Terms of Service

Version 2.3 · Updated 1 October 2026 · Effective 14 October 2026

Version 2.2 (13 September 2026) applies until the effective date. Version 2.3 removes section 9c on change orders, clarifies in section 4 how changes after acceptance work, confirms that unanswered release requests do not trigger early release, aligns the plain-language payment summary with section 6, and removes the trust account paragraph from section 5, which did not describe how payments are held.

1. About Novia

Novia is a wedding planning service for couples marrying in South Africa. Novia is a trading name of blndr Agency (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2023/842170/07), a company registered in South Africa. Couples choose their venue from the venues on the platform. Novia then puts the rest of the day together with a small group of suppliers it works with (our “partners”), and keeps the brief, quotes, contracts and payments in one place with milestone-based payment protection.

Our role. Novia plans and coordinates, and handles payment. Each venue and each partner delivers its own service under its own quote, and the contract for that service is between the couple and that venue or partner. Novia is not a party to that service contract. What Novia does take on is set out in section 1b. On every booking made through the platform Novia enforces these Terms, the standard Cancellation & Refund Policy, and the dispute process in section 10.

1b. How Novia Plans With You

This section describes the planning service. It applies from the moment you complete your brief or send your first enquiry.

What Novia does.

Proposes your team. Once your venue is confirmed, Novia proposes a supplier for each category you need (photography, flowers, catering, music and so on), chosen from partners Novia has vetted and works with. A proposal shows the partner, their starting price and why we picked them.
Sends the requests. Novia sends each proposed partner your date, venue, guest count, style and the budget for their category, and asks for availability and a quote on your behalf. Partners respond within 2 business days. If a partner is unavailable or does not respond in time, Novia moves to the next partner and tells you.
Keeps everything in one place. Your brief, every quote, the accepted contract, your messages and every payment sit in your Novia account.
Coordinates. Novia builds the timeline for your day, shares it with every partner and coordinates between them before and on the day. Where on-the-day coordination is provided, it is carried out by a coordinator appointed by Novia and appears as a line on a quote you accept, so you see its cost before you commit.
Holds the money. Every payment goes through Novia and is held by Novia under sections 5 and 6 until the service has been delivered.

What stays yours. You choose your venue. Nothing is booked until you accept a quote yourself. You can ask for a different partner in any category at any time before you accept a quote, and Novia will propose another one where it reasonably can.

What Novia does not guarantee. A proposal is Novia’s recommendation. It is not a guarantee that a partner is available, that a price will be quoted, or of the outcome of their work. Each venue and partner delivers under its own quote and remains responsible for that delivery. If they do not deliver, your remedies are the payment protection in sections 5 and 6, the dispute process in section 10 (including a replacement partner sourced where reasonably possible) and the Cancellation & Refund Policy. Novia’s own liability is limited as set out in section 13.

What it costs you. The planning service is free for couples. The only amount Novia adds to what you pay is the 2.9% processing fee shown before every payment. Venues and partners pay Novia a platform fee out of the price they quote. The price you see is the price you pay.

Communication. Requests, proposals, quotes and messages run through the platform. Contact details are filtered from messages until a booking has been paid, which protects both you and the partner. Novia may contact you by email about your planning.

2. Using Our Platform

By creating an account you confirm that you are 18 years or older, that the information you provide is accurate, and that you will use the platform in good faith. Couples can browse venues, complete a brief, send enquiries, receive proposals, message venues and partners, accept quotes, and use the planning tools. Venues that have claimed their listing, and suppliers Novia has admitted as partners, can respond to requests, send quotes and invoices, and receive payouts via Paystack. Suppliers are not listed publicly; Novia puts them forward as part of the planning service.

3. Pricing Transparency (CPA §22 & §23)

Novia is built around price transparency. To uphold this and to comply with the South African Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (the “CPA”):

Every listing a business has claimed must show a real starting price in ZAR. Vague pricing such as “price on application” is not permitted. Directory profiles a business has not yet claimed show no price at all, rather than a guess.
Every quote sent through the platform must itemise what is included at the quoted price, what is excluded, and any optional extras with their unit prices. Quotes that fail this test are blocked from being sent.
Quotes are written in plain language. Any fixed-term commitment exceeding 24 months must be flagged separately.
The 2.9% processing fee is shown before every payment. The platform fee that venues and partners pay to Novia (5%, or 2.5% for founding partners until 31 December 2026) is included in the price they quote and is never added to your total.

4. Quotes, Validity & Re-Quoting

Each quote is valid for the period stated on its face (default 14 days from issue). After that date the quote expires automatically and the couple cannot pay against it; the vendor must issue a fresh quote at current pricing.

After acceptance, the vendor may send the couple a new, separate quote through Novia for extra services or a changed brief. The accepted contract and any payments already made remain unchanged.

5. Payments & Holds

Payments are processed by Paystack. Every invoice is paid in milestones held by Novia:

Milestone (held payment). Payment is split into stages (e.g. 25% deposit, 50% interim, 25% final), or is a single payment where the quote has no schedule. Each milestone is held by Novia. Funds release only when the couple confirms the milestone has been delivered, or automatically per the schedule in section 6. Novia’s platform fee is deducted from the venue’s or partner’s share at release. Paystack’s 2.9% processing fee is added to the couple’s payment at checkout.

In plain language, for couples. Deposits and interim payments are released 14 days after you pay, so vendors may receive them before your wedding. Your final payment, including a single payment without a schedule, is released 7 days after your wedding or 14 days after you pay, whichever is later; without a wedding date on record, it is released 14 days after you pay. Confirming delivery allows earlier release, an open dispute stops release, and no payment is held longer than 548 days after you pay. Section 6 sets out the exact rule.

All amounts are in ZAR. Paystack is responsible for processing security and PCI-DSS compliance.

Vendor cash-flow protection. A vendor who has delivered a milestone may request early release of a held payment with evidence, such as photos, signed delivery confirmation or a written statement. The couple has 5 business days to approve or dispute the request. Approval releases the payment immediately; a dispute follows the process in section 10. If the couple does not respond, the payment is not released early and remains subject to its normal release date under section 6.

Chargebacks. Where a milestone has been delivered, confirmed (or auto-released) and is undisputed, couples agree not to initiate a card-network chargeback in lieu of the dispute process in section 10. Chargebacks against delivered services are a material breach of these Terms and may result in account suspension, recovery of the chargeback amount via legal means, and a report to credit-bureau partners.

6. Payment Release Policy

Funds release on the earliest of:

The couple confirming delivery of a milestone in the platform.
Automatic release, if no dispute is raised. Deposit and interim milestones release 14 days after the funds were received by Novia. The final milestone releases 7 days after the wedding date, or 14 days after the funds were received by Novia, whichever of the two is later. A reminder is sent to the couple 7 days before that release date.
Resolution of an open dispute in favour of the vendor.

Why the final milestone is different. A deposit is a commitment fee paid long before anything is delivered, and holding it until the wedding would be an unreasonable cash-flow burden on the vendor, so it follows the 14-day rule. The final milestone is held until after the wedding because that is the first moment the couple can actually judge whether the service was delivered. The 7 days after the wedding are a window to raise a dispute, not a delay imposed on the vendor.

How this applies in practice. Where an invoice has a single payment rather than a schedule, that payment is the final milestone and is therefore anchored to the wedding date on the same terms. Where no wedding date is recorded against the booking, the final milestone falls back to releasing 14 days after the funds were received by Novia. No milestone is ever held for longer than 548 days (approximately 18 months) from the date the funds were received by Novia, whatever wedding date is on file.

Section 5 above sets out the separate route by which a vendor who has delivered may request early release with evidence.

7. Cancellation, Cooling-off & Refunds

Cooling-off (CPA section 16). Because bookings on Novia are concluded electronically, every couple has the right to withdraw within 5 business days of accepting a quote, with a full refund of any amounts paid. The Withdraw button is available in your couple dashboard on every accepted quote until that window closes. Vendors are notified at the moment of acceptance and only treat the booking as confirmed after the cooling-off period has elapsed.

After cooling-off. The full schedule of refund percentages is on our Cancellation & Refund Policy page and applies as the default to all bookings on the platform. Vendors may publish stricter or more generous schedules of their own; the schedule shown on each quote at the time of acceptance is the binding one and cannot be changed retroactively.

Acceptance & binding terms. When a couple clicks “Accept & Sign” on a quote, Novia takes a permanent snapshot of the inclusions, exclusions, optional extras, line items, total, cancellation schedule, force-majeure clause, coordination dependencies and any active surcharge clauses. That snapshot is the contract for the booking and is emailed to both parties as a viewable link.

8. Force Majeure

Neither party is in breach of these Terms or of an underlying booking when performance is prevented by an event reasonably outside their control. For South African weddings these include, but are not limited to:

Eskom load-shedding at Stage 4 or above on the event day, where it materially affects the venue (no backup power, refrigeration loss, etc.).
Government-declared natural disaster, state of emergency or pandemic-related restriction.
Severe weather warning issued by the South African Weather Service for outdoor venues.
Strike or industrial action affecting key suppliers.
Fuel-price escalation beyond the surcharge mechanism in section 9 below.

When a force majeure event affects a booking, parties will first attempt to reschedule. If rescheduling is not possible, the refund follows the “Force Majeure” row of the Cancellation & Refund Policy: vendors retain reasonable out-of-pocket costs already incurred (with proof) and refund the remainder.

9. Fuel-Price Escalation Clause

The South African petrol price is regulated monthly by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and is materially affected by global oil prices and the rand exchange rate. Where a quote includes a transport, mobile-catering, or off-site delivery component, the vendor may include a fuel-surcharge policy on that quote, capped as follows:

The fuel index at the date of the quote (typically the wholesale petrol price for that province) is recorded on the quote.
If, on the date the service is actually delivered, the index has risen more than 15% above the recorded value, the vendor may pass on a surcharge of up to 5% of the affected line items’ subtotal.
The surcharge must be communicated in writing through the platform at least 7 days before the event. If communicated later, it is forfeited.
If a surcharge is invoked, the couple may cancel the affected line items without penalty within 48 hours of the surcharge notice.

Vendors may not invoke this clause for general inflation, currency fluctuation under 10%, or events more than 7 days before delivery.

9b. Materials Price Escalation (optional, capped)

For categories where raw-materials cost can swing materially between quote and delivery (e.g. florists, caterers), vendors may opt into a Materials Escalation Clause on their listing, capped at 8% of the affected line items’ subtotal and triggered only when the official Stats SA Consumer Price Index has risen more than 3% above the index recorded on the quote date. The vendor must produce proof of cost (supplier invoices) when invoking the clause and must give the couple at least 7 days’ notice. The couple may cancel the affected line items without penalty within 48 hours of receiving the surcharge notice.

10. Dispute Resolution

Either party may raise a dispute through the platform. Novia’s commitments:

Acknowledgement within 2 business days.
Investigation completed within 5 business days of acknowledgement.
Both parties may upload evidence (messages, photos, signed documents) directly to the dispute thread.
If the responding party does not engage within 7 days of acknowledgement, the dispute is escalated to senior review and may be decided on the available evidence.

Possible outcomes:

Full refund to the couple (vendor did not deliver).
Partial refund proportional to what was delivered.
Funds released to the vendor (dispute unfounded).
Replacement vendor sourced where reasonably possible.

Novia’s decision is final and binding for disputes under R50 000. For larger disputes parties may proceed to independent arbitration under the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) rules. Repeated upheld disputes against a vendor (3 or more) result in removal from the platform.

Minor feedback. Not every issue rises to a dispute. Couples may send minor feedback (a 1–5 rating with a note) attached to a milestone, e.g. a small detail that fell short. The vendor receives this privately and can reply. Feedback influences the Trust Score lightly but does not trigger the dispute SLA or refund flow. It is not displayed publicly unless the couple later upgrades it to a public review.

11. Vendor Obligations (summary)

Detailed vendor terms are in the Vendor Agreement. In summary, venues and partners must deliver services as quoted, respond to requests and enquiries within 2 business days, keep listings accurate, and honour the cancellation schedule attached to each accepted quote.

12. Couple Obligations

Couples must confirm milestone delivery, or raise a dispute, before that milestone’s automatic release date under section 6: 14 days after payment for deposit and interim milestones, and 7 days after the wedding for the final milestone. Disputes must be raised in good faith with supporting evidence, and couples must not engage in chargeback abuse against the vendor or Novia. Frivolous disputes may result in account restrictions.

13. Limitation of Liability

Novia’s liability to either party for any claim arising from the platform is capped at the total platform fees paid in respect of the relevant booking. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under South African law (including under the CPA, sections 51 and 61).

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes are notified to registered users by email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use of the platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

15. Governing Law & Contact

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Questions or notices: hello@novia.wedding.