A supplier just cancelled three weeks out. Do this first.

Illness, insolvency, double bookings, family emergencies. Suppliers cancel, and it happens closer to the day than anyone likes to admit. What determines the outcome is almost entirely what you do in the first few hours.

Read the contract before you make a single call

Find out what you are owed and what they owe you. Most contracts contain a clause about providing a replacement of equivalent standard. Many require a full refund of deposits within a set window.

Knowing this before you speak to them changes the conversation completely. Ask the question directly: are you providing a replacement, or refunding me? Get the answer in writing the same day.

Push the replacement back onto them

A cancelling supplier has a network you do not. A photographer who cannot make your date knows six photographers of similar standard and can make those calls in an hour. Ask them to. Most will, because it protects their reputation.

Insist on seeing full portfolios rather than accepting whoever is free. A replacement is a new booking and deserves the same scrutiny as the first.

Widen the brief before you widen the budget

At three weeks, availability is the binding constraint. The flexible things are style, format and hours, not date. A four-piece instead of a six-piece. A DJ with a saxophonist instead of a band. A different but equally good florist whose style is not identical to the one you lost.

Couples who insist on an exact like-for-like replacement at short notice pay a significant premium for it, and often end up with someone less suited.

Ask who else is on your list

Your other suppliers work in this industry every week. Your celebrant knows which photographers are good. Your photographer knows which bands fill a floor. One round of calls to people you have already booked is the fastest route to a credible shortlist, and it costs nothing.

This is where long-standing supplier relationships earn their value. Eighteen years in Melbourne means Stuey can usually solve a three-week cancellation with two phone calls, because he already knows who is good and who is free.

Pay by a method you can dispute

Credit card or PayPal for a rushed booking, never a bank transfer. If the replacement also falls through you have a path to recovery. Bank transfers to an unknown supplier at short notice are how a bad situation becomes a worse one.

Tell the people who need to know

A changed supplier affects the run sheet, the bump-in, and possibly the layout. Update the schedule and send it round. Do not leave your other suppliers to discover the change on the day.