oooo friends today is a good one…. three mistakes to avoid as a wedding photographer… ready for a little bit of tough love?!?!!? let’s do it!

ONE | stop accepting every bride and groom that lands in your inbox… they can’t ALL be your ideal client — BUT THAT’S OKAY!!!  this is where understanding your vision and your why is crucial for the longevity and success of your business… one super simple thing that you can do to ensure you’re the best fit for your potential clients — initial client questionnaire — it’s understood and accepted that brides reaching out are essentially interviewing photographers, right?!?!?! you should be interviewing them too… i always tell our potential brides/grooms that we respect their day SO MUCH – that we truly would never show up on their day if we knew we weren’t the right fit — because ultimately, we wouldn’t be able to serve them as well as someone else… this is why having a referral group of other trusted photographers is also important!!!

TWO | stop going with the flow on the day of the wedding… i get it – you’re type b.. and there’s something so beautiful about that… but let’s be honest — this is someone’s wedding day… this is the day that they’ll look back on for the rest of their lives… and you need to ensure you know exactly what’s going to happen – play by play… bonus points if you can help your couples craft a rock solid timeline… this is one of the TOP things our brides tell us they loved most about us… that THEY were able to relax and be stress free — because we knew exactly what was happening, when it was happening… and WHY… we do our bests to ensure our brides can be type b — which means we need to be organized and structured… this also allows for each of our team members to be on the same page… we always have a pre-wedding job brief and never just show up to a wedding… that would be a disservice to our brides because we wouldn’t have been able to effectively go over expectations, the timeline, the massive wedding day questionnaire we have our brides fill out — and we wouldn’t have had OUR time to connect and catch up, so that we were all in sync and connected for our couples!!!

THREE | stop spending so many hours in random facebook groups looking for last minute second shooters… i STRONGLY encourage you to look for a dependable – on brand second shooter that your brides can grow to trust TOO… my brides have always said they loved knowing who was showing up on their wedding day… when you continuously work with random second shooters — you’re never fully allowing yourself to stand in your vision because you’re constantly having to remind those random second shooters of how you do things and your why… don’t get me wrong – there have totally been times we’ve had to outsource a second shooter or a wedding assistant…. and that’s why i can CONFIDENTLY tell you that it’s just not the best route to take…. when you’re working with folks you don’t know – how do you know that you share the same core values, client appreciation!?!? you really don’t — and how do you know that the night before the wedding, they won’t go out drinking and bail on you… every.single.time. i see this happen to a friend of mine, i get super upset – not only for my friend, but for that bride… we need to TRULY respect these weddings and start working with reliable, dependable people who we trust AND our brides can rely on.. they deserve to be loved on well.