{"id":1208,"date":"2015-08-01T20:10:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T20:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2015-07-15T20:16:14","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T20:16:14","slug":"non-refundable-deposits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/non-refundable-deposits\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-refundable deposits"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you enter into a contract with your entertainment provider<\/a>, whether it\u2019s a wedding band, a magician or a DJ, you normally will be expected to provide some kind of non-refundable deposit along with your signature to secure the date. The amount may vary, but a 50% deposit is fairly common.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a bride, or just planning a party and this is first time you\u2019ve ever bought entertainment services, this can be a scary thing. What if the event gets cancelled? What if someone dies the week before? What if it rains on our outdoor beach birthday party? Do I get my deposit back?<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course the answer will depend on the wording of the deposit clause in the contract, but most likely if the event is cancelled because of unforeseen circumstances; you will likely be out your deposit. But let\u2019s dig deeper.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easier for people to understand why a caterer or even a venue would request a deposit. They have to buy food or they are reserving the space exclusively for you and must turn down other business. But a musician isn\u2019t purchasing any perishables, right? Well, not exactly. The busy nights for any event entertainer are Saturdays, followed closely by Fridays. There are only 52 Saturdays in a year and each one represents an opportunity cost. If for example a family tragedy occurs 2 days before your graduation party, the band still needs to be compensated for that\u00a0Saturday\u00a0night that they committed to your party. It is entirely possible that they have turned down other clients to commit to your party. While it\u2019s very sad that a member of family decided to pass two days before your big event, this is not the fault of your hired act.<\/span><\/p>\n

What can you do if the unforeseen happens? The first thing is to have a conversation with your hired entertainment<\/a>. While they may be under no obligation to reschedule, many will try to work with you and apply part or all of your deposit to another date. The flexibility they have will depend on how in demand they are, how full their calendar is and on what day of the week you want your new date. You certainly can\u2019t expect them to bump another client because you need to reschedule. And nor can you expect them to give you another\u00a0Saturday\u00a0night on the busiest part of wedding season. But maybe they\u2019re willing to apply all (or some) of your deposit to a Tuesday night, or an off-season\u00a0Friday\u00a0night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a conversation you can have with your entertainer BEFORE signing the contract. Ask the \u201cwhat if\u201d scenarios. Just understand that if this conversation drags out too long, your vendor may start to question your commitment to the date.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another option is to take out Event Cancellation Insurance for your date.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is typically covered by event cancellation insurance?
\n<\/span>Fire, earthquakes, flooding, blizzards, hurricanes, terrorism, headline entertainers or speaker cancellation, outbreak of disease.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Event cancellation insurance probably won\u2019t cover things like lack of ticket sales, or the time spent planning the event.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you enter into a contract with your entertainment provider, whether it\u2019s a wedding band, a magician or a DJ, you normally will be expected to provide some kind of non-refundable deposit along with your signature to secure the date. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[543,546,39,336,1],"tags":[32,16,57,288],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1209,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/1209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redmasque.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}