Terms and Conditions
Please see below terms and conditions prior to the arrival of your consultation.
TERMS & CONDITIONS Version 1 – 7 June 2022
1. About Us
White Butterfly Bridal Couture is owned and operated by Fiona Tosello (ABN 61 357 210 196) (“us/we/our”). We specialise in creating made-to-measure couture gowns for special occasions, and our service includes consultation, design, handcrafting, fitting and finishing your garment (our “Services).
2. Your Agreement to these Terms and Conditions
By paying the deposit following receipt of these Terms and Conditions, or by providing your verbal or written agreement, and/or signing below, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. We will only commence our Services upon receiving confirmation of your agreement to these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to all of these Terms and Conditions, then we may not supply our Services to you. If you are under 18 years old, we will require an adult of at least 18 years old to enter into this binding contract with us on your behalf. These Terms and Conditions constitute the entire agreement between us and take precedence over terms of trade contained in any document of the client or elsewhere. Any variation or waiver of a provision of these terms or a party's consent to a departure from a provision by another party is ineffective unless in writing signed by the parties.
3. Working with Us
(a) The creation process: Creating couture pieces involves a process of design and collaboration between us and our clients. Appointments are required to ensure that we capture and reflect your ideas into our design process, to draw the design sketch and to take body measurements and conduct fittings to ensure an expert fit to a high standard. You may bring to your initial appointment any ideas of styles, fabrics and details that you already have to assist our design process. We will draw from our extensive experience and expertise to work with you to design a garment, bringing your ideas to life to the extent possible whilst making appropriate expert recommendations.
(b) Event dates: We will request your event date upon taking your booking for your initial appointment, and will typically require at least 6 months to create each of our garments. We reserve the right to decline any orders where the event date is less than 6 months away. Upon securing your deposit, we commit to completing your garment by your event date. However, any late requests for design changes made by you may not be accommodated if such changes may impact on meeting the completion date. If you later encounter any issues which may result in changes to your event date, you must inform us as soon as possible. For a date change that brings the event date earlier than expected, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to complete the garment to the same design and will work with you to explore possible options. In the event that this results in you requesting us to create the garment to the same design within a shorter timeframe, we reserve the right to charge an additional rush fee of 20% of the total labour cost.
(c) Appointments and Fittings: We require your commitment to generally 3-4 fittings in addition to the initial appointment for wedding/evening gowns and 1-2 fittings for christening gowns, in our boutique over a period of 6 months for most designs, unless otherwise agreed. We welcome the attendance of friends and family at your appointments, however, we limit the number of extra attendees (not including you) to 1 person.
We are open by appointment only during the following hours:
Mon to Fri from 9am till 6pm
Saturdays 10am till 1pm.
Please advise if cancelling/rescheduling an appointment for if there is a no show, a cost of $50 will apply which will be automatically added to your final cost.
A final fitting is mandatory before collection of a completed garment.
(d) Underwear: We recommend choosing the underwear you will be wearing with the garment at an early stage in the process, and once chosen, we require this same underwear to be worn to each fitting, to ensure consistency of fit. We cannot guarantee the look and fit of the completed garment if different underwear is later worn with it.
(e) Shoes: We ask that you bring your final chosen event shoes to the calico fitting, which will determine the hem length. If you change your event shoes without informing White Butterfly Bridal Couture and the hem work has been completed, White Butterfly Bridal Couture holds no responsibility regarding the length of the gown, and the hem will only be done again (where possible) with additional charges, to be determined on a case-to-case basis. The hem length cannot be extended if the shoe change is higher, only shortened.
(f) Hoop Hire: We have a variety of hoops for hire, should a gown need one to enhance its appearance. We charge an additional $100 hiring fee per event use which includes cleaning.
(g) Cleaning: Should the gown become soiled in any way by you or your guests during a fitting, it is your responsibility to have the gown cleaned. We suggest being careful with your gown during your fittings to prevent stains. White Butterfly Bridal Couture is not responsible for stains on your gown due to lotions, medications, self-tanners, perspiration, etc. that may be transferable when wearing the garment. For this reason, we suggest avoiding using any products on your skin prior to attending a fitting. White Butterfly Bridal Couture may recommend a professional dry cleaner for your convenience and arrange for any offsite cleaning, but White Butterfly Bridal Couture in no way endorses any recommended provider, nor guarantees that stains can be successfully removed. In the event that stains cannot be removed even after professional treatment, we reserve the right to charge additional costs for labour and materials to remake any affected sections of the gown.
(h) Changes to body size and pregnancy: If you experience considerable changes in body size/shape from when measurements were taken (including excessive weight gain, muscle gain or rapid weight loss), we will explore whether alterations are a viable solution. Where this occurs after the fabric has been cut (following the calico fitting), we cannot guarantee any alterations can be made, depending on the changes required. Any alterations that can be made will come at an additional cost to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Please advise if you are pregnant or may soon be pregnant. For pregnant clients, fittings are closer together leading up to the date, depending on how far along the pregnancy is and how far away the event date is.
(i) Alterations: After the payment of the deposit, any design changes, depending on the change may incur an additional charge. Limited design changes can be made once the calico has been approved (which is at the end of the calico fitting appointment, typically the first fitting) and depending on the change, additional costs may apply. This will be assessed on a case-to- case basis. Any additional add-on requirements at any stage such as extra beading, lace etc. will incur an additional charge. No requests for alterations will be considered upon completion of the garment.
(j) Communication: We will endeavour to communicate early with you any issues that impact upon the creation of the garment. At any stage of the design process if you are unhappy or have concerns, please communicate with us, to enable us to explore solutions with you.
4. Payments
(a) Deposit: The following deposit is required when the order is taken, for any gown:
Evening Gown $100
Bridal Gown $500
Christening Gown $100
Payment of this deposit confirms your order, your chosen design, and secures our Services to meet your event date deadline for completion of the garment. We will not commence our Services nor reserve time or materials for the making of a garment unless and until a deposit has been paid.
(b) Labour and Material Costs: At your initial appointment with us, we will provide you with a quote of our labour cost only (excluding the cost of materials such as fabric, beading and lace), based on the information provided to us and the design chosen.
We will work with you on fabric selection and any fabrics and other materials required for the garment incur an additional cost. Upon paying your deposit, we will place an order for the required materials with our supplier/s, and those costs as itemised appropriately in a written invoice will be passed to you for payment to us in full. Our Services will not continue beyond the first calico fitting unless and until materials have been paid for in full.
Any quote for labour costs is valid only for 30 days from the date of issue.
Our labour costs may change in the event of your request for later design/detail alterations where such changes can be accommodated. The cost of materials from our supplier may change in the event of supply issues outside of our control which may impact on the availability of the materials originally chosen. Any revised quote document we issue in respect of any changes supersedes the original quote. If the revised quote only specifies additional work/materials, the quote for the additional work/materials will be in addition to the immediately preceding quote.
(c) Part Payments: Part payments towards satisfaction of the full labour cost are required at each fitting. Additional payments can be made but a minimum payment of 10% of the total labour cost must be paid at each fitting. Indicative payment structure (based on a sample labour cost of $2,500 for wedding dress with four fittings):
Initial Appointment
Deposit
$500
Fitting 1
Calico fitting
$250
Fitting 2
Fabric fitting
(assumes all fabric paid for)
$750
Fitting 3
Hem fitting
$500
Fitting 4
Final fitting (mandatory)
$500
TOTAL
$2,500
(d) GST: We are not registered for Goods and Services Tax.
5. Risk and Title
Property in garments does not pass to you until and unless all money (including money owing in respect of other transactions between us) due and payable to us have been fully paid by you. As such, all outstanding payments must be paid in full before collecting/picking up your gown. If full payment isn’t made, the gown will remain the property of White Butterfly Bridal Couture until full payment has been made, and we reserve the right to enforce our rights to legal damages. If a completed gown is not collected and paid for after 6 months of the event date, we will reserve the right to use the garment as we see fit and the client cannot collect it at a later date. We do not allow you to remove garments from our premises at any stage of the production process until and unless title to the garment has passed to you.
Risk in garments passes to you immediately upon collection, and we will not be responsible for any loss or damage in transportation.
We will issue you a receipt upon collection of your completed garment after your final fitting, to evidence your full payment and collection of the garment. All reasonable care is taken to ensure that all our completed gowns are in ready-to wear condition upon collection. However, please advise immediately should there be any identified faults. In particular, please check all zippers, enclosures/clasps. If you do not advise us of any fault in the garment at the final fitting, you are deemed to have accepted that the garment is free from faults and accords with your order. Nothing in this clause affects your rights for any alleged failure of a guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law.
6. Cancellations
As the gowns we produce are bespoke couture garments made to your specifications, strict cancellation terms apply irrespective of your reason for cancellation (including where an event is cancelled). Our cancellation terms reflect the investment of our time and expertise in creating a garment to order.
Deposit: Regardless of the time frame of any cancellation, the deposit is non-refundable.
Part payments: If the order is cancelled at any time prior to completion, all monies paid up to that date are forfeited.
Where you wish to cancel an order and take property of the incomplete garment, you may only do so by paying the remainder of the amount owing to us as a lump sum, in which case title to the incomplete garment will transfer to you and you may collect it. However, as it will no longer be a completed garment created by White Butterfly Bridal Couture, we will remove all identifying tags and request that the garment is not attributed to us. If an incomplete garment that is fully paid for is not collected from White Butterfly Bridal Couture within 6 months of the cancellation date, then the gown is officially property of White Butterfly Bridal Couture. The client will no longer have any authority over the gown/property. Consequently, we will reserve the right to use the gown as we see fit and the client cannot collect at a later date.
7. Intellectual Property
The intellectual property in all designs/sketches/gowns created/designed by White Butterfly Bridal Couture in consultation with a client vest in and remain the property of White Butterfly Bridal Couture. White Butterfly Bridal Couture holds all rights to this design and no intellectual property rights are assigned, licensed or otherwise made available to you or any third parties as a result of us providing you with our Services. Advice given to brides/clients from White Butterfly Bridal Couture are subject to each individual bride and may not be applicable to every bride.
We pride ourselves in our original bespoke designs made specifically for each client, and whilst we may examine certain design elements or images for inspiration, we will refuse Service to clients who request that we copy designs and infringe upon the intellectual property rights of other creators. You indemnify us and agree to keep us indemnified against all losses incurred by us in relation to or in any way directly or indirectly connected with: any breach of any intellectual property rights in relation to any material supplied by you to us; and any act or omission by you or parties acting on your behalf in infringement of our intellectual property rights.
8. Photography
We may take photographs or videos of you wearing your garment at your fittings, including at your final fitting, to assist with our production process and also to promote and showcase our Services on social media, print brochures and on our website. We will own the rights in these photographs and videos.
Within 4 weeks of your event, we also kindly request that you provide us with 6-10 high-resolution, watermark-free images of you in your completed White Butterfly Bridal Couture garment at your event, to assist in promoting and showcasing our Services on social media, print brochures and on our website. You grant to us an irrevocable, non-exclusive, perpetual licence to the intellectual property in the content provided to us for these purposes, and release us from all liability for any claims made by you or any third party relating to use of such content.
9. Privacy
When you engage us, we collect the personal information you give us such as your name, address, phone number and email address. We will only use your personal information to deliver our Services to you and collect payments, and to communicate any marketing news and events to you from time to time (you may opt out of marketing communications). We also use third party providers such as payment gateways and processors who may have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your payment-related transactions. We use Square (https://squareup.com/au/en) for our electronic payment processing. We may disclose your personal information if we are required by law to do so.
10. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permissible at law, in no case shall we, our directors, officers, employees, affiliates, agents, contractors, interns, suppliers, or service providers be liable for any injury, loss, claim, or any direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, special, or consequential damages of any kind, including, without limitation lost profits, lost revenue, lost savings, loss of data, replacement costs, or any similar damages, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability or otherwise, arising from your use of any of our Services, or for any other claim related in any way to your use of the Service, including, but not limited to, any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the Service, even if advised of their possibility.
The Australian Consumer Law may give you certain guarantees. Where liability for breach of any such guarantee can be limited, our liability (if any) arising from any breach of those guarantees is limited with respect to the supply of goods, to the replacement or repair of the goods or the costs of resupply or replacement of the goods or with respect to services to the supply of services again or cost of re-supplying the services again.
11. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us and our affiliates, partners, officers, directors, agents, contractors, service providers, subcontractors, suppliers, interns and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third-party due to or arising out of your breach of these Terms and Conditions, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third-party.
12. Termination and Default
These Terms and Conditions are effective unless and until terminated by either you or us. You may terminate these Terms and Conditions at any time by notifying us that you are cancelling your order. However, the obligations and liabilities of the parties incurred prior to the termination date shall survive the termination of this agreement.
If in our sole judgment an event of default has occurred, we also may terminate this agreement at any time by giving you written notice and you will remain liable for all amounts due up to and including the date of termination. Each of the following occurrences constitutes an event of default:
(a) you breach or are alleged to have breached these Terms and Conditions for any reason (including, but not limited to, defaulting on any payment due under these Terms and Conditions, failing to attend necessary fittings and appointments without appropriate communication, infringing our intellectual property rights) and either fail to remedy that breach within 7 days of being given notice by us to do so, or the breach is incapable of being remedied;
(b) you, being a natural person, commit an act of bankruptcy;
(c) you purport to assign your rights under these Terms and Conditions without our prior written consent;
(d) you cancel your order with us.
Where an event of default occurs, we may:
(a) terminate any or all orders with you;
(b) refuse to provide further Services;
(c) re-sell any goods prepared for you, the payment for which has not been received; and
(d) retain the following monies:
Deposit: Regardless of the time frame of any termination, the deposit is non-refundable.
Part payments: If the termination occurs at any time prior to completion, all monies paid up to that date are forfeited.
13. Events Outside Our Control
We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations that is caused by events outside our reasonable control (a "Force Majeure Event").
A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-happening, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control and includes in particular (without limitation) the following:
(a) strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action;
(b) civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war;
(c) fire, explosion, storm, flood, extreme snow, ice, earthquake, subsidence, pandemic, epidemic or other natural disaster;
(d) impossibility of the use of railways, shipping, aircraft, motor transport or other means of public or private transport;
(e) impossibility of the use of public or private telecommunications networks;
(f) the acts, decrees, legislation, regulations or restrictions of any government;
(g) non-performance by suppliers or subcontractors; or
(h) non-performance by us due to accident, injury or other unforeseen event beyond our reasonable control.
If a Force Majeure Event prevents or hinders our provision of the Services, we may temporarily suspend our provision of the Services while those circumstances continue, with appropriate communication to you. Where such circumstances persist beyond 4 weeks, either party may elect to terminate this agreement. Upon such termination, title and risk to the garment will transfer to you and we may provide you with a recommendation to an alternative provider. If any part of payments made by you to date represents an unused prepayment (taking into consideration the level of time and effort we have already expended on the garment as determined by its level of completion), this will be refunded to you. However, if any payments proportional to the level of completion of the garment remain outstanding, these must be paid as a condition to us transferring title of the garment to you.
14. Severability
Each of the paragraphs of these Terms and Conditions operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.
15. Governing Law
These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of New South Wales. Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with such contract or its formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales.
16. Contact
Questions about these Terms and Conditions should be sent to us at: ftosello@live.com.au
Payment of your deposit following receipt of these Terms and Conditions or signing below signifies your acceptance of the above Terms and Conditions.
SIGNED: __________________________________________________
NAME: __________________________________________________
DATE: __________________________________________________
OFFICE USE ONLY: White Butterfly Bridal Couture has either (please select ONE):
⬜ Taken a copy/photo of this signed document to send to the client for the client’s records (White Butterfly Bridal Couture keeps the original) OR
⬜ Requested client’s signature on 2 duplicates of this document, one duplicate to be kept by each party for its records where the parties agree that both documents are identical and each document is an official version of the agreement and of equal legal validity