1. Make The Decision To Go For It

More than likely you’re going to be working for yourself. If you’re not fully committed, don’t bother. If you’re up for it, throw yourself in whole-heartedly.

2. Educate Yourself

• Learn the basics – read a bunch of beginner’s guides to photography, check out evening classes, get a good friend to teach you and practice, taking LOTS AND LOTS of photos.
• Try out a few one-day or week long courses or workshops in wedding photography run by professional photographers. Make sure they combine plenty of hands-on photography using models with a discussion of the business and photo-editing advice (including Photoshop). Ideally, using you want to be able to include any images you take in your portfolio. I learnt as much in a good one of these as I did during a whole term of night classes.
• Shoot people’s weddings for free, and follow professional photographers around on the day with the bride’s permission.
• Spend a bit of time as an assistant to a really good photographer if you can find a position. Click here for some advice on how to become a photographer’s assistant.
• Long term formal learning in photography? A degree isn’t really necessary, getting out there and learning on the job is far more effective in my opinion.

3. Decide Where To Position Yourself In The Market

What kind of work do you want?

• Lots of lower budget weddings, perhaps offering CD only packages, even squeezing in two weddings in a day.
• Fewer high end weddings with lots of pre- and post-wedding work and clients with crazy expectations.
• Something in the middle.

Once you know your market, everything you do should be geared around that type of client, whether it’s the look of your albums, and levels of customer service, the other suppliers you network with, and obviously your prices.

4. Brand Your Business Right

By brand, I mean not just your logo and stationary, but also your website, any literature and marketing material, the look of your albums and frames, how you dress, what kind of a person you come across as, the décor in your studio or viewing room, even the car you drive.

All of this needs to be consistent. And it needs to complement where you want to be in the marketplace.

Hire a PR company to do it for you (this can get seriously expensive though) or get your own inspiration from brands at your level – Prada and Gucci at the high end, Gap and M&S in the middle.

5. Get The Right Kit

At the very least:

• 2 DSLRs or digital single lens reflex camera bodies that you can manually change all the settings for.
• 2 lenses, ideally with a large overall range of focal lengths available (99% of my images are shot with a 70-200 and a 17-40).
• 2 flash guns that allow you to rotate the head and bounce your flash.
• A handful of memory cards, spare batteries, chargers and something to clean your lens.

That way, you’ve definitely got backup if something breaks or gets dropped. I still distinctly remember falling down a hill in the middle of the group shots.

You don’t need top of the range everything, especially if you’re just starting out. An entry level pro or high end amateur camera is just fine at this stage. But one of the things you’ll be paying the big bucks for is durability, so it’s worth investing in something pretty robust when your diary starts to fill up.

You might want to check out this article on the best lens for wedding photography. If these are priced too high for you, go for slightly lower quality but at least cover where possible the focal length ranges discussed.

6. Get A Portfolio Together

In this case, I’m not talking about a folder of your best shots. You’re going to need a whole lot more to get started. Here are some options:

• Sample albums, ideally all the images in each from single weddings.
• Galleries of images on a website.
• A slideshow of your favourites.
• Possibly a folder or box of your favourite shots in print.
• Anything you’d like to sell, such as gift albums, framed prints, canvases and photo thank you cards.

Develop a style over time and reflect this across your entire portfolio.

I’ve written a much more detailed article on how to make a photography portfolio here.

7. The Joy Of Pricing

This always causes problems early on. On the one hand, you just want the business and need to get more experience. On the other hand, the place you want to be in the market might suggest higher prices but perhaps you’re not yet confident enough to charge that amount. But then again, if you charge a lot, to some extent clients will believe you’re as good as your prices indicate.

Then you’ve got a whole raft of other issues:

• Charging more up front or going for more sales after the wedding.
• Including digital image files or not.
• Special offers and promotions.
• Charging different prices for different clients.
• How to create a set of simple but flexible packages.
• Charging by the hour or to include specific elements of the day.
• Pricing incentives to persuade the client to buy more.
• Whether to negotiate on price or not.
• Lots and lots more…

There are as many pricing structures as there are photographers.

I know one of two photographer who’ve gone straight in with their pricing at the market position they are targeting. Others who’ve taken an age to feel confident enough to call themselves a professional, and charged very little out of guilt for way too long.

This issue deserves it’s own article on the site, which I’ll write soon, but for now I’ll only tell you my own experience, which falls a little in between these two extremes.

• Wedding no.1 – charged £100. I was very raw, but I still had some skills so I wanted those reflected in the at least a small charge. It helps you to be taken seriously.
• Weddings nos. 2 and 3 – charged £170 and £512. I was doing lots of other photography at this time, and these 2 weddings were the only ones I did that summer.
• Weddings for the following year – charged up to £2,200.
• Weddings for this year – charged up to £3,280.

I didn’t feel happy about charging very much early on, especially as I was still learning the ropes. I also wanted a chance to get out there and take some photographs. If I had charged £2000 for that first wedding, I wouldn’t have got it.

But as soon as I got a little better, I charged more, and the price went up the better I got. I was sure to make sure to improve the client experience and my presentation at the same time.

8. Market Yourself

Again, I’m going to need a whole bunch of articles to go in to this in more detail, and I will, but for now, here are the key elements that worked for me in order of importance:

1. Website – make it beautiful, lots of great images and make sure people can find it in the search engines. I’ll cover good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) another time.
2. Introduce yourself to wedding venues and suppliers – do them favours, look after them and they’ll look after you. Don’t miss this one out – it works so well, costs time but very little money.
3. Word of mouth – from previous clients eventually when it becomes the most important source of work, but for starters don’t forget to network with friends, family, local businesses, your hairdresser or florist, anyone and everyone you know.
4. Wedding fairs – I never got too much work from these, and they cost quite a bit. However, early on you just need the work and even if your profit isn’t going to be great, you should be able to pick up at least one wedding from a fair.
5. Advertise – online wedding directories, and in print. Magazines and newspapers cost silly money and rarely worked for me. Online directories are a better bet, but check out where they appear in the SERPS (search engine results pages) first.

9. Focus On The Client’s Experience

How to be a successful wedding photographer is just as much about giving your clients a wonderful experience as it is about great photos.

From the moment they first get in touch through to the wedding to the viewing, delivery of albums and beyond, and what happens if there’s a complaint, every step of the way should be thought through from their perspective. Make it professional of course, fun, exciting and wonderful and most of all, make them feel special. They’re getting married, it IS really special for them, even if you are on to wedding no.20 for the year.

I tell you what as well. If you do make a mistake somewhere down the line, the bride and groom are a whole lot more forgiving if they know you’ve put your all in to making everything perfect for them.

10. Top Presentation

Get the presentation right. Make sure it suits your client type and market position but I also like to ask myself, is the client going to think they’re getting their money’s worth, or even feel that the presentation warrants a higher charge. That way, you’re going to get far more bookings per consultation.

By presentation, I mean everything we discussed under the branding, portfolio and client experience sections. Here are a few more examples that might be forgotten.

• The wording, formatting and even the font you use in emails.
• What you say when you pick up the phone and everything you say from then on.
• Your album delivery method and packaging materials.
• What sort of refreshments you provide during the consultation. What cups? What glasses? What coasters even!
• The lighting and type of music chosen for the viewing as the couple sit back and relive the day. A nice box of tissues to wipe away a tear or two.

11. Studio Arrangements

I’ve never had a studio in the classic sense of a shop front where people can pop in or arrange an appointment and consultation or viewing. You can set up a great wedding and portrait business with one, but I love the freedom of being self-employed and never wanted the hassle of running a studio, permanently employing staff, overheads and so on.

I’ve done things in two ways instead. Early on, I visited people in their home, took along framed prints and albums, and a slideshow on my laptop. This definitely worked, and if you’re going to go down this route, do it well. You can get hold of a portable projector screen and hook this up to a laptop and projector.

It worked much better though when I set up a room at home to be my studio. I never do shoots there, it’s just to meet prospective clients and for the viewing. It includes a comfortable lounge suite for them, and space for my products and somewhere to project images on screen.

The results have been amazing. You can create a great ambience that you’re in control of. Because clients make the effort to come to me, they are already much more committed to my work and have researched it properly.

Around 3 out of 4 couples I see book me now. That was way up from before. If you’ve not the space to do it at home, there are loads of flexible arrangements available where you can rent out good office space just for an hour or two when you need it.

12. The Sell

Don’t be pushy and don’t expect people to decide during the consultation that they want to book you. This is a really important decision for most of us and any hard sell treatment is going to make your client feel anything but special.

The other simple advice I’d give is to listen really well to the couple during the consultation, answer their questions, and give them time and space to absorb everything. If you’re a little nervous, you might have a tendency to talk to much, I know I’ve done it before.

Try to step back a bit and be quiet when they’re looking through sample albums, and certainly during the slideshow of your best work.

13. Book Those Clients

How do I become a wedding photographer? By booking them. You might want to include an engagement shoot in your packages too. It’s a chance to build up your relationship with your client, and get some more sales too.

Confirm everything in writing, and make sure you and they sign a contract covering the arrangements for the day, what’s included in their package, and terms and conditions. Check out this article describing a good wedding photography contract to get started.

Make sure you get a decent sized deposit too. I ask for £250, but I know others who ask for £500 or more. In a way it represents your value as well as committing the client to some extent to the booking.

14. Be Prepared

In the run up to the wedding, make sure you have everything you need. Check and re-check all your equipment, make sure you know where you’re going and have all the timings confirmed with the bride and groom.

Agree lists of group photographs that are required, and also have a list with the names of all the important guests that you definitely must get a shot of.

Have a look at my wedding photography checklist for more details.

15. Shoot To Sell

Make sure you get all the classic images that are associated with a wedding, but don’t forget that you’re probably going to be designing an album too.

Think about the album in your mind as you go. If you’ve got a shot of the bride and her parents as she’s getting ready, try and get one of the groom and his folks at the church before the ceremony. If they want to include one, they’ll definitely include the other.

You might have got a lovely landscape feature image of the bride and groom for the right hand side of a double spread in the album. What’s going to go on the left? A series of portrait shots of them both in a different pose might work perfectly.

I’ll be writing much more on album design later on.

Get lots of shots of family groups, siblings together and best friends. They will be really popular and they’ll sell too, either as re-prints or in the form of a larger album.

16. Organize Your Workflow

Back up straight after the wedding, and keep at least one copy in a separate location for extra security.

Sort out how you are going to order everything, which folder is for RAW files, where your initial selection of images goes, where to find your edited work, and copies of orders people have made.

Work on a good post-production system, for example what process the images are going to go through in photoshop to get them print ready. Be consistent so you stay organized.

When I started, it took me 3 or 4 days to get everything ready, now if takes me less than a day, albeit a long day. Get it tight, and you can free up a huge amount of time in your work schedule for personal projects or just as important for family life.

17. Keep Your Clients

People who get married have birthdays, so do the rest of their family, and you should know exactly when their wedding anniversary is. They will often have children soon after getting married too. Those children may get baptised, graduate and get married themselves.

You can potentially work with a wedding client and family for a lifetime. Mention some of the options after the wedding, and you can always get in touch with them in the future, perhaps to highlight a baby photo package you’ve got running, or family portrait shoot options.

18. Run Things Like A Business

If you really want to know how to become a professional wedding photographer, you need to run your business like a business. That means:

• Insurance – both public liability and personal indemnity.
• Accounts and good tax advice – being self-employed or setting up a company is very tax friendly if you get it right.
• A contract and terms and conditions – clarifies and formalizes your relationship with the client and limits your liabilities.

19. Get Some Status

With the bookings coming in, your skills and portfolio are going to be improving. Why not enter some competitions, or apply to join a professional photographic association.

It’s a good opportunity to receive feedback on your work, and gain access to some great learning opportunities too.

The odd award and a few letters behind your name when you need them aren’t going to hurt either. Why not send out a press release on the back of it.

20. Keep Learning And Improving

There are always new things to try out and master:

• New creative techniques.
• The latest kit and software.
• Marketing campaigns.
• Pricing structures.

Life can get boring if you don’t keep on trying to improve. Once you’ve got your must have shots in the bag, why not try something a little different.

And fashions and styles change too. Change with them or get left behind. Even better, be a trendsetter yourself.

21. Enjoy It

Building a career as a wedding photographer sure has its up sides. It’s incredibly satisfying producing a great collection of photos for a really nice couple, I love working for myself, it earns good money if you stick at it, and for the most my time is my own.

How cool is that?

Thanks for making it to the bottom of what ended up being quite a long article, but hey, there’s a lot to say.

If you’ve got any queries or comments and a bit of time still left, please leave them below and I’ll do my best to get back to you.

Thanks a lot, and good luck.

Stefan