"We are about to send a deposit to a company we found on the internet, in a country we have never worked in, for an event eleven months away."

Written down like that, the hesitation is entirely reasonable. Here is how to check, and the checks apply to anyone (including us).

What to ask for before you transfer anything

Company registration. A real registered entity with a number you can look up, not a trading name. In Türkiye that is a Ticaret Sicil registration.

Travel agency licence. Wedding and travel services here are licensed by TÜRSAB, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies. Licensed agencies carry an A-group licence number. Ask for it and check it exists.

Tax registration. A vergi numarası and the tax office that holds it.

A registered bank account in the company name. Not a personal account. Not a third-party payment processor with a different name on it. If the account name does not match the company name, stop.

An invoice for every payment. Not a receipt, an invoice, with the company details and tax number on it.

All of ours are published on the about page and sent to you before any payment is requested. Anybody unwilling to send theirs has told you something.

The two warning signs that matter most

A personal bank account. There is no legitimate reason for a wedding company to ask you to pay an individual.

Pressure on the deposit. "This date is held for 48 hours" is sometimes true and it is also the oldest lever there is. A real hold on a real venue can be confirmed with the venue.

How the payment schedule normally works

Twenty-five percent to hold the date. The balance six weeks before the wedding. That is the structure we use and it is standard.

What it means practically: for most of the planning period, most of your money is still yours. The large payment happens when the wedding is close enough that the risk on both sides is small.

Be cautious of anything front-loaded. A company asking for seventy percent nine months out is either badly run or funding something else with your deposit.

Currency

We quote in euros or pounds and the quote is fixed in that currency. You are not exposed to the lira exchange rate between booking and the wedding. That risk sits with us, which is where it belongs, because we are the ones who can hedge it.

Watch for quotes in lira with a note about "subject to exchange rate". That is a variable cost dressed as a fixed one.

Payment method

An international bank transfer to a company account is the normal route and it is the cheapest. Fees are small relative to the amounts and both banks produce a record.

Card payments are possible for smaller amounts and carry a processing fee. The one genuine advantage of a card is chargeback protection, which is worth having on a first payment if it makes you comfortable. Say so and we will arrange it.

Never pay by a method with no trail.

What should be in the contract

  • The date, the venue and the guest count the price is based on
  • Every included line, named
  • What happens if the guest count changes, in both directions
  • The payment schedule and what each payment secures
  • Cancellation terms on both sides, with dates and percentages
  • The wet-weather plan and who decides to invoke it
  • What happens if a named supplier becomes unavailable

That last one is worth insisting on. Photographers get ill. A contract that names a substitution standard is a contract written by somebody who has run weddings.

Cancellation and force majeure

Post-2020, every reputable contract in this industry has a clause about circumstances outside both parties' control. Read yours. It should say what happens to money already paid: normally credit towards a new date rather than a refund, and normally with a time limit on using it.

If there is no such clause, ask why.

The thing that actually reassures people

In our experience it is not the paperwork. It is the second video call.

By then you have spoken to the same named person twice, they have remembered what you said the first time, and they have told you at least one thing you did not want to hear: a date that will not work, a venue that cannot hold your numbers, a budget expectation that needs adjusting. Companies that only ever agree with you are not being helpful.

Emma and James put it exactly that way, and it matches what most couples tell us afterwards.

Our own registration details

What the money is actually buying, and our own registration details if you want to check them now.