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The State of the Wedding Industry

industry overview so right now I want to show you guys kind of a lay of the land and if you saw me on tour you saw you've seen this graphic but let's go over it again because this is very important to understanding what we're looking at within our industry and this graphic is in shutter magazine as well so don't freak out trying to copy this down shutter magazines free you can go into shutter magazine and get this for free but this is a no overview of our industry so this is compiled with data from the knot dot com and the wedding report dot com so this is data about our industry from two thousand ten number one most expensive place to get married and sorry for all my my folks over in europe this's only us based data but you can try and find access to this data so that you have you know just a semblance of what's going on in your local market united states number one most expensive place to get married on average manhattan seventy thousand dollars for a wedding yeah that's on average s...

ome more some less of course right but that is expensive to get married in manhattan let's jump to the midwest chicago thirty five thousand dollars average wedding some more some less west coast we go to san friend looking at about thirty two thousand dollars l about thirty three thirty four thousand dollars again some more some less there's plenty of money out there to be spent uh average number of guests one hundred forty one one hundred forty one how are you noticing that your weddings are shrinking so I'm talking to you girls right here now are you noticing that your weddings are shrinking do you know why I don't answer she knows the answer do you guys know why they're shrinking take a guess let's talk you're being too quiet so money okay what else they're going back towards the more intimate weddings instead of the large grand show I'm finding yes yes but not really the heart of it who used to pay for weddings five years ago parents used to pay five years ago so it's a big pissing contest wasn't it was like well if you can't abide uncle billy and not and bob dude I don't even know uncle billy is well he was at your first communion yeah I was in diapers I think so I don't remember uncle bob right but mom is inviting everybody will now the kids are paying for the wedding and because they're paying for the wedding they don't want to invite people they have no relationship with so the wedding's air shrinking so of course money is of course at the root of it but the truth is the actual core of this is the kids are paying for the wedding this is very important to know and understand because in understanding that the kids are paying for the wedding your power power is defined by the people spending the money okay so if the kids are spending the money I'm not going to put packages together branding together products together that are appealing to mom okay I'm still important she's what I call an influencer so we need to understand that mom is an influencer but mom is not power and I'm not talking about of course I always have that one wedding that comes in or two weddings that come in and you know mom's the one paying for it it's theeighty twenty rule eighty percent of the time today's bride is paying for their own wedding so why is this so important while my initial wedding packages I used to put in the packages ah parent album well guess what now my bride's air coming in they're going if my mom wants an album she can pay for it for herself right she doesn't want to cover the costs so I've had to pull that out albums we used to offer we all you know if you've been in wedding photography for awhile we all used to offer these albums where it was the slide in pictures and the gold tips right and then it got super modern and they put on the silver tents who man that's crazy right and so guess what the kids don't want that stuff that's not what they're looking for that's not modern that doesn't match their taste so you have to ask yourself in your business who are you offering products who you trying to go after and where bridal shows I still have mom's to this day walk into our our studio and or through our boot and they'll start they'll go now do you have those albums like we used to have and they're flipping through the pages I know exactly what they're asking right I'm like with the gold text mom where you yeah you have no mom we don't have those but I really want them like yeah I know you want it mom but I don't think your daughter what does right and that's the keys you've gotta understand who your client is destination weddings are up by twenty percent I don't know if you're seeing this in your in your market I am I got clients recently we have photographed over in europe we have photographed in the virgin islands we have photographed right ireland venice thes air u s based clients that are going over to these destinations taylor and I when we got married we got married in italy right we wanted to skip all this craziness madness and we want to do something that was meaningful to us and we're seeing more and more of our clients do that so we have to understand that do you have on your websites that you're available for worldwide travel and if you just say right south and kat available worldwide but you're showing pictures that are all local you're not getting a worldwide audience I can guarantee you that you've got to show worldwide pictures you've got to show that that's in your portfolio I don't care how you get those pictures I don't care if you go to a workshop I don't care if you take a trip over there that's horrible I got to go to europe for work okay but you've got to show where you want to shoot so we have pictures up in new york we have pictures in california we have pictures over in europe so when we're showing these not only does it say on our website you know available worldwide but it also says in our imagery that makes sense but here's here's where things get really really interesting top five places brides are looking for their vendors this is probably the most important piece you guys can take away from this everybody for that matter number one internet search engine seventy nine percent of the bride say they are looking on the internet search engine that's google yahoo wherever tto find their photographer seventy nine percent this's a fundamental shift in the way people are finding their vendors we can't ignore it they're telling us so if you're out there doubting about one another then you don't understand your brother you have to understand today's bride you have to understand your bride and what they're looking for and they're telling yu right here here's the blueprint number two wedding bride a website seventy seven percent right those air sites like snap not the not wedding wire every market as something different but their wedding websites this is where they're going seventy seven percent now these numbers are gonna add up to one hundred of course because they go to multiple places bridal magazine sixty five percent the one place I find photographers struggling is being in a magazine ciao that seems like a waste of money is it it's about brand awareness we'll talk more about that in a second family recommendation so referrals sixty percent bridal shows forty one percent I know a lot of photographers out there you guys hate bridal shows you like I'm not doing bridal show okay now there's a bunch of tyre kickers there yes there are there's also a bunch of brides looking to book you why wouldn't I want to be in the one room where there's five hundred brides your clients are in one room they're trapped you don't want to be there because they're tire kickers I'm telling you you're missing the boat and you can't ask other photographers what they think about bridal shows I do bridal shows in in st louis thirty plus photographers at this bridal show thirty plus how do we stand out from the crowd we're going to talk about that we're gonna show your bridal show booth set up tomorrow we'll show you how we sell to them how we talk to them but thirty photographers so do you think if you asked one of my competitors how's the battle show sock was horrible yeah you don't want to go there don't waste your money and then they're back next year why are you coming back if it sucks so bad right you're coming back and your town they're telling you it's tough because they don't want you there so you've got to figure this stuff out free on your own questions on this does this make sense we doing good I just think that's so cool I love the infographic but man it breaks it down it really does the landscape you can't have I it always amazes me when you put a business plan together like I'm going to sell widgets really what's the size of the opportunity for widgets oh I don't know I just think it'd be really cool because we like widgets you can't do that you have to understand the opportunity that's in front of you and this is here every day this is a recession proof industry weddings every year there's a new crop of bride's coming through that this is the most important day of their life and we'll talk about this throughout the course finding your bride if it's one thing I am really good at is finding my broads so when I tell you my average bride spends about ten grand you gotta understand we did a wedding this past saturday my bride spent more on me than she did a reception hall how's that possible because photography is a priority for that's your bride see if you're struggling right now I'm gonna put all of you are on the pressure here what's your what's your base package for weddings twenty one hundred don't like eighteen hundred twenty five twenty five you're twenty five because I made you ranger raise your prices yes twenty one hundred twenty one hundred fifteen hundred fifteen hundred how are you making a living at that price point you're not you're like I am not uh you've got to raise your prices but I know the challenge everybody out there feels right but self I raise my prices nobody's gonna book me nothing could be further from the truth I know it seems counterintuitive but as we've raised our prices we keep booking more business right we started out and I'll share my own dirty laundry when I started out my base package was nine ninety nine back in two thousand eight my base package was nine ninety nine but here's what I did do think about it four years later my base package is forty five hundred so how did I get and nobody books it by the way I'm a teach you how to get no one to book your base package because we don't want them to right we don't want them there but in four years and in fact this happened over a two year period I went from that nine ninety nine price point two over four grand in two short years you can't raise your prices by ten percent a year you'll never get there because bad clients refer more bad clients right rarely I don't wanna talk about this one off scenario rarely will you have a client ah bad client we for a very good client and I don't know about you guys out there but I know me right when that phone rings and I'm like how'd you hear about us you know like oh suzy told me about you and susie was that nightmare client I'm cringing at what this is going to mean working with susie's friend here okay so we've got to just cut the cord and go with the new prize of mine and that's going to be a challenge when we get when we leave here in five days yeah can I ask I do love my husband so if he is watching I love you I'm so sorry but how do you encourage your spouse teo kind of get on track with what you want to dio what you need to dio because there's from time to times where it's just like how do you explain that you know you are raising your prices then have your significant other one that supports you one hundred percent to go what do you mean why are you doing that so can you help any of us that might think that all of you working with you who's working with their spouse mind doesn't work with me he just supports the business he yeah but he doesn't shoot with me it sounds like you got the answer right there right he's sorry hobby but get your nose out of business right he's not there with you rite somebody's got to be somebody's gotta be the ceo right and trust me I work with taylor until me and her right there's there's certain we'll talk a little bit more about this but there's certain things we do where she owns part right she has primary responsibility I have primary responsibilities and so pricing is my primary responsibility I bounce things off for I want some feedback from her but she can't be making those decisions I think it's gets into the situation we got too many cooks in the kitchen somebody has to take ownership off pricing and trust me it is not easy working with your spouse I know I get it we're going to talk a little bit more about that but you know my first piece of advice to you would be way love your husband he supports you ride he's making the business possible but ultimately he's got to step out right off the kitchen and let you get this business where where it needs to be right so we'll talk more about that but you've got to we've got to get you to raise your prices so you look if you don't raise your prices all of you you are going to continuously compete with the shooting burners you with me on that right we all have them in all our markets by the way right up the road from my studio there's a studio for five hundred box they will photograph your wedding and hand you a cd of images for five hundred bucks how are you doing that how are you staying in business how are you making money I don't care what up sells you have it is not worth the time to do that but if I try and compete on price I will lose every day we'll all lose everyday if you compete on price and here's the here's who's the number one price retailer in the world what company price nobody knows my business kind of world walmart dude right wal mart competes on everyday low prices okay so is that what you're going to get you do you want the warm our business model I mean it works right doesn't work the works for wal mart so how come you can't work for you right it won't he's about mass production photography is not mass production so how come every company in the world think about it I'm asking a reasonable question if the warm our business model is so good obviously works right there billion dollar company if it's so good though how come every retailer in the world has not converted to the wal mart businessman how come louis vuitton has not started selling shoes for four dollars in ninety nine cents how come because if it's proven that there is a need a demand for a luxury line but if you play in the middle you have schizophrenia with your business you're confusing consumers consumers do not underpriced determines your brand consumers don't understand are you a luxury brand or you will lo and provider see when you're playing in that price point which is fifteen hundred twenty five hundred thirty five hundred you are in the middle off the market so you have got to make a decision either you are going to be at the bottom of the market or you are going to separate yourself from the pack it's one of the other stop goofing around and make a decision right we know what it poop or get off the pot right I think that was broadcast around I'm almost positive all right so you've got to do it you've got to make a decision you've got you've got to separate yourself and we're gonna talk about that all frickin week how do I separate myself from the minutia that's out there and if you don't you're going to go out of business you're gonna fail because you can't photograph weddings at that price point people at home lemon studio says omg my husband is begging me to raise my prices on dh then simply chick photography says omg this is what I'm dealing with and he is an accountant by nature so I just wanted to let you know that there's people showing out they were having similar issues I think pricing is one of the biggest challenges for almost every studio out there and quite frankly no matter where we go that is the one segment that people are the most excited about when we start talking about pricing because you just don't know and so I'm gonna help you here's what I'm here's my gift to you here's what I'm going to give you is an understanding of the framework right it doesn't mean no good to tell you you should charge this much money that does you no good because you don't understand why you're charging that money the real gift right the rial knowledge if you will isn't understanding why am I charging this much money because it's tied to consumer behavior right consumers will look at your price point and determine a whole bunch about your brand just based on how much you want they may not have even seen a single picture if I went to somebody and I said here's two photographers this one starts at fifteen thousand dollars this one starts at nine ninety nine which one's better I don't even show him a picture I guarantee you ninety nine percent of consumers would assume that the photographer that's fifteen thousand dollars or more is the better photographer would you agree with me so there you go it's consumer behavior so we have to embrace that in our own pricing strategy so I'm gonna teach you that we come back let's take some questions we'll use this is a natural break I'm gonna ask this question even though it sounds like you're going to answer all of these things later but fashion tv from singapore asks how how do I know I can raise my prices and when it's time to raise prices and who is the best judge of that were often worried we're not good enough and will lose out in booking yes that is actually a great question conversation piece first of all I want to let you know I think all of us as artists are afraid of raising our prices are afraid we're not good enough right I don't know about you guys I know I hope I'm not the only one who does this guy go to other photographers websites I look at their work and I'm like hi suck okay you guys do that all right we all do it we're all guilty of it is as artists and so you've just got out test the waters and so you are pricing sheet is what I call living document I will raise my prices for a bridal show if I find my my client based rejects them I'll walk out of that bridal show lower my pricing okay but that's where it comes down to understanding the framework if you don't understand the framework you have no way of measuring whether it's successful or not whether it's working or not how do you know when you raise your prices again true story my first bridal show ever back in two thousand eight I started off with my bass package at nine ninety nine we walked out of that bridal show we booked fifteen weddings you might think like whoa that's awesome know that it's horrible actually write what that told me I was I was priced too low people were booking too quickly they weren't even thinking about it they were like yes we're gonna book you that is bad that was the first sign to raise our prices so we walked right out of that bridal show doubled our prices so then that based same base package by the way same products same service same hours of coverage went from ninety nine to nineteen ninety nine literally overnight but that was because of the framework and the frame or kamen teacher was the same framework we were using back in two thousand and eight so pricing has changed but the framework the philosophy is the same okay so lux photo says what if you're just looking when weddings for your first year do you still charge a lot or do you start at the one thousand dollar level if you know if you're just starting out I don't mind starting at the nine nine nine level there's nothing wrong with that right but your margins have to be there so it does you no good to charge ninety nine for a wedding and then you're only making one hundred dollars when it's all said and done so it's part of part of that is understanding what your cost are and how much profit you're really making but I promise you even if you have that nine ninety nine in your pricing no one's gonna book it if you do what I'm telling you to do we don't want them to book that nine ninety nine we want them to walk in and see that as a teaser okay and then get them into my middle package which might be nineteen ninety nine so if you're starting at nine ninety nine then your middle package should be nineteen ninety nine your top package should be twenty nine ninety nine thirty nine ninety nine and we've gotta have a way of pulling them through into each level why would I book based package if your clients are booking your base package that's your fault actually ok or your client's book in your base package they are book in the middle that's really good okay base or middle middle middle middle so you're doing well right but now that sounds like you've got maybe a little bit of a framework there but how come they're not booking your top so we got to make it more appealing how come they're not spending more money so we've got to add some enticement to get them into these bigger packages and we'll do that right so in this infographic you were talking about destination weddings and so a couple folks had questions around that sweet melissa me says I find brides air coming to maine where she lives but how can I grab those destination brides and then secondly han said how did you get your first destination wedding booked if you don't have the worldwide images to present how did you get the job friends family yeah that is a great question so repeat that first one to be the first one was this sweet melissa me those in maine and so she sees that people are coming to maine for destination weddings but she's not her sure how to get those clients yeah so they're they're coming to her to shoot in maine or they're going from maine and going someplace else I think coming to shoot in maine where she lives right how do you know that those people are coming there how do you get them yeah so that one for the main one or anybody else was the destination like maybe hawaii or write the virgin islands or any place like that you've gotta own the google search there right that becomes very important we'll cover that seo you have to own main wedding photography because how our brides from california who are getting in maine finding a main photographer right they're going to google in there typing wayne main wedding photographer main wedding photography and if you're not coming up on page one you're never going to capture those broads question number two how do we get started in destination weddings my first destination wedding I mean I was begging and borrowing from anybody who is getting married in a destination I was willing to photograph that destination wedding at cost not for free that cost right I was going to pay for my hotel my airfare everything else that doesn't make any sense but imagine if you see the big picture where you're growing your business and you know you want to get into destinations do one wedding it cost right just have your hotel airfare covered your meals covered and then go out there so that would be sub one thousand dollars go out there and photograph the hell out of that wedding okay now you've got all this stuff on your website and we did that we got you know when we would talk to brides we would say to them you know where so tell me a little bit about your day and we had some bride's were like well you know because they hadn't selected their wedding photographer yet like well we're you know we're getting married and why but we just want to do engagement pictures here that's actually this is a real scenario now why mexico we get this all the time I'm getting married in mexico so we're going to use the resort photographer have you guys heard that before yeah scary but we get this all the time we're going to our engagement pictures ah here you know here locally you know so that's why they're coming to me and I strike the fear of god in them when they say that to me with truth by the way right I'm not I'm not looking at just instill you know paranoia for no reason I say them really have you ever met your photographer well we'll know the resort recommended them I'm like hope school so all right I'm just totally just dropping seeds in their head lice totally cool so when something goes wrong in your wedding day with your pictures who you talking to the resort or the photographer I never thought about that some can happen unless you think everything is going perfect on your wedding day you know what we can do instead is our clients will bring us down there it's really not that much more expensive it's just our airfare and one nights hotel but we'll come down their photograph your wedding and if anything goes wrong guess what my reputation's on the line because I'm right here locally in st louis and if something goes wrong you can drive right to my studio you know where I am what about vision for your day what kind of imagery do you want how are you communicating with your photographer if you don't even know who it is you and I can have a meeting and talk about what you're looking for today so I'm dropping all these seeds in their heads and that's how it that's how I got my first destination was that way and it because it's true right I mean anything could go wrong I don't want to be dealing with a resort photographer no disrespect to resort for tigers but come on you're so good at that cell how you're so good at that sale do you have to make a decision to invest in a bridal show and take a risk when you maybe couldn't afford to do it you know back to the only way I know how to teach is by sharing my own personal experiences so the first bridal show I did the booth was about and we'll talk more about bridal shows and how much they are and how do you find the right ones but the first bridal show I did you know the table was about five hundred bucks six hundred bucks doesn't seem overly expensive but for me back in two thousand eight when my studio only grossed fifty thousand dollars it was extremely expensive well the night before the show I had like a panic attack okay so I'm a pretty confident person but sometimes when I overthink things I don't know if any of you are like that I over think things and I get like nuts with anticipation the night before I'm like taylor and I are sitting in the kitchen in our home and I'm like I'm not I'm not doing it we're not doing it we're not going to the show tomorrow she's like what are you talking about like we're going to screw it up we're going to everything up we're not ready we're not ready I could we can't do it and she had to talk me down off the ledge on that ended up of course being a huge show for us we booked fifteen weddings but you know you've got to take a risk you've got to go out there you've got to do the broader show because that's where brides are there there now we will talk tomorrow about which are the right shows how do I find the right show but yes the short answer is you've got to find a way to work this into your budget to get there because that's where all your clients are let's take two more before we go toe okay go to break okay let's do that before we take these questions how you guys doing I mean I see moments of lightbulbs going off in your head and then I see moments where you're down in the boats taking notes I mean is good okay I'm gonna tell you right now if you're overwhelmed right now after the break you are gonna be crying for mercy because weare truly digging into this stuff so questions from you everything good do you understand the lay of the land the market I do like what you had to say about the destination wedding because I've done a fair amount of bridal shows and you do reach that point where you're going oh well you don't I personally don't feel I'm okay with tryingto encourage them to change their mind because they just keep walking no we're playing destination wedding and they just keep on walking so I'm I'm anxious to hear a little bit more about how teo kind of get them to stop walking by and you no hear what I have to say that I'm I'm excited to hear taylor and I call that the conversation how have the conversation right with with that bride because some of those brides walking by I would agree let him go not your brother so you've got what you really have to be good at is figuring out because you can't have you know the analogy I was making and I don't know if you guys have ever been to vegas or anything like that but if you go to vegas right there's all these like people handing out flyers on the side of the road right there just smacking them right right in front of you to get your attention I don't wanna be that guy at the bridal shop right I don't want to be there like a need a wedding to divert right it's like a four year old right that's not what I want to do and so so those aren't your bride's let him go and let's talk about that a little bit for a second what would you think my bride is how would you define my bride what demographic how old twenty six year old bride how much annual household income probably around sixty seventy sixty thousand seventy thousand dollars household income how much do you think they spend on their wedding average total wedding you're looking at these graphic probably sixty five sixty five thousand hours okay so my average bride according to you guys as you would define it by looking at my pictures and everything else spend sixty five thousand dollars on their wedding is twenty twenty six years old and I I can rephrase you cannot rio on the record and what household income off I said probably sixty seventy something that yeah what did you want to change it to probably closer to the one hundred hundred twenty five hundred twenty five thousand dollars all of you are wrong even with your one hundred twenty five thousand dollars household income completely wrong so let me tell you why your bride should not be defined by demographic none ofyou out there should it be my bride is the bride who has money for what I have to offer all of us out here and this is the analogy I always use no somebody back to consumer behavior right who spends three thousand dollars on a seventy inch flat screen tv in there you know one bedroom apartment right how did they where did that money come from right or they have a fifty thousand fifty thousand our pickup truck in their driveway by the way of the apartment complex there they're renting right so you're spending fifty grand on a pickup truck but you don't own a home right are you live in a trailer park we all know somebody like that in fact all of you are probably guilty of the same behavior we all are this is consumer behavior here's my here's my thought process we all have money for what we want to have money for would you agree to that my brides have money for me and so it is not uncommon and this is a true story I've told you before I shot a three hundred thousand dollar wedding up in new york city three hundred thousand dollars okay that is not my normal bride she is an anomaly okay you go up to new york city it is really fun to watch how people will piss money away three hundred thousand dollars on a wedding it was beautiful by the way the most beautiful wedding it had stilt walkers cigar rollers stilt walkers out of what really okay cool I mean it was amazing band was amazing uh sushi bar at the wedding we came home the very next weekend very next week and we came home we were photographing a thirteen thousand dollar wedding this is my normal wedding by the way thirteen thousand our budget she had spent ten grand with us true story right so I'm dropping truth here this is my bride this is where my bride comes from she saw photography as the number one priority for her day her food there was no food there was a swedish meatball station there was a ci station and there was a desert station and I guarantee you the desert station was was all of that stuff was from like sam's club or something like that right table claws at the wedding plastic centerpieces we're not centerpieces they were battery operated candles this was her day and my job was to make that look good when you're photographing that three hundred thousand dollar wedding I was laugh when I see pictures like I'm like how do you miss you can't take a bad photograph right it's not even possible you go shoot that wedding that I'm talking about do you need to be a frickin houdini magician okay to be able to make that look good and I'll tell you the way we make it look good it is an event like that we photograph everything at one point to write so we blow everything out everything's blurry everything looks amazing and then your bride comes and she's like oh my god I didn't realise it looks so beautiful that day that's because I really did and that was our job to make it look that good so my average bride is probably sub thirty thousand dollars on her wedding the wedding I just photographed this past saturday she spent more on us than she did on her entire reception that's my bride that's your bride and I'm gonna teach all of you how to find that bride because that's when you'll realize doesn't matter how much you charge because everybody has money for what they want to have money for