When to pay vendors?

I personally wouldn't want worry about having to shell out final payments the day of. For my florist my contract says my final payment is due September 30th (one month before my wedding) My final payment for my venue is 2 weeks before wedding as well, my photographer contract says "no later than the day of the shoot"

I would pay vendors before your wedding so you don't have to worry about it.

You are not going to want to worry about paying vendors on the day of, trust me! One or two weeks ahead of time is reasonable and takes one less thing off your list to worry about that day. I wouldn’t pay anyone yet who you don’t have a signed contract in place with though.

Personally I will be paying in full at least 2 weeks before my wedding so I don't have to think about it on the day. Avoid paying in full too early, because if they go out of business or fail to meet expectations, you won't get that money back.

They'll usually give you a due date. We paid 1/2 down on our venue package and they require the other half to be paid a month before the wedding. Our cigar roller requires the other half of payment the day of. I'd want everything paid at least a week before the wedding just so I wouldn't have the stress of trying to remember what I still owe the week of and just be able to focus on our day.

It seems kind of odd to me* that most of your vendors didn't ask for their final payments before the day of the wedding, but people generally don't mind being paid early. For any vendor you've signed a contract with, if you can pay them now/soon, it will be one less thing to worry about the day of.


*For our 7/24 reception, the final payments are due 7/10 for the venue, 6/24 for the photographer 6/24, and 6/26 for the florist.

Like most people have mentioned, vendors will typically require final payment from a month out to a week before wedding date and in some cases the day of. I am paying 50% of the remaining balances now (I’m 3 months out) and the rest on their respective due dates. I don’t want to pay in full too early and also not have to worry about paying a large sum 30 days out.

I try not to pay for services before they have actually occurred, if I can help it. Would hate to pay for someone only to have them not show or deliver day of

All of my vendors so far have given me final due dates. We paid most of our florist, photographer, videographer and photo booth just because we're trying to not make $30,000 of payments in one month prior to the wedding, so we're paying as much as we can as early as we can. Any balances we'll pay on the respective due dates. The one that actually stresses me the most, is that our venue (after having to pay back a bunch of covid cancellations - not reschedules, full cancels) only allows the deposit until the final payment day. So we're having to make sure we always keep that final amount in our savings. I'd much rather be able to make payments on it.

If we end up having to make any payments day of, my dad volunteered to handle making sure that all of those payments get to the respective vendors, as well as any tips. We're just going to have envelopes for him with the name, so it'll be easy and we won't have to worry about keeping track and making sure they're paid that day.