What vendor management should cover in the contract

A vendor management contract is your protection, not a formality—it's the document that keeps your planner accountable and your vendors aligned with your vision. Without one, disputes about who's responsible for what cascade through your wedding day.

When you hire someone to manage your vendors, you need the contract to spell out exactly what they'll do, how they'll do it, and what happens if things go wrong. Too many couples sign a vague agreement and discover mid-planning that their planner's "vendor management" meant something completely different than what they thought.

Scope of work and communication

Your contract must define what the planner actually does with your vendors. Does it cover finding vendors, or only coordinating ones you've already chosen? Will they get written quotes from at least three options per category, or are they sourcing from a pre-approved list? Will they brief vendors on your must-haves—timeline, layout, dietary requirements, music restrictions—or just pass along your original request?

Crucial: specify how often the planner communicates with each vendor leading up to the wedding. Monthly check-ins catch problems early. Radio silence for six months until two weeks before the event does not. Also nail down who the main contact is. If your planner hands vendor communication to a junior assistant halfway through planning, you need to know that upfront, and ideally you want approval rights.

The contract should say what happens when vendors need to adjust plans. Can your planner make decisions on the spot, or must they loop you in? For example, if the florist flags that your first choice of blooms won't be in season and suggests an alternative, does the planner decide yes or no, or does she present options and wait for your call? This sounds small until you're two weeks out and can't reach your planner to approve a vendor change.

Problem-solving and accountability

Set expectations for what the planner does if a vendor drops out, misses a deadline, or delivers something that's not what was promised. Will they find a replacement immediately and negotiate the cost? Do they attend your wedding to manage vendors on the day, or is their job done once contracts are signed? If they're on-site, what's their specific role—are they the only person vendors check in with, or do you have a day-of coordinator who takes over?

The contract should also cover what happens if a vendor fails to deliver. If catering is cold when it arrives, does the planner chase a refund, or is that on you? If the photographer cancels two days before, does the planner have a backup agreement already in place, or does she help you find one frantically? You want to know whether the planner has contingency agreements with backup vendors built into her relationships.

Include a clause about disputes between vendors. Coordination problems—the florist and venue coordinator can't agree on setup timing—happen. Your contract needs to say the planner will mediate and find a solution, not leave you in the middle arguing with both.

Cancellation and boundary-setting

Clarify what happens if you want to change, cancel, or add a vendor mid-planning. Is there a fee? Can you do this without your planner's consent, or does she have to approve it? If you've hired the planner specifically to vet vendors, you don't want to swap in someone untested without at least a conversation. But you also don't want a contract that locks you in inflexibly.

Set a clear deadline for when vendor decisions must be finalised. Most planners need a specific date beyond which changes cost extra or aren't possible. This protects you from making panicked last-minute swaps and protects the planner from endless revisions.

When you're hiring someone to manage vendors on your behalf, the contract transforms from a nice-to-have into essential scaffolding. It replaces assumptions with clarity. Before you sign, read it carefully, ask questions about anything vague, and make sure it covers who talks to whom, what happens when things break, and how disputes get resolved. On Strove, verified planners who handle vendor management should be comfortable walking you through their contract and explaining exactly how they protect your interests.