Starting a Wedding Photography Business?
It you’re thinking of starting a wedding photography business or even growing or reigniting your existing wedding photography business, you’re in the right place.
As a wedding photographer and business coach, I can attest to the fact that wedding photography is one of the most rewarding and profitable niches in the world of photography. The joy of capturing a couple’s most precious moments, combined with the business side of the craft, makes it a unique and fulfilling profession. In this blog, I aim to share the beauty of becoming a wedding photographer and what you can expect from this thrilling journey. If you’re reading this and you’re passionate about photography and eager to dive deeper, I'll also introduce you to my course at the end. Let's embark on this journey together.
Capturing Lifelong Wedding Memories
The primary role of a wedding photographer is to capture memories that last a lifetime. You have the privilege of documenting moments behind the scenes of such a magnificent day. Moments of laughter, tears, joy, and love. Each click of your camera freezes an instance that will be cherished for years. This responsibility and honour create a job satisfaction unlike any other.
Financial Rewards of a Wedding Photography Business
Despite opinions the wedding industry is “saturated”, “over-crowded” or that “you can’t earn a living from it”, wedding photography can actually be lucrative. Most couples understand the value of their big day and are willing to invest significantly in a professional who can do justice to their memories. With the right pricing strategy, networking, and portfolio, you can earn a very decent income.
Building Relationships
As a wedding photographer, you aren’t just capturing images; you’re building relationships. You interact closely with couples, understanding their story, and sometimes, these professional relationships blossom into lifelong friendships. Among all the other wedding suppliers that make up the day, you’re placed in a position of the highest trust as a photographer. People often feel vulnerable in front of the camera and they are trusting you with their insecurities.
Creative Freedom
While there's a standard "shot list" every wedding photographer knows, there’s immense room for creativity. Every wedding is unique, and each couple brings their own personality and flair to their special day. This allows you to experiment, innovate, and develop your own signature style.
Growing Professionally as a Wedding Photographer
The wedding industry is ever-evolving. New trends, technologies, and techniques come up regularly. This means there's always something new to learn, from drone photography to incorporating cinematic elements. Continuous learning keeps you on your toes and helps in personal and professional growth.
Flexibility: Working on your Own Terms
Unlike a 9-5 job, wedding photography offers flexibility. Yes, weddings mostly happen on weekends, but during the week, you have the liberty to set your schedule, whether it’s for editing, client meetings, or simply taking a day off and spending time with your family.
Being Part of a Larger Community in the Wedding Industry
There's a vast community of wedding professionals, from planners to florists, to cake makers, to stationers. The list is endless. Engaging with this community can provide collaboration opportunities, and it's always beneficial to have a network of professionals who understand the industry’s highs and lows. This is an amazing industry where you never have to be alone.
What to Expect when you start a Wedding Photography Business
Starting a wedding photography business, like any business, comes with its challenges. There will be long hours, especially during peak wedding season. You could even encounter difficult clients or face fierce competition. But with dedication, persistence, and a commitment to continual learning, you can navigate these challenges successfully.
Everything new and challenging can be daunting but it must be said that being a wedding photographer is above all, so much fun, rewarding and the level of job satisfaction is incredible.
What you Need to Do
Be Clear About Your Niche
Being brave enough to commit to your niche being ‘wedding photography’ can help you enormously. Lots of photographers’ websites are peppered with all types of niches in photography, but stripping back and only showcasing weddings (or even starting over again) can pay dividends. This is because when wedding couples, especially brides go in hot pursuit of wedding photographers, they only want to see wedding photography. Not only do they not want to be distracted by images of landscapes, wildlife and commercial photography, they want the comfort that you are an expert in the area of wedding photography.
Have a Clear & Consistent Brand
Being really clear and consistent on the brand of your business is essential. Your brand isn’t just a logo and a set of colours thrown together. It’s the whole look and feel of your business, the way you shoot and edit and the whole client experience. How you onboard, communicate, deliver and off-board all contributes to your brand. What you value and hold dear to you, what you want your clients to get out of the service you provide is all part of your brand.
Whilst most clients may not know too much about brand identity, they subliminally pick up when a brand is dishevelled and inconsistent. When they see and sense consistency and clarity across all your platforms they’re more likely to stick around and explore your work.
Market Your Business
Marketing scares the living daylights out of so many small and new businesses, including photographers. But every business, regardless of industry, has to be marketed. You can take as many beautiful wedding photos as you like, unless you market the business your potential clients won’t know you’re there for them. The good news is, these days, marketing is very different from yesteryear. No longer do you have to show up continually asking for work. People generally don’t like to be ‘sold’ to in that way. Especially as a wedding photographer, the service is more personal, so potential clients want to get to know you, familiarise with your work and connect with you on some level.
Harness the Right Mindset
Mindset is too often side stepped by people and photographers setting up or growing their businesses. Being a creative usually means you just want to get on with it. But the truth is, also being a creative, means the level of comparisonitis, self doubt and lack of confidence is right up there, often meaning the business cannot function. Having the right mindset, learning how to be confident and truly believing in yourself will be the super power to your business being a success.
Are you Serious About Starting or Growing a Wedding Photography Business?
If you're inspired to embark on this rewarding path, I invite you to join my course.
7 Steps to Walking Down the Aisle is an information and guidance packed course that takes you from understanding the basics of wedding photography to mastering business strategies to take your photography business to a new level. This course is designed to to equip you with tools and insights to thrive in the wedding industry as a photographer.
Being a wedding photographer is more than just a profession—it’s a passion. It intertwines art, emotion, and business in a dance as beautiful as any wedding waltz. Dive in, and you might just find your life’s calling.
As a wedding photographer myself, I want to step up and help as many photographers as I can start and grow their own photography businesses, especially in the wedding industry. I’ve tripped over myself so many times in the past and made many mistakes. That’s what has inspired me to create training, courses and coaching for other photographers.
If you’re serious about your wedding photography business and are ready to invest in yourself, hit the link below and learn