Cancellation & Refund Policy

When you book us, we stop taking other enquiries for your date. Wedding dates are finite, they are usually booked many months ahead, and a date released late in the season is very unlikely to be filled. This policy sets out what happens when a booking cannot go ahead, and it is written to be fair to both sides.

It applies to all photography and filmmaking bookings with the Studio and forms part of our Terms & Conditions. Where a signed contract for your specific commission says something different, that contract prevails.

The booking retainer — 30% of the agreed package fee unless your quotation states otherwise — is non-refundable in all circumstances.

It is not a deposit held against your fee alone. It compensates us for reserving your date, declining other work for it, and beginning the planning, scouting and scheduling that starts as soon as a booking is confirmed. Paying the retainer is what converts an enquiry into a commitment on both sides.

Cancellations must be sent to us in writing by email. The date we receive your email is the date we use to calculate what is due. Counting back from your first scheduled event date:

• More than 90 days' notice — you forfeit the retainer. Any other amounts you have already paid are refunded in full.
• Between 45 and 90 days' notice — you forfeit the retainer plus 25% of the total package fee. Anything paid above that is refunded.
• Between 15 and 45 days' notice — you forfeit the retainer plus 50% of the total package fee. Anything paid above that is refunded.
• Less than 15 days' notice — the full package fee remains payable, whether or not it has already been paid.

In every case, travel and accommodation costs we have already booked and cannot recover are payable by you in addition, as are any third-party costs already committed on your behalf — for example album production that has entered manufacturing.

We know dates move, and we would much rather move with you than lose the commission. If you need to change your date, tell us as early as you can.

Where your new date falls within 12 months of the original and we are available, we will transfer your booking once at no additional charge. Your retainer and any payments made carry across in full. Package pricing is honoured for the transferred date, though travel and accommodation are recalculated at the cost applicable to the new date.

If we are already committed on your new date, we will do our best to offer an alternative team or to recommend a photographer we trust. Where neither works for you, the postponement is treated as a cancellation and the notice periods above apply, calculated from the date you told us of the change.

Subsequent date changes after the first are accommodated where we can, subject to availability and a re-booking charge.

We take our commitments seriously and have never taken a booking we did not intend to honour. In the rare event that we must withdraw from a confirmed booking for a reason within our control, we will tell you immediately, refund every amount you have paid us in full including the retainer, and use our best efforts to find you a replacement photographer or filmmaker of comparable standard.

Where withdrawal is caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control — serious illness, accident, bereavement, extreme weather, natural disaster, epidemic, government restriction, civil unrest or transport failure — we will first try to send a substitute team or to reschedule. If neither is possible, we refund all amounts paid for services not delivered, less costs we have already irrecoverably committed on your behalf.

Where a wedding cannot proceed because of an event outside anyone's control, our strong preference is to move your booking rather than cancel it, and we will work with you to find a date that suits. In these situations we will transfer your booking to a new date within 18 months without a re-booking charge, subject to our availability.

If you choose to cancel outright rather than reschedule, the notice periods set out above apply.

If you reduce the scope of a confirmed booking — dropping an event, cutting days of coverage, or removing film or album deliverables — we will re-quote for the reduced scope. Reductions requested more than 60 days before your first event are re-quoted at standard rates. Reductions requested closer than that are charged at the original package fee, because the time has already been reserved and cannot be resold.

Photographs and films are bespoke creative work produced specifically for you. Once a gallery or film has been delivered, it cannot be returned and is not refundable.

Albums, prints and other physical products are made to order. They can be cancelled at no cost any time before you approve the final design. Once you approve a design and it enters production, the order cannot be cancelled or refunded.

If a physical product arrives damaged, or with a manufacturing or printing defect, tell us within 7 days of delivery with photographs of the problem. Where the fault is ours or the manufacturer's, we will reprint or replace the item at no charge to you. We do not offer refunds or reprints for dissatisfaction with a design you have already approved.

You are engaging us for a defined creative style, which you can see in full across this website and in the complete galleries and films we are always happy to show you before you book. Please look at that work carefully and make sure it is what you want. A difference of taste about our style, our editing or our colour treatment is not a basis for a refund.

If you believe we have failed to deliver what your contract actually specifies, tell us in writing within 30 days of delivery, setting out the problem. We will review it properly and, where we agree, put it right — by re-editing, by re-delivering, or by refunding the affected portion of the fee.

Approved refunds are made to the original payment method and in the original currency. Bank charges, payment-gateway fees and currency-conversion differences are not refundable, as we do not recover them ourselves.

We process approved refunds within 10 working days of confirming the amount with you. How quickly the money reaches your account after that depends on your bank or card issuer, and typically takes a further 5 to 10 working days.

Write to us at lens9studio@gmail.com from the email address associated with your booking. Include your name, your event date and venue, your invoice or booking reference, and what you are asking for.

We will acknowledge your email within 2 working days and confirm in writing what applies to your booking and any amount due or refundable. Please do not treat a phone or WhatsApp conversation alone as a cancellation — we need it in writing to act on it.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled a cancellation or refund, escalate it to Sujal Bansal at the same address and we will review it personally.