Each one of you has been in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. We hope we get to see each other again sooner rather than later. Stay safe.
As I’m sure everyone in Indiana has seen by now, we are under a shelter-in-place order which only allows essential businesses to operate. Due to this policy that was implemented near the end of March, we have not been holding any sessions or photographing any weddings. We cannot legally do so until the shelter-in-place order has been lifted. We wish more than anything that we could capture all of these special moments and make lifelong memories with our clients but we would face a hefty fine for continuing while this order is in place. As soon as the shelter-in-place has been lifted, we will be rescheduling all sessions we had to postpone so that all milestones can be captured in a timely manner. In regards to weddings, we are hoping that this order does not get extended, but if it does, any couple whose date falls within that timeframe will unfortunately be required to reschedule to another time. All vendors that have been hired for a wedding are restricted by the penalties, even wedding officiants. There are even counties who are not issuing marriage certificates at this time. This has been an ongoing conversation in our local, national and international wedding communities so believe me when I say it has been at the forefront of our minds daily.
We are actively trying to get backup dates marked down for all of our April and May couples. So far, we have all but a couple backup/new dates solidified! If you are one of those couples and have not had the chance to chat about date options with us, please contact us as soon as possible so we can share our 2020 openings with you. If your venue has given you a list of their openings for the remainder of the year, please share that with us so we can see if there are any we match up on. As of now, majority of our 2020 openings are in August, November and December. This is one of the reasons why we intentionally only accept up to twenty weddings per year, so that we have more wiggle room for our clients in case of emergencies.
We will be waiving rescheduling fees for our couples if rebooking to a new 2020 date that we are available for. If a couple chooses not to work with us on finding a new date and we end up being unavailable on the new date, they will be responsible for the fee for one associate photographer to capture their wedding on behalf of our company while I continue with correspondences, editing the images and delivering the galleries. We truly want to be the ones to personally capture your big day so PLEASE do not leave us out of the loop when selecting your new date or backup date. To help with date selection, we are also opening additional Fridays, Sundays and dates we had blocked for personal time. If you decide to call off your wedding all together or reschedule to a new date we are not available for and would like to book with a new company, all payments made are non-refundable and any past due balance is still required to be paid. Again, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you work with us on finding a new/backup date. We have been doing our best to be as accommodating as possible by opening dates we otherwise would turn away. We want you to be happy and experience as little stress through this as possible.
When booking a new date within 2020, the final payment for the original package will be due as the retainer fee for holding the new date. To help our couples, the payment will still be due no later than the original due date we had set in case the funds are not available to you upon the signing of a new wedding contract.
When booking a new date in 2021 and beyond, we will require a new contract be submitted along with a new package. Just as we had before, we will require 50% of our current package pricing to reserve the new wedding date while the remaining 50% would not be due until one month prior to the new wedding date. To help our couples, we will honor the total you booked your package at originally so you will not need to worry about investing in our current rates.
I hope this helps clarify any questions you may have during this difficult time. If you have additional questions or need to work with us on finding a new date, please reach out to us!
