The 5 things I do When I Book a Wedding

Each and every time you book a new wedding – the client experience and how to organise all of the information should be top of your mind. I strongly believe that finding a system that works for you, will help you stay on top of all of your client relationships, so that nothing is missed and your couples have the best experience with you in the lead up to their wedding. So what is it that I do each and every time I book a new wedding.

1. The date goes in the diary and I create a new project for my clients

I like to use 17Hats as my client management system. I love it as it allows me to email my couples in a branded way, I can send out quotes and invoices in line with my branding and I can create a project for each wedding I photograph. Once I have their date in my diary on 17Hats I can send out my booking fee invoice and booking form to be signed and once these 2 steps have been completed I once again check the date is in the diary, just to be sure! This is so much easier than my older system when I used to write up the booking form on Word, email it to my couple and then wait for it to come back in the post signed by them, along with their booking fee, usually in the form of a cheque! Gone are those days and everything now can be pretty much automated!

2. Meet Ups or Discussion about wedding via email

I like to discuss with couples early on things like the start time for their ceremony as when they book me a lot of their details haven’t yet been finalised yet. So this is a great opportunity to discuss with them the possibility of an earlier ceremony time, particularly if they are having a winter wedding and still would like beautiful couples portraits outside. This would often be something they would overlook, unless we have  this discussion as it is only us photographers that think of weddings in terms of daylight hours!!! This is also a good chance to send on my preferred suppliers to couples, which can be really handy if they are planning a wedding from abroad and I can help to take out any of the stress from their planning stage.

3. Mark other important dates in the diary

As well as marking in the date for the wedding itself. I also mark in other important dates like, when they would like their engagement session, when their one year anniversary is and when I need to send on their pre-wedding questionnaire and final invoice. I try and automate as much as I can at this stage to help with the wedding workflow for each couple and to make sure all of the bases are covered.

4. Set up a workflow in Trello

Each wedding I book is added to my workflow in Trello. If you haven’t tried Trello yet it is a fantastic tool for helping you to stay organised and best of all it is free. You can even share it with your team so that you can collaborate on different projects seamlessly together and stay informed as to what each other is doing. I would be lost without it, as I have set it up, so that it gives me a complete overview on one page as to where I am at with each client and what stage they are at on my wedding workflow system, priceless!

5. I send out my Eden Photography Wedding Magazine

Recently I have created a beautifully printed wedding magazine for my couples that I send to them after they have booked me for their wedding. In here are lots of tips and advice for both planning their wedding and also advice for how to approach the wedding day itself. In this way nothing is left to chance and couples know exactly how I like to work on a wedding day and what an actual wedding day will look like for them. Most of them haven’t done this before and wonder what to expect! Instead of having to remember everything we might discuss when we meet or chat on the phone, the information is there for them to glance over ahead of the wedding. It is beautifully designed, so it is also a lovely keepsake in the lead up to the day.