#89: What Your Contract Needs and Why It Matters with Casey Glasser

0:00Welcome to the Mind Your Wedding Business Podcast. I'm your host Kevin Dennis. In addition to leading the charge at Wedding IQ, I also run Fantasy Sound event services, a lighting and entertainment company based in Livermore, California that I founded over 30 years ago. Each week on this podcast, you'll hear thought provoking and empowering interviews with wedding professionals who have found success in the industry. If you're a business-minded wedding pro who loves love, but also cares about their bottom line, buckle up and get ready to learn from a new industry expert each week. Alright folks, welcome to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. I'm here with Casey Glasser today. She's the founder of Fond Well Legal and she's going to be talking to us today about what your contract needs and why it matters. We're going to be taking a practical look at key terms that should be included in client facing service agreements and how they protect your business and shape client expectations.

1:02But before we do that, Casey, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today? Yes, hi. Thank you so much for having me. So happy to be here. Of course. So I was an attorney working at a big law firm and then I was planning my wedding and my sister planning all at the same time chaos for our family. Good chaos. Like how close do each other? Oh, so maybe three months. Oh, wow, that is chaos for a family. Yes. So I hadn't negotiated my wedding contracts for venue thunders and when it came to hers reviewed them as much as I could as well without, although she did sign them without me. But anyway, so that will experience a scene terms. In these agreements that I actually would not have felt comfortable with my clients at my previous firm signing, maybe want to work with people who are going through the same thing and maybe don't have a lawyer in the family that can make sure everything's good to go and good to sign my friends in the industry as well who, you know, as planners were

2:07expected to review these contracts. But again, without a legal background, didn't always feel comfortable advising their clients and probably shouldn't be. So yeah, that's why I started Foundwell Legal where I work with event professionals. I also work with content creators. And yeah, that's, that's what brings us here. I love it. And content creators is such a big new thing going on in our industry right now. So I'm sure that's a whole nother set of legal terms that need to be included in their service agreements as well. So all right. So let's start here. Why do so many wedding professionals treat contracts as a formality rather than a critical business tool? I think that a lot of businesses in general really treat contracts like something that, you know, they know that they need to have to protect themselves to an extent, but aren't necessarily aware of all of the ways that it can protect you and also what it can signal to clients about what it's like working with you out of time. And so that's a conversation that I'm excited to have today.

3:08Yeah, me too. All right. What is the biggest misconceptions wedding pros have about the contracts they're using? I think what I've seen a lot is this idea of standard contract language being thrown around. And I kind of just take issue with the word standard at all. Although there are some boilerplate clauses that basically are sort of copypaste things like governing law or electronic signatures. Like those are generally fine. But so much of your contract really should be customized for your business, your scope of services, your payment terms, cancellation, communication, all of these things really should be tailored to your business and the way that you want things to operate for your clients. All right. Well, it's interesting that you say that because I think a lot of wedding professionals and I remember I've been around. I'm old. I've been doing this for a very long time. I went online and just grabbed a contract and started doing it and then realized I was doing it wrong and I didn't have everything in the right and then finally hired an attorney

4:09to help me get a contract correct. But I think that's where or can I borrow your contract? That's probably not a good approach to have is borrowing contracts because what is good for me may not be good for someone else. Yeah, and it's such a popular approach. I mean, and it makes sense by people doing it, legal fees aren't always the most accessible, but where you can work with an attorney directly always advise that. Yeah. All right. So we had COVID and everyone learned about the word forced measure through COVID. So what are some most important clauses every client facing agreement should include? Scope of services for sure. Okay. Something I recommend a lot of the time is that rather than having your scope of services in the contract itself, you have it attached as an exhibit. So that way if you're someone that offers multiple different packages, you can just swap out the exhibit and leave more like the rest of your contract intact.

5:10It's affordable. I think that way to do it and it's just easy. You don't have to go through and update your contract every time. So scope of services, very clear payment terms, payment schedule, cancellation, rescheduling. And can you reschedule when is that right, Triggered, forced measure, like you said, making sure that's really clear. Limitation of liability is another big one. So that's the one that will cap the maximum financial damages that you might have to pay to another party if there's a breach or a lawsuit. Okay. You just want to prevent unlimited financial exposure. Oh, and you could set that number in the contract and or how does that work? Yeah, a really common approach to that is to say that you're only going to be liable up to the amount that was paid under the contract. Okay. So if you're confident. So it was $10,000. You're only limited to damages of $10,000. The only thing is you can't avoid it if you've broken the law or there was misconduct

6:11or fraud. Like in those cases, you can't just say like, I committed fraud, but I only owe you $500. Yeah. You can't just claim that for normal things. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's funny to me because during, you know, COVID, I had no idea what force measure was. Thankfully, I had force measure in my contract. So I was covered, but there was a lot of wedding professionals that didn't. So is it good to have your contract looked at regularly from an attorney? Like what is like, like do a checkup, a tune up or, you know, like what's that good approach? Yeah. That's a service that I provide is the sort of checkup. I think there's a few different triggers for when it's time to update your contract. One of them is like you said, COVID, so a big, a major event that happens in the world that you want to make sure it's covered tariffs was another one. Oh, yes. Teriffs. Okay. If you're someone that's managing a budget, you want to say something like, you know, I can't guarantee the price of things, but I'll help you come up with a budget or

7:12I'll help you try to stay within it, but I can't guarantee anything. So a world event, if there's just some sort of miscommunication that you see arising with a client or dispute, obviously you want to have your contract checked out and update in the like legal world in general. So in California, and I know in several other states as well, there was a some laws past recently that had to do with like preventing hidden fees. So things like credit card fees, you have to have certain language in your contract around that for it to be enforceable. You have to be very clear, but people are going to be charged. So when things like that arise, you want to make sure that that's enforceable. And because most people aren't like keeping up with your laws, you have to check out, make sure that there's nothing new that's happened. It's a rent being enforceable. But most of the laws go to effect in January 1, right? Or do they come in different times throughout the year?

8:13That's a good question. I mean, I think the times of it's on it. What state were you're at? Yeah, I was here in California. I always remember like at the end of the year, the news is always like, oh, all these new laws and beware, you know, this is going to go into effect and this goes into effect. And so it's just it's probably good to have like an ear and eye tuned into when that stuff goes in and have someone then look at your contract and make sure you're taking care of like your physical. So not picking on force mature, but that was missing with a lot of people's contracts during COVID. But are there certain contract terms that are commonly missing from any industry contracts? Yeah. What I've seen pop up and this one's important for planners is expectations around communication. Oh, yeah. So what are your business hours? Can people just call you whenever they feel like? Do you prefer email? Also expectations around when it's peak wedding season, you might be delayed in responding to things.

9:14And so having setting those expectations up front is really important. Another one is if you were not necessarily going to be the person that shows up on the day yourself to execute it, have that in there so that people don't, you know, miss understanding that they're paying for you specifically. If you guys will have another employee execute that. And also, you know, you can also have a what if I can't be the one that that shows up on the day, will I recommend someone of a similar skill level or style? So I recommend having those those pieces in there as well. So that makes sense. And then is it if you're getting a lot of questions from clients around the contract or like the same question over and over again, is that another good thing to like look at that you might, you know, have something missing in your contract or yes. Okay. Yeah, clarity is is everything. So it seems like people are not understanding it. It might not be so clear. That makes sense. All right.

10:15So Casey, how do you stop a strong contracts help shape like client expectations before problems arise? Yeah. And it comes back to clarity like I was just saying. So having expectations around communication and turn around times and look at the client is responsible for themselves. Just having that clear delineation of what everyone is responsible for helps prevent disputes. And it just sets you up, I think, for a smooth client experience and, you know, for yourself to not have any surprises jump up along the way. And when it comes to client experience too, I think like your clients aren't going to seem much of your work product before they work with you or have a strong understanding of who you are and what it's like to work with you. So having a contract that's clear, that's professional, that doesn't have typos or like a defensive sort of tone, those sort of things, I think, set you up for success. And when, yeah, when it comes to tone, it was like, wait, I didn't even think of tone.

11:19Is that a thing? Yeah. It is a thing that I see a lot when it comes to people who download a template and then customize it themselves because a lot of what causes people to edit their own contracts is like something happened with a client that was like, or they're just like, I do not want this to happen again, which I totally get. Like, you know, things come up and I don't blame the planners, but having an attorney draft, the language for you helps keep it clean, professional, consistent throughout different pieces of your contract. You don't want things to conflict. So yeah, you're contracting and help with all that. So is that a thing that happens a lot is like where one clause you'll have in your contract, then like conflicts with another word and therefore it's like, I don't know if they're battling each other. Those conflicts are what the normal term is there, but like, it's, they're fighting each other, I guess. It's kind of, it's confusing. I think this is one, I would say like the payment, it comes up a lot.

12:22So if you're saying in one place that it's a non-refundable retainer, but then a few paragraphs down, you refer to it as the deposit, like that, that conflicts and can cause confused around, well, is it really non-refundable? So yeah, consistency is key. And also being not a lawyer and being legal stupid is me here. I thought deposits are refundable, right? They generally are. Okay. So sure, I'm sure you use it. It just, yeah. And I was told the call is a booking fee because as a fee is non-refundable. Yeah, or retainer, retainer's good too. Retainer's good too. Okay. Yeah, clearly non-refundable, you want that language in there to avoid confusion for your client. So saying a non-refundable deposit is like contradicting itself problem. It can be or it just makes it like less likely to be enforced as. Okay. Non-refundable. See, this is, I always say, and I say it a lot, is that all of us wedding pros are good

13:23at our art, but very bad at all this other business part of our, what we do. So we need people like you, Casey, let's get through all this stuff because we don't, you know, we don't know what we don't know. Yeah, and when it comes to the contract review piece of it to like reviewing vendor and venue agreements, my, you know, planner clients are these like creative, fantastic people that love working with their clients and the contract review is boring. So just slide it over. Well, and it's very interesting to me too, because like you'll see some people's contracts as one page and some are eight pages and it just like, I'm like, the one page is definitely missing some and our arm. I'm like, then I'm on the eight page. I'm like, is that a lot? I'm like, is like buying a high, you know, like a buy a car at one point, you know, I'm like, what, you know, I don't know there's a matching number for the pages. I'm sure that doesn't make sense, but it makes you nervous when you see a one page contract, I feel like. Yes, definitely. But there is something to be said on length. That's something that comes up a lot where people are afraid of there's it's too long and intimidating or, yeah, short and incomplete.

14:26There is definitely, I think, a sweet spot, but it will depend on your services. Yeah, I'm sure it will. Can I get your work published and position yourself as a leader in the wedding industry? My sister, Megan Ely with OFD Consulting offers PR support created specifically for wedding professionals. Through OFD Collective, you'll get access to PR leads, expert guidance and the tools you need to get your work in front of the right people because you already have the expertise. Now it's time to get the recognition. So to OFDConstalting.com for more information. So all right, Casey, what are some big risks wedding pros expose themselves to when using an outdated or a generic contract? Yes, I'll answer that in two parts for generic ones. They will often are basically always not addressed things that are industry specific that are.

15:26Oh, okay. Back up whether plans or a friend or is a term I've been seeing thrown around a lot of like you didn't hire a professional vendor to do something, but friend do it as the planner. You don't want to be responsible for that. Social media expectations is important to have in their safe work environment and to your assmen. That's not usually going to be in a regular service agreement that you might just download online. So you want to have something that is tailored to your industry. And when it comes to outdated contracts, this takes us back to what we were talking about a few minutes ago on COVID and tariffs and those kinds of things. If something new has popped up in the last five, 10 years since you've had your contract looked at that opening you up to some risk there as well. Yeah, I would imagine. One thing that we had to we added like a photo release to our contract a long time ago. And then they can opt out or opt in and then that then we had to add a social media clause. So is that something that every wedding professional that is putting all the clients information

16:31out on TikTok and Instagram, they should have some kind of social media photo release kind of thing in their contract? Yeah, I think I have information on expectations around that, have a release. And then also it's good to have that in your contract ahead of time. I mean, for so many reasons, but one of them also being a few of a client that's just more private and doesn't want their images online. It's something that you should talk about pretty early on before you do it and then they're upset. And yeah, so you want to get it. Yeah, and it's one thing is when they opt out, we make no photos. We put it on everything, like every paperwork that there is is no like in that we don't even take Instagram. Like iPhone, we don't take any photos of anything because we do like lighting to core drapery with my company. And so we don't even take any photos of that because it's just like we don't want anything to come back in them to say, like, hey, you know, like you took our wedding. So we're very, very guarded with that.

17:32And not that we ever had anything happen. We just don't want anything to happen. I think it's good to be careful. And one in between thing that sometimes people can be more comfortable with than having images of themselves uploaded. Maybe they're okay with detail shots. Like if you just post, you know, what the table looked like and you can still advertise what your work looks like. But protect privacy in that sense. Yeah. Or like you were saying, maybe they just don't want anything at all and that's fine too. Yeah. Yeah. It's everyone, I think comfort level is different and you have to be okay with that, I think. So, all right. So what contract issues do you see most frequently causing disputes between like vendors and clients? I think most disputes fall under the two different umbrellas. So services and payment services dispute there would look like well, we thought this was included and now you're saying that it's not. And so those kinds of yeah, services disputes.

18:35When it comes to payment things like well, we've already made this payment. But now the events been canceled or postponed. Can't you just give us our money back or like what happens now? Yeah, those two categories are the biggest places where disputes happen. And for weddings too, like these are for a lot of people emotional and stressful situations and your contract needs to address those things before everyone's drester disappointed. Yeah. And especially because it's such a so emotional what we do for a living. Yeah. Like having everything clear and outlined is probably the best way to be. And I think a lot of people go, oh, people don't read. So how do you handle like, you know, it's like they're upset. They sign the document, but they're at that point, they're just stuck, right? I mean, they're, I mean, what can you do at that point? Yeah, I mean, point them to the very. I totally agree. I mean, very gently, of course. Yeah, on page three. Yeah.

19:35Yeah, sometimes people are willing to concede a little bit, but yeah, you got to, you got to be reading your contracts before you sign them. You can also have things in, you know, bold that you want to stick out or. Yeah, or initial. What about having them initial clauses on each page? Or you can just put in your email like, please, please, please, please, you read this and happy to answer any questions that you have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because there are times that we send out our contract at, you know, with a payment link and within like five minutes, it's like the contract signed and the payments taken care of it. I'm like, there's no way they read the contract in five minutes, you know, like, and, you like, at that point, they're just signed and pay and move on, you know, kind of thing. And so I think it is what it is. Yeah, so risk there for just. Yeah. So we mentioned, we talked a little bit about cancellation, rescheduling, forced measure. So how should wedding professionals think about all those clauses in today's world?

20:40I think with those three, especially, there are three questions that need to be answered. Who has the right to cancel a reschedule? Is it just the vendor or is it vendor and client? When do they have the right to cancel without penalty or the right to reschedule without penalty? And also when is that right triggered under what circumstances? So forced measure, for example, what kind of event is considered a forced measure event? What happens if it takes place? Is it a cancellation? Is there some sort of refund or rescheduling? Reschedulings in the year, that kind of thing? A time limit on that is important because we learned that through COVID that if you didn't have a time limit, then you're really in trouble. Yeah, they can reschedule in the next 10 years. 10 years, yeah, yeah. If you didn't say anything about additional fees, then maybe you don't get to charge those. So, yeah, clarity is everything.

21:42Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. And then you said trigger. So what would like if the client has the right to trigger a cancel? Like explain that a little bit more, please. Yeah, so in, let's say, it got forced measure as a good example, but if a forced measure event takes place, is the client's performance excused? Is the vendor's performance excused? Oh, okay. I, their party say, I can't perform under these circumstances. And so. That makes sense. Yeah, no. No. Well, no, and it just, yeah, it makes sense. It's just one of those bad things. And then the other thing too, I was going to mention is sometimes the parent signed the contract, but we're dealing with the kids. So therefore, who, who's in charge, you know, let you say, it's whoever signs the contract is the one you have to be dealing with. I'm assuming. It's whoever signed it. Something there that I think is important is having joint responsibility there is helpful.

22:47Okay. Because then you can recover payment from either person. Oh. You can see the ability to recover from, yeah, either of them, there's more flexibility there versus like, have been chasing down the ride forever and the groom's hat. They're not even responsible. Oh, okay. So that makes sense. And then what about like if the bride will just use a heterosexual couple here, bride and groom sign the contract, but then the mother of the bride pays for stuff. How does that, you know, how does that all go? And she's wanting to refund. They're not wanting to change. You know, like, where, how does that, that gets messy, I think. It's the person who signed the contract. Okay. And you can even have language in your contract too about if there are third party payments made by another family member letting them know you as my client, you as the signer of this contract are the one that is responsible. And that's probably a good idea to have because sometimes you'll get an aunt will pay a part

23:49or someone else will pay a part. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. I think it's helpful just again. So everyone knows who is in charge. Yeah. And that's where in weddings, things get messy. You know, like, like, there's, you know, an aunt paid for the cake. So therefore she feels like she's in charge of the cake, you know, but, but maybe the couple paid for it or, or sign the contract because they're the ones that picked the flavors and all that different things. So, yeah. Exactly. And you want to be able to be the one, I mean, ideally calling the shots at your own wedding of like, this is the cake that I like. So, yeah. Exactly. All right. All right. So, Casey, what are some red flags wedding pros should watch for when reviewing like a venue or a vendor agreement? You know, like, I'm a planner and I'm looking over the DJ's contract, the bands contract, the catering contract. What are some red flags we should look for? Hidden keys is my number one. Really? Especially when it comes to the venue because a lot of the time you'll see a number up

24:50at the top, that says, this is what you're going to be paying. If you keep reading, it'll say things like, but also you need to have security or valet or a toilet rental or there's a 20% service charge and none of those things are in your total at the top. And sometimes you'll also have it say and this, this happened with a friend of mine, unfortunately. I didn't say, it's said you have to go through our preferred vendor for those things that I just listed. It didn't say how much they cost at all. It's not total. So how much are they on the hook for? They have no idea. Oh, wow. Make sure you're going through and figuring out, okay, so it says that this is like a- So like I'm paying 30,000 here, but then once I pay for the toilets and this and the security and the valet, then now I'm at, you know, yeah, exactly. So you're not getting the big picture, okay? I think it's, at one-sided rights and protections.

25:54So going back to force measure, is it just that if a tornado hits them, the vendor can cancel or can you, as the couple say, there's a tornado and I can't go to my wedding and have no penalty for canceling there. So that's one side of the, it's not mutual. If you're the client, you don't want to see that. Price increases also, especially if you're signing a contract a year or so out from when the event occurs. Sometimes your contracts will say things, you know, giving them the right to change their prices. And if there's no cap on what that can be increased by, that's the scary position to be in. Oh, yeah, because it, well, like example, like, you know, beef, you know, like the price of beef can go up or down and you're having filet mignon at your wedding and now all of a sudden, it's, you know, $20 and now all of a sudden, it's 40. That's a big scary, you know, that's your budget. Yeah, so you should be looking for a cap on those. A cap would be great if you can negotiate for one, if it's not there.

26:59And if your venue or vendor won't get rid of it, just know what you're exposing yourself to. I think that's everything. Like, there might be some things that they're not willing to negotiate for, but having an understanding of what you are agreeing to is important, like not entering into a contract sort of blindly. Yeah. Feeling overwhelmed, trying to do it all in your wedding business. Our friend, Ariana of Ariana and Co is a virtual assistant who specializes in supporting wedding professionals just like you from inbox and calendar management to content and workflows. She helps keep your business running smoothly so you can focus on your clients, your creativity, and the parts of your business you love most. Go to Ariana and Co.com for more information. Are there any other things that red flags that we should be looking for?

28:01Those I would say are the top three. Okay. Anything that in general leaves you confused about what will happen under these circumstances or what am I getting? Anything that leaves you confused. Just ask questions. Something I hear from vendors so often is that they're getting ghosted by Gen Z in particular. And I think sometimes that happens with like if you're scared by a contractor confused by what's happening. There's ask questions. People are so happy to answer your questions and would rather do that than get ghosted. So. And then we have a hospitality industry so we do like to take care of people but you know, it makes sense. So yeah, it's scary. All right. So how can contracts help protect not only the businesses but also the client experience? Avoid miscommunication and conflict. Get ahead of it with a strong contract and present yourself as a professional who is detail oriented that takes their business seriously and will take your event seriously.

29:05You want to create that trust and confidence in you as a professional from the beginning. And I think having a solid contract does that. Yeah. I just recently saw, you know, reviewing the contracts for a client and one of the DJ's contract didn't have like start time end time. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I like your response. Oh, yeah. So I was like, no, we need to get this in writing when they're performing because if we don't have it, we don't know when, you know, they could say, oh, yeah, we showed up at five, but the wedding started at four and they're not going to be liable because there was no expectations in there. Yeah, I stayed for an hour. I'm tired. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that could happen too. Yeah. I was just like shocked. Like, how do you not have like start time end time in there? I was like, yeah. That seems like basic, basic contract for me. Yeah. Especially if you do two events in a day. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So for like wedding business owners who feel like intimidated by legal language, what's

30:08the best way to better understand what they're asking their clients to sign? Talk to an attorney. It's the best thing to do. I just, I would not ask your client to sign something that you don't understand yourself. And so speaking with an attorney, I mean, it's best really if they're the one that wrote your contract because then they can explain to you why things are in there. And if you don't like it, they can just edit it nicely for you. And I'm not like anti-contract, I'm completely. No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. One of the reasons why I recommend working with an attorney directly instead is so that you can have all your questions answered. And like I said, if you don't like something, there's someone there that can edit it nicely for you. Or if you get pushed back from a client on a specific term where they want a revision in there, being able to cancel with your attorney and say, is this something that I should be flexible on or is this just have to be a hard line, I think is helpful too.

31:12Well, and that's one of my questions I was going to ask because that sometimes happens, like, especially when we work with corporate clients, their corporate attorneys read our contract and they rewrite almost the whole contract and half the time it all becomes one sided towards them. You know, so like, is it when that, like how flexible should you be on your contracts? I guess this is the biggest question. And there are certain clauses that you can be flexible on. So I mean, if you want to be, yeah, if you want to change your shirt, that's an easy one to be flexible on or yeah, yeah, depending on what it says, of course, I mean, I'm hesitant to say any sort of blanket advice. No, yeah. But when it comes to like the services that you're going to offer or your payment schedule or things like that, if you're comfortable with it, then, you know, that's your choice. And that's something they usually do too is, is they want to change the payment terms

32:14because they, it's the way they pay things are differently. So if you're comfortable getting paid after the event instead of before, you know, that kind of stuff, you know, yeah, but certain things like opening your limitation of liability you were talking about before, like, you might not want to open yourself up. Well, no, and that's when they go after I feel like that's when they've come after us for all the time. They again, they try to make it very one-sided. Yeah. And as a former corporate attorney myself, I'm like, I know the game here, I kind of had a review for things and what, what they'll be flexible on a little bit and what they might not. Well, because there's sometimes two will go, no, we're not willing to change X, Y and Z and they'll go, okay. And they just try to push back sometimes, but then if you push back saying, I'll accept the change A, B and C, but not D, F and G, you know, like kind of thing. And they're like, oh, okay. Nine times out of ten, they say, yeah, oh, that's fine.

33:14Yeah, right. So you're kind of just seeing like how, I mean, I don't want to say anything bad with anyone. But it's your responsibility as an attorney to get a great situation for your client. And so that's what you're trying to do ultimately. And sometimes, yeah, they'll let certain things go. But yeah, have those things. If you can't review by an attorney those red lines, I do it myself as one of the services that I offer because, yeah, you don't want to agree to any major changes that you might regret later. And also on this point, I think it's always helpful to start with your contract and present that to a corporate or a wedding client or I guess especially corporate. And then in this case, they're then having them give you something to sign because it's easier for them to, I think if they mark up your contract with some changes and you can reject or accept, that's a little bit of a, you're in a better position for negotiating typically. Then if you, you something and you mark it up and they're like, this is our standard contract, don't you know, you're not changing anything.

34:17So that's good advice. Bring your own contract. Yeah, no, that's good advice. All right, we're getting here to the end, but let's wrap up, unless I miss something, but let you can tell me at the end here. But if someone's listening could make just one improvement to their contract this year, what would you recommend they focus on first? It's all around like the theme, I think that I've probably said this word a million times but clarity, clarity, clarity. If there's something, but if a client read your contract today, would they understand what they're receiving, what they're paying for, what happens if something changes, what their responsibilities are? Like if there are any of these major questions that you wouldn't immediately know from reading through your contract, tighten it up, it's really important to be clear. Okay. And then is it, like you have to work with an attorney that's licensed in your state, right? Is that a thing too? Yeah, it depends on what it is actually. Okay. Okay. A lot of these contract terms are pretty standard.

35:21So to an extent, I'm able to work with clients in other states when it comes to like reviewing contracts or even putting them in. Basic stuff. Yeah. But where there is like some state specific language, yes, you should consult with an attorney in your state for sure. Okay. Like it makes a whole lot of sense because I didn't even know that was a thing. I learned that during COVID as well. So there's lots of things you learned during COVID. I even got offered to be on Judge Judy during COVID. So that was my... Really? Oh yeah. And it was funny because the people that were wanting to go on Judge Judy, the groom was an attorney. And my publicist was like, oh hell no, you're not going on Judge Judy, but I didn't, I had zero desire to do it anyway, but I still, it was the greatest like thing that made me laugh. And I wanted my fondest memories of I was like, I could have been on Judge Judy during COVID. That is so funny. Are you being over a retainer? So whether it was non-refundable or not. So and they were, they were a huge deal.

36:22All right, Casey, where can our listeners learn more about you and connect with you? I have a website foundwelllegal.com. What's F-O-U-N-D-W-E-L-L-L-L-L-L? Instagram foundwell.legal.com, same thing with TikTok, noise, send a DM, or an email. Yeah, happy talk with anyone. All right, and we will have all of Casey's information in our show notes as well as the email blast that goes out. And it'll have her beautiful photo on there as well. If you have any questions, reach out to Casey as well. So Casey, thank you so much. I really appreciate you being on the show. Thank you, Kevin. It's been so great. We'll see you next time on another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business.

37:31Thanks again for listening to Mind Your Wedding Business. We'll catch you next time.