What should a UK event planner contract include?

A UK event-planner contract should name the parties, the event, the date and venue, the guest number you priced, the fee and how deposits or retainers work, cancellation and postponement, whether you book suppliers as agent or in your own name, and a liability cap. Sign it before the date is held.

This page is England and Wales first. Off-payroll working (IR35) is a UK tax rule and only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Typical corporate bookings are business-to-business. A company brief does not get the consumer 14-day cooling-off. A wedding couple buying wholly or mainly outside their trade is usually a consumer, so cancellation terms must be fair. A named date does not, by itself, make the booking a leisure-related service under regulation 28(1)(h). The exception applies to accommodation, catering or services related to leisure activities if the contract specifies the performance date or period. The regulation does not classify event planning as leisure. Fairness of cancellation terms is a separate Consumer Rights Act 2015 question.

This page is freelance event planning: corporate days, conferences and product launches, weddings and private parties, and on-the-day event management. It is not an employment paper for an in-house events manager. It is not a venue-hire paper on its own. It is not photography, videography, a DJ or a band as a standalone trade. Those sit next to this booking, not inside it.

Contracts.io has no event-planner template. Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Those papers already have fee, cancellation and liability slots. Repeat bookings can hang a statement of work under standing terms, or sit on a retainer. Supplier and venue papers sit on a subcontractor agreement. Company-to-company contractor work can start from an independent contractor agreement or a consulting agreement. If you are sharing an unreleased guest list or a private brief before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it. Contracts for event planners is the shorter audience page. Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK? is the wedding-fee sibling. Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit? is the general deposit page. What should a UK consultant contract include? is the professional-services sibling.

Twelve blocks finish this paper:

The counts, hours and splits are examples of how to write the list, not a required rate. Write the numbers you actually use.

Sign before the date is held. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.

Name the event, the date, the venue, the guest number you priced, and what you actually do — planning, on-the-day management, or both. “A wedding” is not a list. Extra guests, a second location and extra suppliers are a change of scope, quoted first.

You do the named services. Catering, floristry, photography, a DJ and a band are named items or they are out. Write what is being done, not a trade title.

Write nine things:

• Event. Date, place, indoor or outdoor, start and finish. A rain plan for an outdoor drinks reception is a named item, not a guess.
• Guest numbers. The cap you priced. Extra heads are quoted before they are confirmed.
• Services. Planning only, on-the-day coordination, or both. Named finish. A Pinterest board is input; it is not the list.
• Suppliers. Which ones you book, and whether you book them as agent or in your own name. See the agent section.
• Time on site. Call, wrap, and whether a rehearsal is in. Overtime after wrap is a named rate or it is out.
• What is out of scope. Extra guests, a second location, overnight, catering when only planning was booked, a livestream, a last-minute seating rewrite.
• Dependencies. Access, a named contact, the venue confirming, guest numbers arriving on time. The job slips if those do not arrive.
• Changes. Extra guests and extra hours sit on change control. If the paper says variationaddendumAn addendum is a short, written change to an existing contract, signed by both sides so the original terms stay the same except for what the addendum updates.More in the glossary must be in writing and signed, an oral change is not effective. That is Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd [2018] UKSC 24.
• What “done” looks like. A run-sheet, a confirmed supplier list, on-the-day management until the named hour. Not “a great day”.

An in-house events manager sits on an employment paper, not this one. A venue-hire contract is a hire of space. It is not this freelance booking, even when you help the client choose the room.

A revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary is the wrong tool for a live event. A change adds extra guests, a second location, or a later wrap you never priced. Mixing the two is how a “quick extra table” becomes a new product at no fee. See Client keeps adding extra work and change control.

Example

The Event Planner will perform the Services specified in Schedule 1, for the event, venue, date and guest number set out there. Catering, floristry, photography, a DJ, a band, extra guests, a second location, overnight and work not described in Schedule 1 are out of scope and are quoted in writing before they start. Access, a named on-the-day contact and the venue confirmation the Client must supply are dependencies; the Event Planner is not obliged to start if those are missing. A change to the guest number or the Services is not effective unless it is in writing and signed.

In Plain English: they get the named event for the named guest cap. A new shape of day is priced first. No venue confirmation, no start. A WhatsApp “just twenty more” does not rewrite the fee.

A freelancer agreement or a services agreement is the usual paper. Repeat commercial clients often sit under a services agreement plus a statement of work per booking.

Write the fee, whether it is a set fee, an hourly rate or a package, whether VAT is extra, when invoices go out, and what unused booked dates cost. A deposit, a retainer and an advance payment are different tools. Write which one it is. There is no default UK right to keep a deposit.

The three words, in Plain English:

Calling a sum “non-refundable” does not, by itself, make an out-of-proportion charge stick. Both sides have to agree what is kept. A cancellation charge should be a genuine, proportionate amount. For a consumer the term must be fair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. For a business client the charge must not be a penalty: a charge for breaking the contract can’t be out of all proportion to your real interest in the booking going ahead. That is Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67. See Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit? and Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK?.

Payment terms should name:

• the fee and the basis — a set fee, an hourly rate, a day rate, or a named package;
• whether VAT is extra;
• travel, parking and overnight lodging — in or extra;
• when invoices go out — on signature, in named stages, or before the date;
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30;
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, including a right not to attend;
• supplier invoices: pass-through at cost, or marked up, and when those are due.

Write the numbers you actually use. Payment milestones and deposits is the clause page for staged sums.

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, statutory interest can apply under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 unless your contract sets its own substantial remedy. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Look up the current base rate when you calculate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest. The 1998 Act does not apply to a consumer.

Example

The fee is the figure in Schedule 1. VAT is charged in addition where the Event Planner is VAT-registered. A deposit of the sum in Schedule 1 is due on signature and reserves the dates. That sum is credited against the fee if the event goes ahead. The balance is due in the stages in Schedule 1. The Event Planner is not obliged to attend while any undisputed invoice is overdue. Statutory interest and compensation on late commercial payment apply where the 1998 Act applies.

In Plain English: they pay to reserve the diary. The rest is due in the named stages. After an overdue invoice, you do not attend unpaid. A business client can owe the statutory interest and the fixed recovery sum.

The chase sequence is Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Write the notice both sides use to cancel a booked date, what unused dates cost, and the kill feekill feeA kill fee is a payment due to a creator or supplier when a client cancels a project before it is finished.More in the glossary if they stop a started job. Write postponement as its own line: whether the date moves, whether the deposit holds the new date, and what is kept for work already done. There is no default UK right to keep a deposit; both sides have to agree the sums. A cancellation charge should be a genuine, proportionate amount.

A common freelance shape — not a statutory rule — is:

• a deposit to reserve named dates;
• short-notice cancellation of reserved dates charged in full or in part;
• a kill fee if they stop after planning or on-the-day work has started, covering work done plus a named unused-date charge;
• postponement is not a free rewrite of the diary;
• planner cancellation: write the notice you give, and how a substitute planner or a moved date works.

Typical corporate bookings are B2B. For a consumer, cancellation terms must be fair. A 14-day cooling-off can apply to a distance or off-premises service contract (booked online, by phone or message, or agreed away from your business premises such as at the client’s home) unless a regulation 28 exception applies. Regulation 28(1)(h) excepts accommodation, catering or services related to leisure activities if the contract specifies the performance date or period. The regulation does not say whether event planning is a leisure-related service, so do not assume a named wedding date removes the right.

Client cancels: unused booked dates are charged if you wrote that. Starting work and then stopping still costs them the work done and the named kill fee.

Venue or supplier fails: that is the next section, not this one. Do not treat a supplier no-show as the client cancelling.

Events outside anyone’s control sit on the force majeure line, not on the kill-fee line. See the force majeure versus frustration section.

For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. A charge for breaking the contract can’t be out of all proportion to your real interest in the booking going ahead. That is Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67. Liquidated damagesliquidated damagesLiquidated damages are a sum the contract sets in advance as the payment if a named breach happens, such as late delivery. In England and Wales they are enforceable where they protect a legitimate interest in performance and are not out of all proportion to that interest, following Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67.More in the glossary are an agreed genuine pre-estimate, not a slogan. A penalty clausepenalty clauseA penalty clause is a secondary obligation that makes the contract-breaker pay a sum, or suffer a detriment, out of all proportion to the innocent party’s legitimate interest in performance. In England and Wales it is unenforceable. The test is Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67.More in the glossary that is out of all proportion does not stick.

Example

A deposit of the sum in Schedule 1 reserves the dates in that Schedule. If the Client cancels reserved dates on less than the notice in Schedule 1, those dates are charged. If the Client ends the job after planning has started, the Event Planner is due the work done at the agreed rate plus the unused-date charge in Schedule 1. A postponement agreed in writing moves the dates; it does not waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary the unused-date charge unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: unused booked dates are charged if you wrote that. Starting planning and then stopping still costs them the work done and the named kill fee. Moving the date is a written change, not a free pass.

The longer consumer-versus-business page is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. The wedding-fee sibling is Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK?. Cancellation and kill fee is the clause page.

Write who the client looks to when a venue, caterer or other supplier fails. That follows how you booked them, not a heading that says “we only introduce suppliers”. If you contracted in your own name, the client usually looks to you on your paper. If you booked as the client’s agent, write that the supplier contract is between the client and the supplier.

A working supplier-failure clause answers:

• who contracted with the venue or supplier — you, or the client;
• what you do if they fail — find a substitute, postpone, or stop;
• who pays the extra cost of a substitute;
• what happens to your fee if the event cannot go ahead;
• that you are not the venue’s insurer unless you priced that risk.

Privity of contractprivity of contractPrivity of contract means only the parties can sue on the bargain. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 s.1 lets a named third party enforce a term that benefits them, unless the contract says otherwise. Most commercial papers exclude the Act. A subcontractor cannot sue the end client without a warranty or a 1999 Act right.More in the glossary is the ordinary rule that only the parties to a contract can sue on it. Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 s.1 lets a person who is not a party enforce a term if the contract expressly says so, or if the term purports to confer a benefit on them, unless the contract shows the parties did not intend that. Contracts commonly exclude this right. Write the exclusion if you do not want a venue or a guest to sue on your client paper. See third-party rights.

Damages for breach cover loss arising naturally from the breach, in the usual course of things, and loss that both parties may reasonably be supposed to have contemplated when they made the contract as the probable result of the breach. That is Hadley v Baxendale (1854) 9 Exch 341. An open promise that “we will make the day happen whatever a supplier does” is how an unpriced loss lands on you.

Do not sign an unlimited indemnity for “any loss arising from a supplier” on a corporate brief without pricing that risk. The client promises the brief, the guest numbers and the access; you promise you will carry out the named services with reasonable care and skill.

Example

Where Schedule 1 says the Event Planner books a venue or supplier as the Client’s agent, the contract for that booking is between the Client and that venue or supplier. Where Schedule 1 says the Event Planner contracts in its own name, the Event Planner will use reasonable care and skill to perform the Services; a venue or supplier failure is not a Client cancellation. Nothing in this agreement makes a venue, supplier or guest a party entitled to enforce its terms.

In Plain English: write who booked the room. If you booked it in your own name, the client looks to you. If you booked it as their agent, they look to the venue. Guests do not get a side-door claim on your paper unless you wrote that.

Supplier papers sit on a subcontractor agreement. Assignment and subcontracting is the clause page.

Force majeureforce majeureForce majeure is a clause that pauses a party’s duties when something outside both sides’ control stops the work.More in the glossary is a clause you write. FrustrationfrustrationFrustration discharges a contract when an unforeseen event makes performance impossible or something radically different from what was agreed. In England and Wales the test is Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham UDC [1956] AC 696. Taylor v Caldwell (1863) 3 B & S 826 is the classic illustration: a music hall burned down, so the hire could not go ahead.More in the glossary is a legal result when a contract cannot be performed and no clause already deals with it. They are not the same word twice.

Force majeure: if weather, illness, a venue shutdown, a travel stop or another event neither side could reasonably control stops the booking, write who can postpone, whether the date moves, and what (if anything) is kept for work already done. Do not charge the client the full fee when you are the one who cannot attend. A change of brief is a cancellation or a rewrite of the brief, not force majeure.

Frustration: where a contract is frustrated, money paid before the frustrating event is recoverable, money payable before that event ceases to be payable, and the court may allow a just sum for a valuable benefit obtained, subject to the Act. That is the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943. A cheaper venue, a smaller guest list or a change of mind is not frustration.

Write the force majeure list in force majeure. Keep it as events neither side could reasonably control, not as a second cancellation button.

Example

If an event beyond either party’s reasonable control — including a venue shutdown, a travel stop or weather that makes the named outdoor event unsafe — prevents the Services, either party may postpone the dates in writing. The Event Planner is due the work already done at the agreed rate. The Client is not due the unused-date charge for dates the Event Planner cannot attend. This clause does not apply to a change of brief or a change of mind.

In Plain English: if nobody could stop it, you move the date and they pay for work already done. You do not bill the full fee for a day you cannot work. They do not get a free cancellation because they found a cheaper room.

Write the role. Agent means you book a venue or supplier in the client’s name, on their behalf. Principal means you contract in your own name to deliver the event, and you make your own contracts with suppliers. The heading “we only introduce suppliers” does not decide it. The paper you signed does.

A working role clause answers:

• whose name sits on the venue and supplier contracts;
• who pays those invoices — the client direct, or you, then recharge;
• whether you may bind the client;
• that you are not the client’s employee or partner.

There is no agency statute in the sourced list on this page. The practical test is whose name is on the supplier paper and who promised the result. If you promised the client a seated dinner and you contracted the caterer in your own name, you are usually the principal on that promise. If the client signed the caterer’s terms and you only coordinated the brief, write that you acted as agent.

Privity of contract still applies. Only the parties to a contract can sue on it, unless Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 s.1 lets a named third party enforce a term. Contracts commonly exclude that right. See third-party rightsthird-party rightsThird-party rights are the ability of someone who did not sign to enforce a term. The default common-law rule is privity. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 creates a limited exception. Commercial drafts usually exclude the Act, then grant a named right to a specific affiliate, funder or end client where one is actually needed.More in the glossary.

An indemnity that you will cover “any supplier default” is a principal-shaped promise. Price it or strike it. A personal promise to answer for a venue’s debt is a different paper again; that kind of guarantee is not this booking.

Example

The Event Planner acts as the Client’s agent when booking the venues and suppliers listed as “agent” in Schedule 1, and does not contract in its own name for those bookings. The Event Planner contracts as principal for the Services listed as “principal” in Schedule 1. Nothing in this agreement makes the Event Planner an employee, worker or partner of the Client, or makes a venue or supplier a party entitled to enforce this agreement.

In Plain English: write who is on the hook. Agent for the room, principal for your own planning, is a common split. Mix the two in silence and the client will treat you as the principal for everything.

Assignment and subcontracting is the clause page. Supplier papers sit on a subcontractor agreement.

Write how you are paid: a management fee, a commission on supplier spend, a mark-up on supplier invoices, or a mix. There is no sourced statute on this page that forces a particular commission disclosure. The practical rule is: say it. A client who thinks they are paying a supplier’s price, when they are paying your marked-up price, is how a fight starts.

If you tell the client a supplier costs one figure and it costs another, that can be a misrepresentationmisrepresentationA misrepresentation is a false statement of fact that induces the contract. In England and Wales the remedies are rescission and damages. Under the Misrepresentation Act 1967 s.2(1), damages are assessed as if the statement were fraudulent unless the representor proves they reasonably believed it was true.More in the glossary. Where a person has entered into a contract after a misrepresentation made to them by another party and has suffered loss, then if the representor would be liable to damages had the misrepresentation been made fraudulently, they are so liable unless they prove they had reasonable ground to believe, and did believe up to the time the contract was made, that the facts represented were true. That is Misrepresentation Act 1967 s.2(1).

A working money clause answers:

• your fee, separate from supplier costs;
• whether supplier invoices pass through at cost, or carry a named mark-up;
• whether you take commission from a supplier, and whether the client is told;
• when supplier invoices are due, and who pays them;
• that a “preferred supplier” list is not an obligation to use them unless Schedule 1 says so.

Do not hide a mark-up inside “estimated supplier costs”. Write the estimate as an estimate, and write the mark-up as a mark-up.

Example

The Event Planner’s fee is the figure in Schedule 1. Supplier invoices listed as pass-through in that Schedule are recharged at cost. Where Schedule 1 names a mark-up, that percentage is added. The Event Planner will not represent a marked-up invoice as a supplier’s own price. Commission received from a supplier is the sum, or the “none”, in Schedule 1.

In Plain English: your fee is one line. The caterer’s invoice is another. If you keep a slice of the caterer’s bill, write that slice. Do not tell them the room costs X if it costs less.

Payment terms is the clause page.

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, statutory interest can apply under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 unless your contract sets its own substantial remedy. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Look up the current base rate when you calculate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest.

The 1998 Act does not apply to a consumer. A wedding couple buying wholly or mainly outside their trade is usually a consumer. Write a contractual interest line for them if you want one; do not cite the 1998 Act as if it bites.

A working late-payment clause for a company client answers:

• when invoices go out, and how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary;
• that statutory interest and the fixed recovery sum apply where the 1998 Act applies;
• a pause right, including a right not to attend, while an undisputed invoice is overdue;
• that supplier bookings you have already committed may still fall due.

Write the numbers you actually use. A pause right is how you avoid working an unpaid corporate day.

Example

Invoices are due in the number of days in Schedule 1. Where the 1998 Act applies, statutory interest and compensation on late commercial payment apply. The Event Planner is not obliged to attend, or to commit further supplier bookings, while any undisputed invoice is overdue.

In Plain English: a company client can owe the statutory interest and the fixed recovery sum. After an overdue invoice, you do not attend unpaid. A couple buying a wedding as consumers is not this heading.

The chase sequence is Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Guest lists, contacts and photos of guests’ faces are personal data. Dietary, allergy and other health disclosures are health information. UK GDPR has extra rules for health data that this page does not cover. Booking terms, ordinary permission and Article 28 do not, by themselves, authorise collecting or processing that information. Keep a written record of health details only after you have a lawful basis plus a health-data condition under UK GDPR. Your own invoices and booking diary are typically data you control. UK GDPR Article 28 applies when you process personal data as a processor for the client. A one-line “you will comply with data protection law” is not that contract.

The split is:

• Controller. You decide why you hold your own invoices, your own CRM and the portfolio you publish.
• Processor. You store a guest list they asked you to hold for the day. They decide the purpose; you process on their instructions.
• Article 28. Processing by a processor must be governed by a contract that is binding and that sets out the subject-matter, duration, nature and purpose, the type of personal data and categories of data subjects, and the processor terms in Article 28(3)(a)–(h). See data protection.

Typical event data:

UK GDPR Article 9 says processing of personal data concerning health is prohibited unless the processing is based on Article 6(1) and one of the conditions in Article 9(2) applies. The ICO explains lawful bases and the extra conditions for health data.

Do not copy their guest list onto a personal phone “to make a backup” unless the paper says so. On ending, you stop processing and return or delete what the schedule requires.

Example

Where the Event Planner processes personal data for the Client — including guest lists and contact lists the Client supplies — that processing is governed by the processor terms in Schedule 2. The Client is the controller. The Event Planner will not process those data except on the Client’s documented instructions. The Event Planner’s own invoices remain the Event Planner’s data.

In Plain English: their guest list is their data. Your own books stay yours. You run the day they booked; you do not become the controller of their contacts.

Often no. A company buying a corporate day in the course of business is not a consumer. A company brief does not get the consumer 14-day cooling-off. Consumer rights bite when the counterpartycounterpartyThe counterparty is the other side of the contract — the person or company you are making the deal with.More in the glossary is a consumer — for example a wedding couple booking a planner wholly or mainly outside their trade. Being a consumer is not a 14-day right to cancel. Fairness of cancellation terms and cooling-off under the 2013 Regulations are different rules.

Who the other side is splits the page:

• A business client (a company, or a person buying in the course of business). No statutory 14-day cooling-off under the 2013 Regulations. An agreed cancellation charge must not be a penalty. The 1998 Act can apply to late payment.
• A consumer (an individual buying a personal booking wholly or mainly outside their trade). Cancellation terms must be fair. Distance and off-premises contracts (booked online, by phone or message, or agreed away from your business premises such as at the client’s home) carry a 14-day cancellation right unless a regulation 28 exception applies.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give that right (regulation 29). For a service contract the cancellation period ends at the end of 14 days after the day the contract is entered into.

The dated-supply exception. Part 3 (cancellation) does not apply as regards the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance (regulation 28(1)(h)). A wedding-day planning booking that names the performance date is a specific-date contract. The exception also requires that the supply is accommodation, catering, or related to leisure activities. The regulation does not classify event planning as leisure. A named wedding date alone does not remove the 14-day right. If you are yourself supplying catering or accommodation on a specified date, that part of the supply may sit under the exception. The exception is not a blanket 14-day walk-away, and it is not a blanket exclusion of every dated planning booking.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62 says an unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer. A term is unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faithgood faithGood faith, in English commercial law, is honesty and not undermining the deal you have just made. There is no general implied duty of good faith in every contract. Some long-term relational contracts can carry one: Yam Seng Pte Ltd v International Trade Corp [2013] EWHC 111 (QB). If you want the duty, write it, and say what it requires.More in the glossary, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract to the detriment of the consumer. Section 49 says a trader supplying a service must do so with reasonable care and skill. Neither section turns a corporate booking into a consumer contract. Neither section is a 14-day cooling-off.

Most corporate days on this page are the left-hand column. A couple booking their own wedding planner is usually a consumer. Consumer status brings the fairness test. It does not, by itself, give them two weeks to cancel a named wedding-day booking.

Example

If the Client is a consumer and this agreement was made at a distance or off-premises, the Client may cancel in the cancellation period without giving a reason unless a regulation 28 exception applies. For the Services that period ends at the end of 14 days after the day this agreement is entered into. Regulation 28(1)(h) excepts the supply of accommodation, catering or services related to leisure activities if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance. This clause does not apply where the Client is buying in the course of a business.

In Plain English: a company buying a conference does not get the statutory 14-day cooling-off. A couple who booked a wedding planner online for a named Saturday does not automatically lose a 14-day cooling-off. Part 3 cancellation does not apply to accommodation, catering or leisure-related services if the contract specifies the performance date or period. The regulation does not say whether event planning is one of those services. Whether a cancellation charge is fair is a separate Consumer Rights Act 2015 question.

Cap liability at a multiple of the fees. In England and Wales you cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence. Do not guarantee guest numbers, weather, or a supplier result you do not control. If you employ staff in Great Britain you must hold employers’ liability insurance. Public liability and professional indemnityindemnityAn indemnity is a promise to cover another party's losses arising from a particular event or claim.More in the glossary sit next to the paper as practice, not as a cited duty on this page.

Limitation of liability on an event job usually does four things:

• caps the event planner’s total liability at the fees paid for that booking, or a named multiple;
• excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence from that cap — for a consumer Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.65 does not let you exclude it; for a business client Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 s.2 does not let you exclude it;
• says other negligence liability, on a business contract, can be limited only so far as the term is reasonable under UCTA; consumer terms are tested for fairness under Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62, not UCTA reasonableness;
• leaves the implied termimplied termsImplied terms are obligations the law reads into a contract even when the parties did not write them down. In England and Wales they come from statute — for business services, reasonable care and skill under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 — or from common law where a term is necessary for business efficacy.More in the glossary that a service is performed with reasonable care and skill — Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 for B2B, Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.49 for a consumer.

A cap at the fees, with the death-or-injury floor left in, is the common freelance shape. On a business contract the other-negligence limit must be reasonable under UCTA. On a consumer contract the term must be fair under CRA 2015 s.62.

A liability cap is not an indemnity (a promise to cover someone else’s losses). Do not sign an unlimited indemnity for “any loss arising from the event” on a product-launch brief without pricing that risk. How a freelancer caps liability is the longer page.

Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 s.1 says every employer carrying on any business in Great Britain must insure, and maintain insurance, against liability for bodily injury or disease sustained by employees arising out of and in the course of their employment in Great Britain. The 1998 Regulations set the minimum cover at £5 million for any one occurrence. That duty sits on you if you employ staff. It does not, by itself, require public liability or professional indemnity. Those two are still the usual papers an event planner holds. Write the policies you actually hold in insurance.

Example

The Event Planner’s total liability under this agreement is capped at the fees paid for the Services. Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. The Event Planner does not promise a commercial result, a particular guest number, or that a venue or supplier the Client contracts with directly will perform. Where the Event Planner employs staff in Great Britain, the Event Planner maintains employers’ liability insurance as required.

In Plain English: if the job goes wrong, they can come for the fee, not for an open-ended loss. You still owe care and skill. You cannot write out death or injury caused by negligence. You did not promise the weather would hold. If you have employees in Great Britain, the employers’ liability policy is the one the 1969 Act names.

Contracts for agencies is the sibling when an agency sits between the brand and you. Contracts for consultants is the professional-services sibling. Contracts for freelancers is the delivery sibling.

IR35 only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. It does not apply to a private couple buying a wedding. No label decides the tax. From 6 April 2021, public authorities and medium or large clients must give a status determination statement (the client’s written decision on whether IR35 applies, with reasons). Small private-sector clients leave that decision with your company.

Write the working practices, then work that way:

• you decide how the event is planned, within the brief;
• you can send a qualified substitute, and you have actually used one or can;
• there is no obligation on them to offer further dates, and none on you to accept them;
• you are not on their org chart, in their Slack, or in their holiday rota.

A heading that says “independent contractor” does not take you outside IR35. Chapter 10 of ITEPA 2003 (ss.61K, 61N and 61NA) puts the status determination on the public-authority or medium or large client with a UK connection. Chapter 8 and s.60A leave small private-sector clients on the older rules. See IR35 contract clauses checklist and sole trader vs limited companysole trader vs limited companyA sole trader contracts in a personal name and is personally liable. A limited company is a separate legal person; the company is on the hook, not the director, unless there is a guarantee. Switching from one to the other is a novation, not a letterhead change. IR35 / off-payroll rules can still apply to a personal service company.More in the glossary.

Most direct-to-couple wedding bookings never reach this heading. Corporate jobs into a medium or large end-client still should, because the end client is often an organisation.

Example

The Event Planner is an independent contractor. The Event Planner decides how the Services are performed, may send a qualified substitute, and is not obliged to accept further dates. Nothing in this agreement makes the Event Planner an employee, worker or agent of the Client. The parties will work in line with any status determination statement the Client is required to give.

In Plain English: the tax follows how you actually work. A label on page one does not decide it. A large company client has to give you their determination.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared event-planner agreement, so the event list, the guest-number line and the kill fee are the version you both signed. That is two-sided contracts: one paper, both sides on the same link. Describe the booking in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Repeat work can hang a statement of work under standing terms, or sit on a retainer. Supplier papers sit on a subcontractor agreement. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator. If you are sharing an unreleased guest list before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it, or use the NDA generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the deposit, the retainer, the kill fee, the guest-number line and the agent-or-principal line are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, Plus £15/mo, Pro £29/mo, Team £119/mo for 5 seats, Enterprise from £750 — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the booking in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the date is held.

Contracts for event planners is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Contracts for photographers is the stills sibling. Contracts for videographers is the filmed sibling. Contracts for DJs is the music sibling. Contracts for bands is the live-band sibling. Contracts for makeup artists and Contracts for hair stylists are the getting-ready siblings. Contracts for consultants is the professional-services sibling. Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling. Contracts for freelancers is the delivery sibling. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement is the shorter how-to. NDA for UK freelancers is the pitch-stage paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule. Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK? is the wedding-fee sibling. Is a wedding videographer's deposit refundable in the UK? is the filmed wedding-fee sibling. Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit? is the general deposit page.