Getting paid: payment holds, reserves and chargebacks for wedding vendors

Getting paid, and keeping it.

Payment processors hold, reserve and freeze wedding vendors' money more often than almost any other kind of small business, for reasons that have nothing to do with how good you are. This resource explains how the system works, in the processors' own words, and how to run your business so your income is never a surprise to a risk model.

Ten guides. Every factual claim is footnoted to a processor's terms, a card network's rules, a regulator or a published study, so you can check us and so you can quote it back to a processor when you need to.

Why we wrote this

Lazo was built by people who run wedding businesses. One of us has had funds held by a processor with no warning and no human to call, and discovered that the rules which allowed it had been in the terms all along. We would rather every vendor on Lazo read those rules before they need them. Lazo makes nothing from your payments, so we have no processor to sell you; see how payments work on Lazo.

14–18months: the average US engagement, so deposits land a year before delivery^1,2

120days a couple can dispute a card payment, counted from the wedding date³

100%of funds a processor's terms may let it hold in reserve, for up to 180 days⁴

1.5%dispute rate where networks call a merchant excessive; processors act far earlier⁵

The guides

Guide 1Why wedding vendors get flaggedThe four signals every wedding business sends a risk model Guide 2Holds, reserves and freezesWhat each one is, how long it lasts, what the terms actually say Guide 3The frozen-account playbookHour one to day ninety: what to send, what to say, what never to do Guide 4Chargebacks and disputesThe clock, the reason codes, the evidence that wins Guide 5Lower your risk profileTwelve habits that keep an account healthy Guide 6Contract language that protects youDeposit, cancellation, delivery and refund clauses, explained Guide 7Choosing a processorAggregator or merchant account, and the questions to ask before you sign Guide 8How payments work on LazoYour own account, our 0%, and what we can and cannot control Guide 9GlossaryReserve, MATCH, retrieval request and forty other terms, in plain words

If you have fifteen minutes

Read why wedding vendors get flagged. Five minutes. It reframes every email you will ever get from a processor.
Do the three things at the end of Lower your risk. Fix your statement descriptor, put your money terms above the signature line, take balances by bank transfer.
Bookmark the frozen-account playbook. You will not need it today. If you need it later, the first hour matters.

If it is happening right now

Go straight to the playbook. If you are a Lazo vendor and a processor is asking for proof of your bookings, email vendors@meetlazo.com and we will send a clean export of your signed agreements, invoices and threads the same day.

What this is and is not

It is an explanation of how card payments, holds, reserves and disputes work, written for wedding businesses and checked against the sources linked on every page. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, it does not recommend a processor, and it does not claim that any company treats vendors badly. Every aggregator's terms allow holds, and every one uses them. The useful question is not who to trust but how to be the account a risk team leaves alone.

Keep it honest

Processor terms change several times a year. If a figure here is out of date, or you have a documented experience that would help other vendors, write to vendors@meetlazo.com. We update the page and note the date.

Sources

Every guide in this resource is educational. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and it is not a promise about how any processor will treat your account. Processor terms change often; each source is linked so you can read the current version. Reviewed November 2026.

Getting paid, and keeping it.