Who we are
Lens & Vows is a marketplace for wedding photography in Portugal, at lensandvows.com. Couples find photographers here, book them and pay the deposit (and, if they choose, the balance) through us.
The photographers are independent professionals, not our employees. The photography itself — the day, the photos, the gallery — is a service between you and the photographer. We run the site, check photographers before they appear, handle the payments described below and apply these rules.
Using the site
- You sign in with a one-time code sent to your email. Keep access to that email to yourself: anyone who can read it can sign in as you.
- Tell the truth in what you write — names, dates, places, the number of guests — so that photographers can answer properly.
- Do not use the site to send spam, harass anyone, collect other people’s details, copy the site or its photographs, or make bookings you do not mean.
- We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, and we will tell you why.
Booking
- You choose a photographer’s package and a date and send a request, with any details that matter.
- The photographer accepts or declines. Nothing is booked yet, and you pay nothing.
- When the photographer accepts, you pay the deposit — 30% of their price — by card through Lens & Vows. Your booking is confirmed when the deposit is paid, and the date is blocked in the photographer’s calendar.
What is booked is what the package describes, together with anything you and the photographer agree in writing in our messages. The price is the photographer’s own, shown in the currency you choose. If you pay in a currency other than the photographer’s, the exchange rate is fixed when the deposit is asked for, and every later payment of that booking uses it.
Paying
- The deposit is part of the photographer’s price, not an extra. It includes our commission; the rest of it is paid to the photographer 7 days after the booking.
- The balance is your choice. You can pay it straight to the photographer, on their terms, with nothing extra — that is an arrangement between you and them.
- Or you can pay the balance through us, by card, in up to 3 instalments, the last one 14 days before the wedding, with a 5% payment-protection fee shown before you pay.
- What you pay through us for the balance is paid to the photographer after you accept the gallery, or automatically 14 days after the gallery is delivered.
- Card payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
If you change the date or cancel
One change of date is free, if the photographer is free on the new day. To cancel, tell us and the photographer in writing (our messages are fine).
The deposit is not refunded when you cancel: it held the date, and the photographer turned other work away for it. Of the balance you have already paid through us — one instalment or all of them — you get back:
| When you cancel | What comes back |
|---|---|
| More than 6 months before the wedding | All of it |
| 3 to 6 months before | Three quarters of what you paid |
| 30 to 90 days before | Half of what you paid |
| Less than 30 days before | Nothing |
The 5% payment-protection fee is not refunded when you cancel: it paid the card fees.
If the photographer cancels
You get back everything you paid through us — the deposit and the payment-protection fee included — and we help you find another photographer who is free on your date. A photographer who does not turn up on the day is removed from Lens & Vows.
The right to change your mind
The EU’s 14-day right of withdrawal for contracts made online generally does not apply to leisure services booked for a specific date, such as wedding photography (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 16(l), and the Portuguese law that applies it). The cancellation rules above apply instead, and we show them before you pay.
Messages and contact details
Until the deposit is paid, you and the photographer talk through Lens & Vows, and email addresses, phone numbers and links in messages are hidden. Once the deposit is paid, you can talk however you like. If you pay a photographer you found here outside Lens & Vows for the booking itself, we cannot protect that money.
The photographs
Delivery — how many photos, in what form and by when — is what the package and your agreement with the photographer say. Copyright, and how you may use and share the photos, are agreed between you and the photographer; most photographers keep the copyright and give couples the right to use the photos personally. Ask before you book if this matters to you.
When the gallery arrives, look through it. If something is wrong, tell the photographer — and us — before you accept it.
Reviews
Only couples who booked through Lens & Vows can review a photographer, once, after the wedding. Reviews must be honest and about the service. We do not edit reviews; we remove ones that are abusive, unlawful or not about the photographer’s work.
For photographers
Photographers who join agree to these terms and to the photographers’ terms, which add: the commission is 15% of the full price of a booking, taken from the deposit; the photographer’s part of the deposit is paid 7 days after the booking; a balance paid through us is paid after the gallery is accepted; a photographer who cancels returns their part of the deposit (it may be held from later payouts); couples introduced through Lens & Vows book through Lens & Vows.
What we are responsible for
We check every photographer before they appear (we look at three whole weddings), we handle the money that goes through us as described here, and we keep the site working as well as we can. We cannot promise a particular artistic result, and we are not responsible for what happens between you and a photographer outside Lens & Vows.
Nothing in these terms limits the rights you have as a consumer under the law of the country where you live.
Complaints and the law
If something goes wrong, write to info@lensandvows.com first: a person will answer and try to put it right. These terms are governed by Portuguese law, without taking away the protection that the law of your own country gives you as a consumer.
Changes to these terms
When we change these terms we publish the new version here with its date. A booking keeps the terms that applied when its deposit was paid.
Contact
info@lensandvows.com — in English or Portuguese. Or use the contact form.