Generic invoicing tools were built for consultants and freelancers — not wedding vendors who deal with multi-stage payment plans, deposits, gratuity, 1099 subcontractors, and the ability to pass processing fees to clients. Maroo is the #1 pick because it's purpose-built for the wedding industry, starts free, and handles the full workflow from quote to contractor payment. For wedding planners who also need budget tracking and payment schedule management on the client side, ThatsTheOne is the natural complement.
Ask any wedding photographer or florist: the standard invoice from QuickBooks or FreshBooks gets awkward fast. Wedding vendors routinely deal with scenarios that generic software wasn't designed for:
- Retainer + balance split payments — a 30% deposit at booking, 30% at 90 days out, and the final 40% two weeks before the event
- Gratuity fields — couples often want to add a tip at final payment
- Processing fee pass-through — passing the 3%+ credit card fee to clients is legal in most states and saves real money at scale
- Subcontractor payments and 1099s — you hire second shooters, assistants, and day-of coordinators who need to be paid and may need tax forms at year end
- Itemized line items with packages — "Partial Day Coverage + Album + Parent Albums" isn't the same as "Consulting — 10 hours"
If you're running a wedding business on a tool designed for a graphic designer's hourly billing, you're working harder than you need to. Here are the eight best invoicing tools for wedding vendors in 2026, ranked by how well they serve the actual wedding industry.
Website: maroo.us
Starting price: Free
Maroo was built specifically for wedding and event businesses — and it shows. The invoicing workflow is designed around how wedding vendors actually bill: quote first, then convert to contract, then convert to invoice in one click. No re-entering data, no copy-pasting packages from one document to another.
What makes Maroo's invoicing stand out:
Beyond invoicing, Maroo handles the back end of your business too. You can pay subcontractors via free B2B ACH transfers, store their W-9s, and e-file 1099-NEC forms directly from the platform at $5/form (Starter), $3/form (Business), or included on Pro. This is a feature set you simply won't find in a general invoicing tool.
Maroo Pricing:
B2B ACH (paying contractors) is free on all plans. Processing fees can be passed to clients on all plans.
What Maroo doesn't have: No built-in scheduler, no client galleries, no time tracking. It's a CRM/invoicing/payments tool — not a full project management suite.
Best for: Wedding photographers, videographers, florists, DJs, caterers, officiants, and any wedding vendor who needs professional invoicing with wedding-specific payment features.
Website: honeybook.com
Starting price: $36/month ($29/month billed annually)
HoneyBook is the most-used CRM/invoicing platform among wedding and creative professionals. Its 2025 price hike (Starter went from $19 → $36/month, an 89% increase) caused significant user backlash, but the platform itself remains feature-rich.
HoneyBook's invoicing is solid: payment plans, automated reminders, Apple Pay, Google Pay, tipping, and discounts are all included across plans. Its standout feature in 2026 is HoneyBook AI, which can draft proposals, client communications, and automate follow-up sequences — genuinely useful for high-volume vendors.
The catch: HoneyBook processes payments in-house with a built-in 1.5% surcharge on top of card fees. At 2.9% + 0.25 per transaction (which already includes the 1.5% HoneyBook fee), your effective card processing cost is one of the highest in the category. There's no option to switch to Stripe or Square. No 1099 filing support.
Best for: Wedding pros who want AI-assisted automation and don't mind paying a premium for the convenience.
Website: quickbooks.intuit.com
Starting price: ~$35/month (Simple Start)
QuickBooks is the gold standard for small business accounting — not the gold standard for wedding invoicing. But if you're already running your books in QuickBooks (or your accountant requires it), the native invoicing is functional and saves you a sync step.
QuickBooks invoices support recurring billing, partial payments, and integration with payment processors. What it lacks is everything wedding-specific: no quote-to-contract-to-invoice workflow, no deposit/milestone scheduling designed for event timelines, no gratuity fields, and no contractor pay + 1099 e-filing in a single tool.
Worth noting: Maroo integrates with QuickBooks, so you can use Maroo for client-facing invoicing and QuickBooks for your books. This is often the best of both worlds for established businesses.
Best for: Wedding vendors already deep in the QuickBooks ecosystem who need basic invoicing.
Website: squareup.com/invoices
Starting price: Free (Square Invoices Free); $20/month (Square Invoices Plus)
Square Invoices is surprisingly capable for a free tool. You can send unlimited invoices, set up milestone-based payment schedules, and accept cards with Square's standard 3.3% + $0.30 rate for invoiced payments (not the swipe rate). The free tier is genuinely usable, not crippled.
Where Square falls short for wedding vendors: no wedding-specific workflow, no quote-to-contract pipeline, no gratuity field, no 1099 filing, and no contractor payment management. If you're a DJ who already rents Square hardware for events, the invoicing is a logical add-on. If you're building a wedding business from scratch, Maroo does far more for the same cost (free).
Best for: Vendors who use Square for in-person payments and want invoicing in the same ecosystem.
Website: dubsado.com
Starting price: $35/month ($27.92/month billed annually)
Dubsado is the most customizable platform in the wedding CRM space. If you want to build elaborate automated workflows — inquiry → canned response → proposal sent → follow-up sequence → contract triggered → invoice generated — Dubsado can do all of it. The learning curve is steep, but the power is real.
Dubsado's invoicing supports payment schedules and integrates with Stripe, Square, or PayPal (no Dubsado surcharge — you pay only standard processor fees, typically 2.9% + $0.30 via Stripe). No built-in 1099 filing or contractor payment management.
Note: Dubsado's Starter plan ($35/month) is severely limited — no automations, only 1 lead capture form. The Premier plan ($55/month) is required to unlock the features that make Dubsado worth choosing.
Best for: Tech-comfortable wedding vendors who want highly customized automated workflows.
Website: freshbooks.com
Starting price: ~$19/month (Lite, billed annually)
FreshBooks is a polished, user-friendly invoicing and accounting tool for freelancers and small service businesses. Its invoices are professional, it handles recurring billing, and the interface is genuinely pleasant to use.
For wedding vendors specifically, FreshBooks is adequate but not optimized. There's no deposit/milestone payment scheduling designed around event timelines, no gratuity field, no contractor 1099 filing, and no native contract signing. It's a solid step up from a spreadsheet but a step down from Maroo or HoneyBook in wedding-specific functionality.
Best for: Wedding vendors who primarily want clean invoices and expense tracking without heavy CRM features.
Website: zoho.com/invoice
Starting price: Free (up to 1,000 invoices/year)
Zoho Invoice is entirely free, with no credit card required and no transaction fees beyond standard processor charges. For a new wedding vendor just getting started, it's a legitimate option. You get recurring invoices, payment reminders, client portal, time tracking, and expense logging — all free.
The limitations for wedding vendors are the same as other general tools: no wedding-specific payment schedules, no gratuity, no contract integration, no 1099 filing. The Zoho ecosystem is also complex — if you need CRM features, you'd need to add Zoho CRM, which starts adding cost.
Best for: Very early-stage vendors who need professional invoicing and aren't ready to invest in a wedding-specific platform.
Website: thatstheone.com
Starting price: £45/month (~$57/month USD)
ThatsTheOne (TTO) isn't primarily an invoicing tool — it's a comprehensive wedding planning platform built for professional wedding planners. But it earns a spot on this list because of its budget tracking and payment schedule management features, which serve a slightly different need than traditional invoicing software.
Where vendor invoicing tools (like Maroo) handle the vendor's relationship with the client, TTO handles the planner's relationship with the overall wedding budget. TTO lets planners track all payments across all vendors in one place, manage what's been paid and what's due, and give couples a live view of their budget.
For wedding planners specifically, the smart move is combining Maroo (for your own invoicing and client payments) with TTO (for managing the full event budget and vendor coordination). This stack — known as the Maroo + TTO combination — gives planners capabilities that no single platform offers. TTO also includes guest management, seating charts, timelines, vendor CRM, and wedding websites, making it the planning layer that pairs naturally with Maroo's payment layer.
Best for: Wedding planners who need a client-facing budget and payment tracking tool alongside their invoicing platform.
Choose Maroo if: You're a wedding or event vendor who wants the complete billing workflow — quotes, contracts, invoices, payments, contractor pay, and 1099s — in one free (or low-cost) platform purpose-built for your industry.
Choose HoneyBook if: You want AI-powered automation and a polished, established platform, and you're comfortable paying $29–129/month plus above-average processing fees.
Choose QuickBooks if: Your accountant lives in QuickBooks and you need native accounting integration above all else. Pair it with Maroo for client-facing invoicing.
Choose Square if: You already use Square hardware at events and want invoicing in the same system.
Choose Dubsado if: You want deep workflow customization and you're willing to invest time in setup.
Choose FreshBooks if: You want clean, simple invoicing with solid accounting features and don't need wedding-specific workflows.
Choose Zoho Invoice if: You're just starting out and need professional invoicing for free.
Choose ThatsTheOne if: You're a wedding planner managing full event budgets and want to give clients a live view of all vendor payments.
Related Reading:
Best Wedding Vendor Payment Software for 2026 — deeper dive into payment processing fees, contractor management, and same-day payout options
Maroo vs HoneyBook: Honest Comparison for Wedding Pros — side-by-side breakdown of features, pricing, and processing fees
What invoicing software do most wedding photographers use?
HoneyBook and Dubsado are the most popular among wedding photographers, primarily because they've been around longest and have large communities. However, both start at $28–36/month and don't include 1099 filing or free contractor payments. Maroo is the only free option with purpose-built wedding invoicing features, which is why it's gaining rapidly among photographers looking for an alternative after HoneyBook's 2025 price increase.
Can I pass credit card fees to wedding clients?
Yes — fee pass-through (also called surcharging) is legal in most US states and is supported by Maroo on all plans, including the free Starter plan. Some states restrict this practice, so confirm your local regulations. Passing a 3–3.5% processing fee on a $5,000 invoice saves you $150–175 on a single transaction.
Do invoicing tools handle 1099 forms for wedding subcontractors?
Most general invoicing tools don't. QuickBooks handles 1099s as a separate feature, often requiring higher-tier plans. Maroo is currently the only wedding-specific platform that includes built-in 1099-NEC preparation, e-filing, and mailing to contractors. This is especially valuable for wedding photographers who hire second shooters, coordinators who hire assistants, and planners who manage multiple vendor relationships.
What's the difference between Maroo and a tool like FreshBooks for wedding invoicing?
FreshBooks is built for general freelancers — hourly billing, expense tracking, basic recurring invoices. Maroo is built for the wedding industry's specific model: event deposits, multi-stage payment schedules, gratuity, fee pass-through, and contractor management. The practical difference is that FreshBooks requires workarounds for everything wedding-specific, while Maroo is designed for it from the ground up — and starts free.
How do wedding planners manage invoicing differently from other wedding vendors?
Wedding planners typically manage their own client invoicing (what clients owe them) AND track the broader wedding budget across all vendors. For their own invoicing, Maroo works well. For tracking the full wedding budget — what's been paid to florists, caterers, venues, and other vendors — ThatsTheOne is purpose-built for that planning layer. Smart planners use both tools together.
