeah.
I mean, I was a wedding plannerfor 10 years so I've seen every
contract imaginable, but also Iworked with every type of
vendor and so I know theirbusinesses, I know their pain
points, I know how things runand how it works.
So it gives me a really uniqueperspective when it comes to now
(03:15):
representing those weddingprofessionals and business
owners from a legal perspective.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Right, what do you think is the biggest sort of
legal misconceptions thatwedding vendors tend to have?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
One of the biggest things that I hear that I always
push back on is they're afraidthat if they have a long client
service agreement or if it'sdetailed and thorough and maybe
a little formal and legalese,they think it's gonna scare
clients away.
I have a very long windedreason to answer that, but in
(03:49):
short, I always tell people Iwas a wedding planner for 10
years.
I had probably the scariestcontract out there and not once
somebody said, hey, we wannawork with you and then I sent
them my contract.
Did they ever say no, yourcontract is too scary, I'm not
gonna sign it, I don't want towork with you anymore.
And also, so far, that hasn'thappened with any of my clients
in the last two years either.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
The only one I've got that had happened to me was
that they didn't want theirphotos used.
Yes, very common, that's acommon one, I think.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Very, very common.
Yeah, so people have comment.
Yeah, People will always comeback with comments and I always
say that it's not a red flag andit's not an immediate red flag
If people come back withcomments to your contract.
Sometimes it can be a red flag.
We all know those people thatjust send you a completely
redrafted contract.
But there are things here andthere that we'll see pretty
frequently that clients comeback with on contracts.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Okay, so let's talking about contracts.
What are, in your opinion, theabsolute must-have things to
have in your contract?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
as to what exactly it is that you do and you don't do
.
Number two from a legalcontract perspective, it makes
(05:07):
it clear what you're being paidfor and then if you do something
, or asked to do something outof scope, or agree to do
something out of scope, makesure that you're gonna be
compensated for that.
So that's a really big one.
And being able to just easilypoint back to your contract to
say it when you get a requestfrom a client, and then you can
say hey, just so you know that'snot included in my services,
(05:28):
but if you'd like to add it on,it's whatever the additional fee
is.
It just makes it a much easierconversation to have when you
can point back to your contract.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I agree and I think for us, with that point we
adjusted our Clearly.
I was a wedding planner before.
I had a business called darling,don't panic, and we we I love
that we suffered through throughcovet and redid all of our
contracts through covet and onething that came up, you know,
very quickly, was thisadditional work because we were
(05:57):
moving the event and we wererebooking people and we were
dealing on their behalf orwhatever.
That's a big one, you know, andand I think weddings can be so
broad in term, you know, likefull service wedding with one
client can be, you know, a lotmore hours than another full
(06:18):
service wedding client over here.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So really spelling that out, yeah, and a friend of
mine pointed out too, even ininitial conversations.
It can be helpful on thoseinitial inquiry or sales calls.
It can be helpful and I thinkthis mostly applies from the
planner context, because therange of services that planners
provide can be so broad is tosay to the client what do you
(06:42):
expect from your wedding planner, or what do you expect from
your photographer, your florist,your DJ?
Let them answer that questionso that if they have any kind of
unrealistic expectations,you're able to take care of that
from the very start, so kind ofunderstand what they're
thinking as well, just so thateverybody gets on the same page.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And I think that's it's important to to establish
that transparency with theclient early on.
You know I used to have in myfirst meeting that that you know
I would sort of make thiscommitment that if something
came up that was going to beover budget or over this, you
know that we, we have thistransparency where you know I
will come to you about it in thefirst instance and we can
(07:22):
discuss it.
So it, you know, it sort ofsets it up that that might, that
might happen, absolutely Okay.
So what are some of the lesserknown but, I guess, highly
valuable contract clauses thatare often overlooked?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I think the intellectual property one is
important and this comes up indifferent contexts depending on
the type of vendor.
With planners they're oftencreating timelines and floor
plans and sometimes, you know,maybe mood boards they're
providing vendor like preferredvendor lists, things like that.
So those things need to remainthe planner's property.
(07:59):
We don't want clients beingable to take those, give them to
their friend, like give asample timeline to a friend
that's getting married, thatkind of thing.
In the context of photographers,videographers, obviously the
ownership of the copyright ofthe photos is really important.
99.999 times that's going toremain the photographer, that
(08:21):
that right is going to remainwith the photographer.
The photographer andvideographer will always own
their images and they just givethe client the right to use them
in certain ways.
For florists, you want to makesure those design decks and
proposals and sketches and allof those things are protected.
That way they're not takingyour designs, giving them to
somebody else to perhaps executeat a lower cost.
(08:43):
So I think intellectualproperty is something that's
really important but not alwaysaddressed in a contract.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Okay, and cancellations and rescheduling
obviously hot topics,particularly since and during
COVID.
What's the best way for weddingpros to protect themselves but
also be fair to clients?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
yeah, the rescheduling.
Obviously the the reschedulingis best for everybody.
It's going to allow the vendorto keep the business, still
perform the work still get paidin full.
It's going to allow the clientto still have their event, to
really not lose any money, asyou pointed out.
I'm so happy you pointed thisout.
(09:25):
But in the context of arescheduling it's important that
your contract allows you tocharge more for the extra work
that's involved or if they'verescheduled and maybe your
prices have gone up in the timeperiod that they've rescheduled.
So we want to kind of try tomove everybody to a rescheduling
resolution because I thinkthat's best for everybody.
(09:47):
So when we're talking aboutreschedulings, ideally I want to
set an outside date so theycan't go.
You know, two, three years out.
Most people are saying you haveto reschedule within 12 months.
If you reschedule all of themoney gets moved, but again I'm
able to charge additional moneyfor the additional work involved
or if I've raised my prices.
(10:07):
And then people can decide.
You know, do they havedifferent policies If the
rescheduling happens due to anact of God type event or if it's
just a convenience factor.
The couple decides that theywant to reschedule.
You get to decide in yourcontract if you want to handle
those situations the same way.
When it comes to cancellations,I never want a vendor to be
(10:32):
refunding money, so ideally yourcontract says that whenever
they terminate, whatever hasbeen paid up to that point you
get to keep and then in certainsituations, if they are
canceling within a certainamount of time with it before
the wedding date, you should begetting paid in full.
You're a small business owner.
(10:52):
You have counted on this moneyFor some folks.
You've been booked for this fora year, 18 months in advance.
You've been turning down workfor this date.
No matter the reason for thecancellation, you should be able
to get paid at a certain point.
The asterisk to that is thatobviously there are very
personal, very human situationsthat happen.
(11:13):
If it's a death in the family,if maybe one of the people
getting married falls ill, youmight not feel comfortable
keeping money or asking to getpaid the balance in that
situation and that's absolutelyfine.
But just, we want your contractto protect you the most and
then give you that discretion tofigure out how you want to
handle a particular situation.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I found that really challenging with COVID as a
wedding planner because ofcourse there was so much work
sort of already done.
You know, yeah, and we we foundourselves trailing through
emails and sort of proving whatwork we did and we certainly
found better ways to protectourselves around that in in, you
know, crms and things like thatwe were able to really time,
(11:55):
track and and demonstrate, um,but yeah, certainly we changed
our contracts to sort of protectourselves from that Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
And the conversation I'm encouraging wedding
professionals to have with theirclients is around insurance.
So in the United States atleast, people getting married
can purchase event cancellationinsurance.
So if there is any kind of actof God, catastrophic event,
anything that keeps them fromgetting married and they have to
cancel, they can put in aninsurance claim and get their
(12:26):
money back.
Wedding professionals can't inthe US, can't similarly insure
like that, and so the client canreally protect themselves.
And that's another reason why Iadvocate for just making sure
your contract is favorable andprotective of you as the vendor.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Now talking about sort of force majeure.
Yes, yes, I know how to writeit.
So how do you think we shouldapproach that in a contract?
So you know, there's a flood,there's a tornado, there's, you
know, something like that goingon.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, I like to back up and kind of point out that
there are force majeure canimpact you in three.
Honestly, there's threedifferent situations that I
think your contract needs toaddress.
Force majeure, so the forcemajeure impact that it has on
the wedding itself.
It prevents the wedding fromhappening and that gets covered
by the rescheduling andcancellation provisions that
(13:21):
we've just talked about.
But you also have to thinkabout force majeure and how it
can impact somebody during thewedding planning process.
So let's say the couple has adeath in the family and they
just go radio silent and theyghost you for like two or three
weeks.
In the contracts that I draft,ghosting for a certain period of
time actually becomes an eventof default and allows the vendor
(13:43):
to terminate.
If they have a client, thatgets non-responsive.
But for force majeure, ifthey're not responsive because
there was a death in the familyor some kind of medical or
health condition, some kind ofaccident, then that's excused.
So we kind of think about howforce majeure impacts us as we
are planning the wedding.
And then the third context is aforce majeure event that just
(14:06):
impacts the vendor on thewedding day, so like if their
car breaks down and they can'tget to the wedding, or they wake
up and they don't show up andyou can't provide a substitute
(14:31):
and you leave them high and drywithout that vendor for the day.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I know it gives you.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I know, whenever I, whenever I'm going through,
whenever I'm talking throughthat provision with my clients,
I always preface it with.
I know that you're going tomove heaven and earth to find a
replacement there for the day,but just in the event that it
doesn't happen, we want to talkabout what that your, that your
liability is limited torefunding the money, and that's
(14:58):
it.
Because what we don't want isthem saying, well, no, now you
owe me two times the amountbecause you ruined my wedding
day because of x, y and z.
So we want to agree in advancewhat the consequences of that
very rare situation is.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Right, okay.
And what about paymentschedules?
Do you have advice around whatyou think they should look like?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I think it's a very personal decision.
It's really about how you Imean it depends on the vendor
category you are, how far outfrom a wedding you're typically
booking somebody also quantityhow many weddings you're doing.
For me as a planner, I alwaysdid 50% upon contract signing,
50% upon about two weeks beforethe wedding, and that just
(15:42):
worked in terms of my typicalbooking schedule and the volume
I was doing.
I know some folks maybe splitit up into three or four
payments.
Here and there I see people domonthly payments.
So it's really kind of up toyou in terms of what works best
for you from an accountingperspective.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Okay, what do you think is some of the most common
legal blind spots that lead todisputes between wedding pros
and clients?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Interesting.
Honestly, it's not a legalblind spot, it's a practical
blind spot and it is poorcommunication and poor
responsiveness to communications.
So that's where I see peoplegetting tripped up the most is
when they can't stay on top oftheir emails and they just
(16:33):
aren't getting back to clientsin a timely manner.
Emails slip through the cracks,maybe they are like they miss a
deadline or something like that.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I find that that just lack of communication and not
being timely in responses iswhat really makes clients the
most frustrated when it comes toworking with their vendors yeah
, okay, um, I was gonna say um,what is one legal mistake that
(17:03):
you see wedding pros making all,all the time that that you
think easily can be avoided?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
it has to do with.
Well, frankly, it's not workingwith an attorney on their
contracts.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Um yes, going online or getting chat, gbt to write it
.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
oh please, don't have chat gbt.
Write your contracts.
Oh yeah, that gives me the theheebie-jeebies.
Yeah, I have to acknowledge,not everybody's going to be able
to afford to have an attorneydo a custom contract for them.
Some folks, when they'restarting, may not even be able
to afford a template that youcan purchase.
(17:42):
But please try your hardest tobudget for that.
It is such a priority.
I mean you think about if youcan invest that at the beginning
or just as soon as possible.
Every single client that signsafter is going to be signing
that better version of yourcontract, and so from like that
point in time on, you are gonnabe so much more protected and
(18:06):
it's a really worthwhileinvestment.
But yeah, people cobble togetherthey borrow a colleague's
contract to start from Google,copy and paste from Google.
They take advice from peopleand Facebook groups who aren't
necessarily qualified to begiving that advice, and it runs
the risk of a few things likeyou can end up with provisions
(18:26):
that conflict in your contractand that leads to ambiguity,
lack of clarity, and so then wedon't really even know what to
do.
It can lead to things actuallynot being enforceable.
So one of the really hot topicsis do you?
From a practical perspective isdo you pass along your credit
card fees to your client or doyou just eat that, like bake
(18:47):
them into your price and kind ofeat it?
And so different states havedifferent in the United States,
different states have differentlaws as to number one whether
you're allowed to pass alongcredit card fees to your clients
.
And if you are, some placeshave a specific way that it has
to be worded, and so you mightget late.
(19:09):
You might copy and pastelanguage from somebody in a
group that says and if you payby credit card, you'll have a 3%
processing fee.
If you do that, for example, inNew York, that language is
actually illegal.
So you kind of you need to beworking with an attorney in your
state to know what is right foryour state and what's
enforceable in your state andwhat's not.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I definitely agree.
We got one done with a lawyer,like, I think, during COVID.
It was an expensive exercisebut it was future-proofed.
When I sold that business, youknow, I considered that one of
the assets.
It was an incredible set ofcontracts and whatnot, so
(19:51):
definitely worth doing Leah now.
If wedding pros want to workwith you, how do they do that?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yes, so my new law firm is going to be set up so
that we can serve weddingprofessionals in New York, new
Jersey, georgia, florida,illinois, texas and California.
And then if folks needintellectual help with
intellectual property matters soregistering a trademark,
registering copyrights that isnot limited by state.
(20:19):
We can work with anybodynationwide.
But if there are folks in thosestates who are listening and
they're like you know what Icould really use an update to my
client service agreement orhave other legal questions, they
are welcome to reach out to methrough my website or my email
address is justleahweinberglegalcom, so I'm
very easy to find.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Fantastic.
Oh, it's been lovely spendingthis time with you and thank you
for being so helpful with allyour.
You've obviously got a realfantastic niche going on there
and a lot of knowledge from ourperspective as well.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So, yeah, thank you so much for having me.
We'll have to get you back soon, yes, please.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
All right, Well enjoy .
Speaker 2 (20:57):
What time is it there ?
We're wrapping up the day.
It's about 4.30 in theafternoon.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Okay, all right.
Well, enjoy the rest of yourevening and we'll.
Welcome back to Wedding Empires.
It is now season four, episodetwo, and I have with me the
lovely Leah Weinberg.
How are you, leah?
Good?
How are you today?
I'm great.
I'm so excited to meet you,because it's not often you get
to spend time with a lawyer whoalso happens to have been a
(00:22):
wedding planner.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yes, I'm a rare unicorn in this world.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
A unicorn that I'm very happy to spend time with
because I have lots of questions, you know, just around sort of
the legal things that we allneed to know, and I guess how
things have changed since COVID.
It's certainly changed for meas a wedding planner, so we'll
get into it in a second, butjust by way of introduction.
(00:49):
So Leah is the founder ofChroma Law.
She is an attorney, arecovering wedding planner, as
we've discussed, and she's alsothe author of the Wedding
Rollercoaster.
We'll talk about that too.
After nearly a decade in thewedding industry as the owner of
Colourpop Events, which was aNew York City-based wedding
planning company, leah isreturning to her roots as an
(01:11):
attorney to assist her formercolleagues in the events
industry, along with otherentrepreneurs and business
owners.
A wedding pro educator with theKnot and WeddingWire.
You might have seen her around,because Leah travels throughout
the country and internationallysharing insights with her peers
at conferences andorganizations such as the
Wedding MBA and a special event.
(01:32):
So again, thank you for joiningme, leah.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, thank you.
Quick update for you.
So I had to change the name ofmy new law firm.
It's now Weinberg Legal insteadof Chroma Law.
So yes, it's a recentdevelopment, so surprise
surprise everybody, was it forlegal reasons?
Yeah, legal technicalityreasons, not because anybody
else had the name, but different, yeah, state requirements and
(01:57):
things like that.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Gotcha Okay, all right.
So let's talk about the journeyfrom wedding planner to
attorney.
What inspired you to return tolaw and specialize with wedding
and event professionals?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, well, you were talking about how COVID sort of
changed everything and that,honestly, is what accelerated my
exit from being a weddingplanner.
So it was 2020.
There were no weddingshappening in New York at the
time and a friend of mine hadher own firm and I asked if she
(02:31):
needed any help in terms ofdrafting contracts, sort of from
a paralegal perspective, and soI started drafting contracts
again for her, really enjoyed it, and then had a really bad
wedding in 2021 and decidedthat's it and so finished out my
weddings for 2022, but decidedto go back to practicing law.
(02:53):
But you've got this uniqueinsight?
Obviously, yeah.
I mean, I was a wedding plannerfor 10 years so I've seen every
contract imaginable, but also Iworked with every type of
vendor and so I know theirbusinesses, I know their pain
points, I know how things runand how it works.
So it gives me a really uniqueperspective when it comes to now
(03:15):
representing those weddingprofessionals and business
owners from a legal perspective.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Right, what do you think is the biggest sort of
legal misconceptions thatwedding vendors tend to have?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
One of the biggest things that I hear that I always
push back on is they're afraidthat if they have a long client
service agreement or if it'sdetailed and thorough and maybe
a little formal and legalese,they think it's gonna scare
clients away.
I have a very long windedreason to answer that, but in
(03:49):
short, I always tell people Iwas a wedding planner for 10
years.
I had probably the scariestcontract out there and not once
somebody said, hey, we wannawork with you and then I sent
them my contract.
Did they ever say no, yourcontract is too scary, I'm not
gonna sign it, I don't want towork with you anymore.
And also, so far, that hasn'thappened with any of my clients
in the last two years either.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
The only one I've got that had happened to me was
that they didn't want theirphotos used.
Yes, very common, that's acommon one, I think.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Very, very common.
Yeah, so people have comment.
Yeah, People will always comeback with comments and I always
say that it's not a red flag andit's not an immediate red flag
If people come back withcomments to your contract.
Sometimes it can be a red flag.
We all know those people thatjust send you a completely
redrafted contract.
But there are things here andthere that we'll see pretty
frequently that clients comeback with on contracts.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Okay, so let's talking about contracts.
What are, in your opinion, theabsolute must-have things to
have in your contract?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
as to what exactly it is that you do and you don't do
.
Number two from a legalcontract perspective, it makes
(05:07):
it clear what you're being paidfor and then if you do something
, or asked to do something outof scope, or agree to do
something out of scope, makesure that you're gonna be
compensated for that.
So that's a really big one.
And being able to just easilypoint back to your contract to
say it when you get a requestfrom a client, and then you can
say hey, just so you know that'snot included in my services,
(05:28):
but if you'd like to add it on,it's whatever the additional fee
is.
It just makes it a much easierconversation to have when you
can point back to your contract.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I agree and I think for us, with that point we
adjusted our Clearly.
I was a wedding planner before.
I had a business called darling,don't panic, and we we I love
that we suffered through throughcovet and redid all of our
contracts through covet and onething that came up, you know,
very quickly, was thisadditional work because we were
(05:57):
moving the event and we wererebooking people and we were
dealing on their behalf orwhatever.
That's a big one, you know, andand I think weddings can be so
broad in term, you know, likefull service wedding with one
client can be, you know, a lotmore hours than another full
(06:18):
service wedding client over here.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
So really spelling that out, yeah, and a friend of
mine pointed out too, even ininitial conversations.
It can be helpful on thoseinitial inquiry or sales calls.
It can be helpful and I thinkthis mostly applies from the
planner context, because therange of services that planners
provide can be so broad is tosay to the client what do you
(06:42):
expect from your wedding planner, or what do you expect from
your photographer, your florist,your DJ?
Let them answer that questionso that if they have any kind of
unrealistic expectations,you're able to take care of that
from the very start, so kind ofunderstand what they're
thinking as well, just so thateverybody gets on the same page.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And I think that's it's important to to establish
that transparency with theclient early on.
You know I used to have in myfirst meeting that that you know
I would sort of make thiscommitment that if something
came up that was going to beover budget or over this, you
know that we, we have thistransparency where you know I
will come to you about it in thefirst instance and we can
(07:22):
discuss it.
So it, you know, it sort ofsets it up that that might, that
might happen, absolutely Okay.
So what are some of the lesserknown but, I guess, highly
valuable contract clauses thatare often overlooked?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I think the intellectual property one is
important and this comes up indifferent contexts depending on
the type of vendor.
With planners they're oftencreating timelines and floor
plans and sometimes, you know,maybe mood boards they're
providing vendor like preferredvendor lists, things like that.
So those things need to remainthe planner's property.
(07:59):
We don't want clients beingable to take those, give them to
their friend, like give asample timeline to a friend
that's getting married, thatkind of thing.
In the context of photographers,videographers, obviously the
ownership of the copyright ofthe photos is really important.
99.999 times that's going toremain the photographer, that
(08:21):
that right is going to remainwith the photographer.
The photographer andvideographer will always own
their images and they just givethe client the right to use them
in certain ways.
For florists, you want to makesure those design decks and
proposals and sketches and allof those things are protected.
That way they're not takingyour designs, giving them to
somebody else to perhaps executeat a lower cost.
(08:43):
So I think intellectualproperty is something that's
really important but not alwaysaddressed in a contract.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Okay, and cancellations and rescheduling
obviously hot topics,particularly since and during
COVID.
What's the best way for weddingpros to protect themselves but
also be fair to clients?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
yeah, the rescheduling.
Obviously the the reschedulingis best for everybody.
It's going to allow the vendorto keep the business, still
perform the work still get paidin full.
It's going to allow the clientto still have their event, to
really not lose any money, asyou pointed out.
I'm so happy you pointed thisout.
(09:25):
But in the context of arescheduling it's important that
your contract allows you tocharge more for the extra work
that's involved or if they'verescheduled and maybe your
prices have gone up in the timeperiod that they've rescheduled.
So we want to kind of try tomove everybody to a rescheduling
resolution because I thinkthat's best for everybody.
(09:47):
So when we're talking aboutreschedulings, ideally I want to
set an outside date so theycan't go.
You know, two, three years out.
Most people are saying you haveto reschedule within 12 months.
If you reschedule all of themoney gets moved, but again I'm
able to charge additional moneyfor the additional work involved
or if I've raised my prices.
(10:07):
And then people can decide.
You know, do they havedifferent policies If the
rescheduling happens due to anact of God type event or if it's
just a convenience factor.
The couple decides that theywant to reschedule.
You get to decide in yourcontract if you want to handle
those situations the same way.
When it comes to cancellations,I never want a vendor to be
(10:32):
refunding money, so ideally yourcontract says that whenever
they terminate, whatever hasbeen paid up to that point you
get to keep and then in certainsituations, if they are
canceling within a certainamount of time with it before
the wedding date, you should begetting paid in full.
You're a small business owner.
(10:52):
You have counted on this moneyFor some folks.
You've been booked for this fora year, 18 months in advance.
You've been turning down workfor this date.
No matter the reason for thecancellation, you should be able
to get paid at a certain point.
The asterisk to that is thatobviously there are very
personal, very human situationsthat happen.
(11:13):
If it's a death in the family,if maybe one of the people
getting married falls ill, youmight not feel comfortable
keeping money or asking to getpaid the balance in that
situation and that's absolutelyfine.
But just, we want your contractto protect you the most and
then give you that discretion tofigure out how you want to
handle a particular situation.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I found that really challenging with COVID as a
wedding planner because ofcourse there was so much work
sort of already done.
You know, yeah, and we we foundourselves trailing through
emails and sort of proving whatwork we did and we certainly
found better ways to protectourselves around that in in, you
know, crms and things like thatwe were able to really time,
(11:55):
track and and demonstrate, um,but yeah, certainly we changed
our contracts to sort of protectourselves from that Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
And the conversation I'm encouraging wedding
professionals to have with theirclients is around insurance.
So in the United States atleast, people getting married
can purchase event cancellationinsurance.
So if there is any kind of actof God, catastrophic event,
anything that keeps them fromgetting married and they have to
cancel, they can put in aninsurance claim and get their
(12:26):
money back.
Wedding professionals can't inthe US, can't similarly insure
like that, and so the client canreally protect themselves.
And that's another reason why Iadvocate for just making sure
your contract is favorable andprotective of you as the vendor.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Now talking about sort of force majeure.
Yes, yes, I know how to writeit.
So how do you think we shouldapproach that in a contract?
So you know, there's a flood,there's a tornado, there's, you
know, something like that goingon.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, I like to back up and kind of point out that
there are force majeure canimpact you in three.
Honestly, there's threedifferent situations that I
think your contract needs toaddress.
Force majeure, so the forcemajeure impact that it has on
the wedding itself.
It prevents the wedding fromhappening and that gets covered
by the rescheduling andcancellation provisions that
(13:21):
we've just talked about.
But you also have to thinkabout force majeure and how it
can impact somebody during thewedding planning process.
So let's say the couple has adeath in the family and they
just go radio silent and theyghost you for like two or three
weeks.
In the contracts that I draft,ghosting for a certain period of
time actually becomes an eventof default and allows the vendor
(13:43):
to terminate.
If they have a client, thatgets non-responsive.
But for force majeure, ifthey're not responsive because
there was a death in the familyor some kind of medical or
health condition, some kind ofaccident, then that's excused.
So we kind of think about howforce majeure impacts us as we
are planning the wedding.
And then the third context is aforce majeure event that just
(14:06):
impacts the vendor on thewedding day, so like if their
car breaks down and they can'tget to the wedding, or they wake
up and they don't show up andyou can't provide a substitute
(14:31):
and you leave them high and drywithout that vendor for the day.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I know it gives you.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I know, whenever I, whenever I'm going through,
whenever I'm talking throughthat provision with my clients,
I always preface it with.
I know that you're going tomove heaven and earth to find a
replacement there for the day,but just in the event that it
doesn't happen, we want to talkabout what that your, that your
liability is limited torefunding the money, and that's
(14:58):
it.
Because what we don't want isthem saying, well, no, now you
owe me two times the amountbecause you ruined my wedding
day because of x, y and z.
So we want to agree in advancewhat the consequences of that
very rare situation is.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Right, okay.
And what about paymentschedules?
Do you have advice around whatyou think they should look like?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I think it's a very personal decision.
It's really about how you Imean it depends on the vendor
category you are, how far outfrom a wedding you're typically
booking somebody also quantityhow many weddings you're doing.
For me as a planner, I alwaysdid 50% upon contract signing,
50% upon about two weeks beforethe wedding, and that just
(15:42):
worked in terms of my typicalbooking schedule and the volume
I was doing.
I know some folks maybe splitit up into three or four
payments.
Here and there I see people domonthly payments.
So it's really kind of up toyou in terms of what works best
for you from an accountingperspective.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Okay, what do you think is some of the most common
legal blind spots that lead todisputes between wedding pros
and clients?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Interesting.
Honestly, it's not a legalblind spot, it's a practical
blind spot and it is poorcommunication and poor
responsiveness to communications.
So that's where I see peoplegetting tripped up the most is
when they can't stay on top oftheir emails and they just
(16:33):
aren't getting back to clientsin a timely manner.
Emails slip through the cracks,maybe they are like they miss a
deadline or something like that.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I find that that just lack of communication and not
being timely in responses iswhat really makes clients the
most frustrated when it comes toworking with their vendors yeah
, okay, um, I was gonna say um,what is one legal mistake that
(17:03):
you see wedding pros making all,all the time that that you
think easily can be avoided?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
it has to do with.
Well, frankly, it's not workingwith an attorney on their
contracts.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Um yes, going online or getting chat, gbt to write it
.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
oh please, don't have chat gbt.
Write your contracts.
Oh yeah, that gives me the theheebie-jeebies.
Yeah, I have to acknowledge,not everybody's going to be able
to afford to have an attorneydo a custom contract for them.
Some folks, when they'restarting, may not even be able
to afford a template that youcan purchase.
(17:42):
But please try your hardest tobudget for that.
It is such a priority.
I mean you think about if youcan invest that at the beginning
or just as soon as possible.
Every single client that signsafter is going to be signing
that better version of yourcontract, and so from like that
point in time on, you are gonnabe so much more protected and
(18:06):
it's a really worthwhileinvestment.
But yeah, people cobble togetherthey borrow a colleague's
contract to start from Google,copy and paste from Google.
They take advice from peopleand Facebook groups who aren't
necessarily qualified to begiving that advice, and it runs
the risk of a few things likeyou can end up with provisions
(18:26):
that conflict in your contractand that leads to ambiguity,
lack of clarity, and so then wedon't really even know what to
do.
It can lead to things actuallynot being enforceable.
So one of the really hot topicsis do you?
From a practical perspective isdo you pass along your credit
card fees to your client or doyou just eat that, like bake
(18:47):
them into your price and kind ofeat it?
And so different states havedifferent in the United States,
different states have differentlaws as to number one whether
you're allowed to pass alongcredit card fees to your clients
.
And if you are, some placeshave a specific way that it has
to be worded, and so you mightget late.
(19:09):
You might copy and pastelanguage from somebody in a
group that says and if you payby credit card, you'll have a 3%
processing fee.
If you do that, for example, inNew York, that language is
actually illegal.
So you kind of you need to beworking with an attorney in your
state to know what is right foryour state and what's
enforceable in your state andwhat's not.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I definitely agree.
We got one done with a lawyer,like, I think, during COVID.
It was an expensive exercisebut it was future-proofed.
When I sold that business, youknow, I considered that one of
the assets.
It was an incredible set ofcontracts and whatnot, so
(19:51):
definitely worth doing Leah now.
If wedding pros want to workwith you, how do they do that?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yes, so my new law firm is going to be set up so
that we can serve weddingprofessionals in New York, new
Jersey, georgia, florida,illinois, texas and California.
And then if folks needintellectual help with
intellectual property matters soregistering a trademark,
registering copyrights that isnot limited by state.
(20:19):
We can work with anybodynationwide.
But if there are folks in thosestates who are listening and
they're like you know what Icould really use an update to my
client service agreement orhave other legal questions, they
are welcome to reach out to methrough my website or my email
address is justleahweinberglegalcom, so I'm
very easy to find.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Fantastic.
Oh, it's been lovely spendingthis time with you and thank you
for being so helpful with allyour.
You've obviously got a realfantastic niche going on there
and a lot of knowledge from ourperspective as well.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So, yeah, thank you so much for having me.
We'll have to get you back soon, yes, please.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
All right, Well enjoy .
Speaker 2 (20:57):
What time is it there ?
We're wrapping up the day.
It's about 4.30 in theafternoon.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Okay, all right.
Well, enjoy the rest of yourevening and we'll.
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