Finding Wedding Customers?

smkoch

smkoch

Well-known member
Hey, I'm still setting up my wedding business and am concered as to where to get clients. I know that I kind find some people who already have there business setup and sub off them. infact I'm doing a reception tommorow. But the pay from being subbed is a rip off. There's a big wedding show in january but the cost of a 10' foot booth is $1600 for the day. but they say that the turnout is 2500 higher income couples. My question is has anyone had experience from these setups, and what was there response (turnout.)
 
Re: Finding Wedding Customers?

I stopped shooting weddings nearly 15 years ago but you might try this for cheap or free advertising:

Hit all the bridal shops in your area with advertising materials that they can give to their clients. Offer a sales commission to any shop who refers a customer to you that results in a job. Same for tux shops. Offer introductory discounts.

Run ads in the "Nickel Saver" type papers in your area.

$1600 is no small gamble for a trade show booth and it better be a darn good looking display with a complete and high quality demo. Take any purported performance numbers that a promoter gives you with a grain of salt. And remember that all the attendance in the world won't make a bit of difference if you don't have something people want (be it price, quality, service, etc).

Be careful prostituting yourself starting out. It will hurt you and the market in your area in the long run. Perceived value is very important.
 
Re: Finding Wedding Customers?

Yeah I thought about hitting all the different places that specialize in wedding material. My one thought and I'm not sure how, there's a company that started filming weddings in february and sine late may there site has said that there isn't any saturday's left for booking sorry. my city has about 800,000 plus people in it making it a fairly large venue with about 6 good company's and another 6 half wit low end equipment scammers. so I think that's there's still room for gathering clients.
 
Re: Finding Wedding Customers?

But yeah preston I plan on having a sweet 50 inch high def plasma widscreen sony monitor. there's a wedding that i'm shooting strictly for promotional material in 24pa so I'm hoping to have footage that shoots down all the other exhibitors
 
Re: Finding Wedding Customers?

Hi All

It is not easy. Well, I take that back. It is relatively easy to get paid peanuts, if you are a reasonably good shooter, and furthermore- ( very unfortunately) -easier if you can sell to brides-appeal to what they find "nice." Seriously- some people book because they think you are "sweet." ug. Unless the couple works in the film industry, they will most likely have no idea what 24p or 16:9 is. Some people even think VHS is worth paying for. If you are expensive, they don't care, you just better be good and have lots of work and referrals to show that.

If you are in the budget range, lets say, $1K-$$1600 ( US) then a bridal show may not be a bad idea. BUT you would have to shoot 2 weddings to cover that cost. What is cost? Your time to stand there, your flyers, your plasma tv, rental tv, or whatever you are going to show stuff with, registration $$, parking, gas, food, freebies, demos $$$, whatever. If you are easily affordable by many, they you may be quite popular.- but IMHO bridal shows are not FUN and take a lot of work. They do work for many people tho. Do you have the personality to grab the attention of brides and grooms who are bombarded by cake toppers and teeth whitening offers? :) hope so..

The best of course, is referrals, but it takes a LONG time for that to come to fruition...

Paid weblinks is a great idea, however, you have to have a kickin' site to really make the most of your money. You realy should have video clips also..Think tho, the steps to get the site designed, the video content, the paid links ( www.weddingsolutions.com, theknot.com) take a long time. If you need a web designer, best of course, is to go pro, but that will cost $$$. and for video encoding,etc. even more $$$$.

If you are not really a wedding videographer, but want to make money, there is nothing wrong with that. Just proceed carefully, because wedding videography is a major money sink to do it right and RESPONSIBLY. The nice thing tho, is people are always getting married and video is growing more popular. Additionally, it is rewarding, but will take time..time away from what ever other goals or projects you might have. in short, if you are going to do it, figure out why and how much you can put into it and what you want back.

if you are really serious, i recommend you join WEVA. There is a convention Aug. 16th-19th. If you go, it will drastically change your business plan and your techniques. www.weva.com

Lastly, if you sub, please don't sub out to photographers unless they are paying you very, very well.
 
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