A wedding is often one of the most important days in a couple’s lives, and as the wedding photographer, there’s a lot of pressure on you to capture those memories in the best way possible. Try our free course, Wedding Photography for Beginners to learn about everything you’ll need. In this lesson we’ll take a look at how you can build a great relationship with your clients.
Wedding Photography and Good Relationships With Clients
In this lesson, the quoted sections are from a client of mine whose wedding I photographed.
First Impressions
It's so important to make a good impression and this starts from the second that a couple get in touch for a quote. If you’re not confident in giving them a quote immediately — if you need time to work out your pricing – take key details from them such as their name, where the service is held and where the meal and evening party will be if that's a different venue. Also find out when they'd like photography, is it just the ceremony or is it a full day?
Take an email address and number and tell them that you'll put a quote together for them and get back to them ASAP, following up as soon as possible with a professional looking quote, preferably with more options. For example, they may have only asked for photography prices but you might want to include add-ons like a printed album or a wedding video.
“I think sometimes people get a bit embarrassed by calling for a quote, especially if you have that awkward conversation where you actually can’t afford them. It’s nice to get an idea of what you're going to get. You've got to have a price bracket because everybody budgets for a wedding, so you need to know that it falls within your budget. The price tags for weddings are ridiculous but it's if you can get a decent photographer for a nice price as well, it’s good.”
Consistency is Key
Be consistent with your prices, chances are the couple will have checked your website beforehand so make sure all pricing on there is accurate, you don't want to look like you're plucking a figure out of the air. Give your couple a few days to get back to you and then if you’ve not heard from them, think about following up with a quick phone call.
Meeting The Couple
Hopefully once you've done this, you'll secure a meeting with your couple. They'll usually have a few of these arranged to be able to compare different photographers so it's vital to connect with them and have a good offering.
Make them feel comfortable and confident in your ability and be sure to bring examples of your work with you, like an example album or even a tablet with pre-loaded images on.
Show your best work but try to make it different to your website because they most likely will have seen that already.
“We looked online, basically just searched for wedding photographers in our area and then had a look through and booked in a couple of interviews with people to get a feel of them. The first thing I went for was the gallery on the websites, so if it's easy to find the gallery that's good. Some of them were all over the place and the some of the worst websites I've ever seen for wedding photographers as well. If it’s easy to use and you can find the gallery quickly, I’d tend to stay on that page longer.”
While you're at your meeting, show interest in their big day aside from just the photography related stuff; ask lots of questions and engage with their answers.
If the couple don’t click with you, they probably won’t hire you.
“It was finding somebody who could come out after the normal working day time, who could put themselves out a bit to come and see you, so we only ended up interviewing 2 people and the first one was just very cold there was no interaction. He just put the brochures on the table and told us the price ranges, what we’d get and that was it, it was very impersonal. It’s good to know that you've got kind of rapport with photographers since you’re going to be around them quite a bit during the day.”
Get to Know Their Style
Find out what sort of pictures your clients are looking for, are they really traditional or up for some quirky stuff. You don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable on the day so it's really important to find out what they're likely to want to do.
“We wanted a natural photographer and we did want some silly poses and things like that but I wanted someone who was going to be able to do both and some of the photographers had strict guidelines of what they do on the day and that was it, there wasn't a lot of choice, but it was nice to have somebody who you knew was going to do what you wanted not what they thought was best for your wedding.”
Working Out a Schedule
Ask about timings and make notes so you have a rough breakdown of the day and any key contacts. Ask whether there are any members of the wedding party who’ll only be present for part of the day, then you'll know that you must get pictures of them at that location or they're not going to appear on any photos.
Meet Again Before The Wedding
Meet with your clients again briefly before the wedding just to confirm and clarify anything and to find out whether anything’s changed or they have any questions.
Pricing – It’s Awkward
Finally, back to pricing. It's an uncomfortable subject for some but it’s absolutely essential to be able to discuss this as part of your business. The couple might discuss the price of the quote with you and you need to be comfortable and non-evasive. Some couples might even ask for a discount and there's nothing wrong with that - if you don't ask you don’t get- but don't feel pressured into saying yes if there really is no room for manoeuvre with your costs, just politely explain that you work out your prices to give your customers the best possible deal all of the time.
If refusing to budge on price sends you into a bit of a spiral of panic then maybe think about throwing in something extra that won’t affect your price much but feels like really good added value to the client, like extra prints, for example.
More Wedding Resources for Photographers and Filmmakers
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8 Top Wedding Photography Portfolio Video Templates for After Effects
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10 Top Wedding Slideshow Templates for After Effects
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10 Top Wedding Slideshow Templates for Premiere Pro
About the Authors
Marie Gardiner created the video course that includes this lesson, and wrote the updated text version. Marie is a writer and photographer from England, with a background in media.
This lesson was edited and published by Jackson Couse. Jackson is a photographer and the editor of the Photo & Video section of Envato Tuts+.
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