How do I know a wedding photographer abroad is legitimate?

Do three checks. Ask for the full gallery from one single wedding rather than selected favourites, ask to contact two past couples and actually reach out to them, and read the payment terms before you confirm. A legitimate photographer shows a complete gallery, offers references and works with a written contract and a reasonable deposit. Follower count and award badges say almost nothing.

How much of a deposit is reasonable?

What matters is not a fixed percentage but that the amount is reasonable and tied to a written contract with a clear cancellation schedule. A share of the total now and the rest closer to the day is normal. Be wary of demands for the full sum up front, even when a discount is offered - then the exposure is the whole amount while the discount is small.

What do I do if the supplier does not show up?

It comes down to two things you decide in advance: the contract and the payment method. A written contract should state who compensates what if the supplier fails to appear, and a payment with buyer protection (card or certain platforms) lets you dispute the charge. If you paid by plain bank transfer with no contract, your options are slim. That is why these two choices are the most important before you pay.

Only in combination with reference couples you have contacted yourself. Reviews can be curated, and five-star ratings with no name or date could be written by anyone. Use them as a first indication, but let the contact with two past couples carry the most weight. That is the check hardest to fake.

How to Vet a Supplier Abroad Before You Pay a Deposit

Quick answer: A curated portfolio and five-star reviews say almost nothing about a supplier in another country. The three checks that actually hold are: ask for the full gallery from one single wedding instead of selected images, ask to contact two past couples and actually reach out to them, and read the payment terms. A serious supplier takes a reasonable deposit against a written contract with a stated cancellation schedule, and accepts a payment method that gives buyer protection.

Booking a supplier in a country you have never visited means paying a deposit to someone you have only seen through a curated portfolio and reviews that may be bought. The question comes up every time a couple starts booking, and it applies to every category: photographer, planner, florist and venue. This guide walks through the checks you can do yourself before the money leaves your account - and the trust signals that look convincing but mean nothing.

Why a portfolio and reviews are not enough

A portfolio is a sales surface. It shows the ten best images from the best weddings, sometimes from workshops or styled shoots built to look like real weddings but that never were. It tells you how good the supplier is when everything goes right, not how they deliver on an ordinary day with grey light and a tight schedule.

Reviews have the same problem, made worse because they are easy to influence. Five-star ratings with no name or date could be written by anyone. That does not mean every review is fake - it means a star average alone is not proof. You need checks that are hard to fake, and the three below are exactly that.

Three checks that actually work

None of these require you to travel there or speak the language. They take an evening and reveal more than hours of scrolling portfolios.

Ask for the full gallery from one single wedding. Not selected favourites - every delivered image from one real day, from getting ready to the party. It shows consistency: how a photographer handles harsh dinner light, what a florist looks like in reality rather than in close-up, how a venue works when it is full of guests. A supplier who cannot show a complete gallery has either not delivered many weddings or does not want you to see the everyday frames.
Ask to contact two past couples and actually reach out. Send a short email and ask three things: did they keep to time and budget, how was communication during the wedding week itself, and would they book again. A happy couple answers gladly. That a supplier can offer references is good - you speaking to them yourself is what counts.
Read the payment terms before you confirm anything. The deposit size, whether it is refundable and what the contract says about cancellation reveal how the supplier views risk. A serious party takes a reasonable deposit against a written contract - not the full sum up front against a verbal promise.

Read the contract - the five lines that matter

You do not need to interpret foreign contract law. You just need to see that five things are written down. If any is missing, ask the supplier to add it before you pay.

The deposit amount and whether it is refundable. A clear figure and a clear rule for what happens if you cancel. "We will sort it out" is not a term.
The cancellation schedule. What you get back if you cancel twelve months, six months and one month out. A schedule shows the supplier has done this before.
Illness and force majeure. What applies if you, the supplier or a pandemic force a date change. Rebooking versus refund should be in black and white.
Delivery time and format. When the finished images or film are delivered, in what format and how many. "After the wedding" is not a delivery time.
Who compensates what if the supplier fails to show. A backup plan if the photographer falls ill, and what you get back if no one turns up at all.

Write the contract in English if you do not share a language, and always request it in writing. If a venue or supplier cancels entirely, you want the paperwork already in place - read more in our guide on what to do if the venue cancels.

Paying across borders

How you pay decides how much you can recover if something goes wrong. Here is what matters most in a cross-border payment:

Choose a method with buyer protection. Card payments and some payment platforms let you dispute a charge if the supplier fails to deliver. That is the whole point of not paying in cash.
A plain bank transfer is the weakest. Send an international transfer and the money is effectively gone if the supplier does not deliver. Use it only for a party you have already verified, and ideally only for the final payment.
Factor in the currency cost. Exchange rate and fees can add several percent. Ask for the amount in the supplier's currency so you compare like with like, and test the sums in our cost calculator.
Be wary of "pay everything up front for a discount". It is the most common loss trap. The discount is small, the exposure is the whole amount. A reasonable deposit now and the rest closer to the day is almost always right.

Check that the company exists

A real supplier is a real company with a traceable identity. It takes ten minutes to check:

Company registration in the country. A registration number or equivalent you can look up in the national register.
VAT number. In Italy a partita IVA, elsewhere the equivalent. A valid VAT number ties the name to a real business.
An address you can find. A physical address, a company name that matches the contract, and an invoicing party that matches the person you are talking to.

This does not prove the supplier is good, only that it exists and can be reached legally if needed. It is the floor, not the ceiling.

False trust signals

Some signals look like proof but measure something else. Do not let them outweigh the three checks above:

Follower count. Reach is not quality, and followers can be bought. A photographer with twenty thousand followers can deliver worse than one with a thousand.
Paid awards. Many "wedding award" badges are sold or handed out broadly. A prize with no known jury is decoration.
"Featured in" logos. A magazine logo often means only a paid placement or a single old mention, not a recurring relationship.
Reviews with no name or date. A testimonial you cannot tie to a real person is hard to trust. Reviews are worth something only in combination with reference couples you have contacted yourself.

How a marketplace vets suppliers - and what it does not do

We make money from suppliers, and that is exactly why it is worth being straight about what vetting actually means. When we connect you to local suppliers we verify that the company exists and is registered, that it has delivered real weddings, and that it works with written contracts. We remove the obvious risks: the party with no traceable identity, the one who cannot show past work, the one who refuses to put the terms in writing.

What we do not do is guarantee taste, weigh the chemistry between you and the supplier, or eliminate risk entirely. No platform can promise that. The three checks in this guide are still your own last line of defence - do them wherever you find the supplier. That is why we write them out rather than simply claiming our suppliers are vetted.

Common objections

"I found them through a well-known directory, so they are vetted, right?" It depends entirely on what the directory checks. Many directories charge for the listing and verify nothing beyond a paid invoice. Ask outright what their check covers - and do the three checks yourself anyway.

"Everyone wants a deposit up front." Yes, and that is reasonable. The question is not whether there is a deposit but how large it is and what the contract says. A reasonable share against a written term is normal. The full sum up front against no paperwork is not.

"We do not have anyone who speaks the language." Write the contract in English and request everything in writing. A supplier used to international clients handles English contracts daily. If they refuse, that is an answer in itself.

Sources and reliability

This guide is based on the checks couples can actually perform themselves before booking, recurring questions from couples booking destination weddings, and the contract and payment terms serious suppliers publish. It gives no legal advice on interpreting contracts in specific countries - describe and request what is stated, and consult a lawyer when in doubt. Published by the Wedding Abroad editorial team. Last updated August 2026.