Florist contract guide: substitution rights, delivery, and rental returns

The clause checklist

What must a florist contract cover?

• Seasonal substitution right: you may substitute individual stems for availability and market conditions as long as the color palette and overall aesthetic hold; substitutions over 20% of any arrangement are communicated in advance where time allows.
• Delivery + setup radius: delivery and setup included within a defined round trip radius (30 miles unless you set one); beyond it billed at your per mile rate, with overnight accommodation for zones past 150 miles.
• Rental item return terms: vases, candle holders, arches, and stands remain your property and return within 48 hours; lost or damaged items billed at replacement cost plus a 15% handling fee.
• Breakdown + removal included: post event breakdown and removal of all your property is included, so the venue handoff is clean.
• Force majeure built for weddings: pandemic and assembly restrictions explicitly covered, with amounts already paid applying to a postponed date within 12 months.
• Cancellation as liquidated damages: tiered by timing with a rebooking credit, written as a reasonable estimate of your losses rather than a penalty.

Educational summary, not legal advice.

Every BookNox contract also carries the clauses that protect any service booking: a nonrefundable deposit tied to reserving the date, a cancellation policy written as a reasonable estimate of your losses rather than a penalty (with a rebooking credit), a force majeure clause, a liability cap that does not limit claims for death or personal injury caused by negligence, binding arbitration through a provider such as AAA or JAMS with a small claims carveout, general provisions (severability, entire agreement, no waiver), and an electronic signature block that cites the ESIGN Act and UETA, with a SHA-256 tamper evidence hash.

Reading a contract before you sign it

Red flags: what to push back on

Florists read two kinds of contracts: their own and the ones planners and venues hand them. Three terms deserve a second look whichever side you are on, because each one decides who absorbs a real cost when the plan meets the day.

• Final payment due after the event: flowers are bought, conditioned, and arranged before the wedding day. A contract that lets the balance slip past the event date asks you to finance the client's wedding. The BookNox contract sets the balance due no later than 7 days before the event by default, and an installment plan in your catalog can move payments earlier, so the money arrives before the stems are bought.
• Substitution with no approval rights: a substitution clause is necessary; a blank check is not. Push for language that holds the agreed color palette and overall aesthetic, and that requires notice when substitutions exceed a stated share of any arrangement, so nobody opens the boxes on the day and meets a different wedding.
• Open ended rental return liability: a rental clause should name what is rented, when it comes back, and what loss or damage costs. Watch for terms that charge full replacement for items nobody counted, or that leave the return window vague. A fair clause reads like the one above: return within 48 hours, loss or damage billed at replacement cost plus a stated handling fee.

How BookNox generates this contract

From the booking, not a blank document.

You don’t fill in a template. Your client builds the booking on your quote page (package, date, options) and BookNox generates the finished florist contract with the right clauses already in it, freezes the wording at send time, and collects a signature compliant with ESIGN and UETA and the deposit through one link. The signed PDF carries a SHA-256 hash that shows any tampering and a full audit trail (IP, user agent, timestamps).

Sources, read on October 22, 2026: 15 U.S.C. 7001, the federal ESIGN Act, which says a signature or contract may not be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic, and Florida Statutes 668.50, one state’s enactment of the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act, which says the same under state law.

Educational summary, not legal advice. Have a licensed attorney in your state review any contract before you rely on it.

What it costs you

$29/month flat. No booking fee.

No tier gates. No fee on top of Stripe’s standard processing. The deposit lands in your bank directly via Stripe Connect Express. BookNox is never in the money path.

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