How I stopped doing In Person Wedding Consultations

A lot of wedding photographers do consultations with their potential clients before their clients decide to book them or not. This is what I was doing when I first started. I honestly didn’t think there was any other way. Although I absolutely ADORED meeting the sweetest couples for coffee, I knew it wasn’t the best use of my time.

A consultation could easily take up 3 full hours. Thirty minutes spent organizing yourself and prepping for the meeting. Fifteen to thirty minutes driving to a coffee shop to meet. Arriving early because you know you’re likely going to have to wait for a table. 15 minutes later, you finally get a table with enough seats. Now you’re anxiously waiting for the couple to arrive. Once they get there, the meeting would last anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. You drive fifteen to thirty minutes to get home and contemplate everything you said. “Could I have said that better?” “Oh shoot, I forgot to mention ____.” “Do you think they liked me?” You cross your fingers that you have another wedding being added to your calendar because if you don’t, then what was all that time spent for?

I knew there was a way I could do things better. A way I could not only save myself time, but a way I could save my clients time as well. They have busy lives too and so I thought If I could simplify this process while giving them just as much if not MORE information than I would at a consultation then, why wouldn’t I?

Efficiency and managing my time well is super important to me. I realized I was repeating the same information over and over at every single meeting. I finally decided there has to be a more efficient way of doing this. There was no way this was the only way to get clients. So I implemented 3 key things into my business to make a huge change.

1. I started showing up more on instagram and posting more photos and videos of me. This allows people that find me and follow me on there to get to know me better. It helps build that like, know and trust relationship beforehand.
2. I videotaped myself talking about everything I used to go over in a consultation and embedded the video into my online pricing guide. This allows them to get all the information I used to give out at the consultation while also getting to know me.
3. I made sure to add the questions I usually would ask in the consultation to my contact form. From their responses, I can get a feel for who they are as a couple and if we would be a good fit. I can also ask some follow up questions to allow us to get to know each other a bit better.

Of course if there is a couple that still want to meet, I absolutely will, usually we just set up a zoom chat if that’s the case! But, 95% of my couples book through email now ! Which is amazing! I now use the time saved towards building a better overall experience for my current couples!

Let me know in the comments if you do in person consultations and if you will continue to or try to make the change!

If you want to see what other advice I have for photographers that are starting their own wedding photography business, check out my other posts HERE.