Verify the operator—not the sales pitch.

Start with the contract party—not the logo. Search the exact legal name or individual, then reconcile every document and payment instruction to that party.

Build the identity record

• Record the public brand, legal entity or individual, principal address, phone, email, website, signer name, and signer’s authority.
• Search Florida corporate and fictitious-name records when applicable. Record the document number, status, filing name, principal address, and officers or authorized people shown.
• Check current City of Key West and Monroe County business-tax requirements for work performed in the applicable jurisdiction.
• Match the contract, invoice, electronic-payment account, check payee, insurance, licenses, venue approval, and refund obligation.
• Save dated copies or screenshots. Public records can change and are not endorsements of quality, solvency, insurance, or contract performance.

Start with Florida Division of Corporations records, the Key West Permit and Licensing Business Center, and Monroe County business-tax information.

Hard stop: Do not send a deposit until the contract party and payment recipient are identified and reconciled.

Do not ask for one generic “wedding-vendor license.” Vendor categories do not all use the same regulator, and some services may not require state professional licensure. Determine which regulator, property rule, permit, or local record applies to the exact work.

Test each activity separately

• Ask the venue in writing whether the exact vendor, staff, equipment, service, access time, food, alcohol, transport, sound, structures, power, and weather plan are approved.
• Use Florida DBPR records for professions and businesses it regulates. Match name, license type, number, status, address, and expiration to the promised work.
• For food service, verify the responsible licensed establishment and review current inspection records; a venue kitchen license does not automatically cover an outside operator.
• For alcohol, identify who purchases, transports, stores, sells, serves, and removes it, then verify the applicable authority and venue permission.
• For vehicles, drivers, temporary structures, specialty equipment, or other regulated activities, identify every state, county, city, property, and insurer condition.

Use the official Florida DBPR license search, food-service inspection records, and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco information.

Hard stop: A venue referral does not replace proof that the exact activity is lawful and approved for this date and property.

A portfolio, menu, sample playlist, showroom, or planning call does not prove who arrives, what arrives, or whether the team can operate inside the property and timeline.

Write the handoff sheet

• Name the lead, arrival and departure, assistants, subcontractors, qualifications relevant to the service, dress, meals, breaks, contact method, and authority.
• List quantities, brands or acceptable equivalents, sizes, colors, formats, equipment, power, storage, refrigeration, vehicles, delivery point, setup, strike, cleanup, and removal.
• Define every dependency: venue access, loading, parking, weather decision, transportation, power, sound, floor plan, other vendors, and guest movement.
• For photography and video, name the shooter, hours, locations, coverage limits, deliverable range or minimum, editing, format, resolution, gallery, usage rights, raw-file policy, backup, storage period, and delivery deadline.
• Define acceptance, correction, re-performance, missing-item reporting, and who signs off before the vendor leaves.

Hard stop: If the seller can change people, equipment, quantity, or quality without an equivalent standard and notice, the deliverable is not fixed.

A low package price is worthless when taxes, staffing, travel, delivery, overtime, rentals, service charges, minimums, or weather changes remain open.

Close every price variable

• Separate the reservation payment, refundable deposit, nonrefundable retainer, progress payments, final payment, security deposit, damage hold, and post-event balance.
• List taxes, mandatory service or administrative charges, travel, lodging, parking, tolls, delivery, setup, breakdown, overtime, minimums, rentals, meals, credit-card fees, and gratuity treatment.
• State the guest-count and scope freeze dates, allowed variance, unit price, overtime unit, approval method, and person authorized to order changes.
• Require written change orders showing the new scope, schedule, price, tax, payment date, and effect on other duties before work changes.
• Build a payment ledger with invoice number, due date, amount, method, recipient, confirmation, remaining balance, and refund status.

Hard stop: Do not sign when the vendor can add material charges or reduce scope without your written approval.

“We will take care of you” is not a remedy. Define the action, decision deadline, substitute standard, money outcome, evidence, and person responsible for every foreseeable failure.

Build the failure ladder

• Define late arrival, nonappearance, illness, equipment failure, partial delivery, unacceptable substitution, loss of access, weather conversion, government closure, and event cancellation.
• State who may substitute, the minimum qualification and service standard, notice required, couple or venue approval, price effect, and right to reject.
• Separate cancellation by the couple, vendor, venue, weather decision, official closure, and force-majeure event. Do not assume they produce the same refund.
• Record refund amount, deadline, method, credit limits, rebooking priority, price protection, document requirements, insurance notice, and unresolved-dispute process.
• Preserve the signed contract, amendments, invoices, proof of payment, approvals, certificates, source records, messages, call notes, deliverables, complaints, and final resolution.

Florida’s Division of Consumer Services provides business-search, information, and complaint routes; regulator and contract notice procedures may be separate.

Hard stop: If the vendor’s cancellation right is broad and the couple’s recovery is vague, the vendor holds the money and the decision.