What is in the contract
The agreement has seven short clauses that cover the disputes photographers actually run into. Services fixes the date, place and hours, and says extra hours are billable. Payment names the total, the non-refundable retainer that reserves the date, and the balance due a week before. Delivery sets the turnaround and what the client receives, with RAW files excluded by default. Copyright and usage keeps copyright with you, licenses personal use to the client, and gives you portfolio rights unless they opt out. Cancellation forfeits the retainer outside the window and the full fee inside it, allows one free reschedule, and says what happens if you cannot shoot. Limitation of liability caps your exposure at fees paid. General makes it the whole agreement and, optionally, names the governing state.
Setting the numbers
A 25% to 50% retainer is standard for weddings; sessions under a few hundred dollars are often paid in full at booking, so set the retainer to 100%. Six to eight weeks delivery is typical for weddings, two to three for portrait sessions. The cancellation window should be long enough that you could realistically rebook the date: thirty days for sessions, sixty to ninety for peak-season weddings.
Before you send it
Read the generated PDF once as the client would. Describe deliverables in plain numbers (how many images, which formats, whether prints or an album are included) because "edited images" alone invites argument. If you offer second shooters, engagement sessions or albums as add-ons, list them in deliverables with their prices. This is a general template and not legal advice; a one-hour review by a local lawyer is cheap insurance for a wedding business.