Hello from South Worcestershire, UK

[orangebug]

Hi,

I got an email from Martin Stembridge this morning asking if I was interested in joining the forum. After reading most of the posts this morning, I decided I better!

I'm Nick Hadley, and I'm based in Sedgeberrow which is village near Broadway in South Worcestershire. I'm a web developer in the week, and I'm trying to become a wedding photographer at the weekends. Myself and a friend were asked to photograph a wedding in August last year, which went off ok, so we decided to try and make a go of it this year, and set up Happy Day Photos. So far, we've only had one more assignment, which was lot tougher due to it being 30th Decemeber and therefore very dark! I've spent more money on equipment than we've made so far, but lets hope more bookings come in soon. Our site is www.happydayphotos.co.uk - let me know what you think.

My question to all the wedding photographers is: how do you get work? I've added our details to a couple of the free listings sites, and set up a couple of mirror sites that the search engines should (hopefully) pick up, but enquiries aren't exactly flooding in. I've thought about wedding fairs, but most of the ones around here are run by the local papers and they are charging around 200 quid for a basic package at the moment. Any advice is very welcome!

Nice to meet you all!
Nick

[BarryM]

Hi Nick, and welcome to a great forum.

I too started weddings the year before last, not sure why but it is a bit of an adrenalin buzz and so exciting when finished and you have your images.

For advertising i found word of mouth being the best so far, i did my wifes friends wedding and got 4 bookings from this.

Wedding fayres i really feel are worth the money, ive been to two fayres, both paid for by a wedding dress designer, so i just had a corner of her table, the amount of soon to be brides and grooms that visited was unreal, and i received a few bookings last year via it.

Another tip is to create business cards, leave them in shops etc, i was lucky enough to work for a florist doing deliveries, flower shop = brides by the bucket load lol enquiring aboutt bouquets and bridal handties, so a few business cards and flyers left on the wall of the shop helped too. You could even say to the florist if you have one close by that you will give them a percentage of your takings for any weddings booked via the shop.

Another tip although ive not done it is to advertise in yell.com or yellow pages (whatever its called now), a one line advert with phone number doesntn cost a lot and from what i read, people get a fair bit of enquiring.

My new form of advertising for me now is, via an executive car hire company, its the same guy that has the florist, he bought a stretch limo, bentley, jaguar, and a couple of other cars, hes putting together a brochure for flowers, cars, dresses and photographers, but hes paying for my part in it as a thank you. But its another option to look out for.

Good luck with your venture pal, i think it does take off slow and build up over a couple of years, but the more you do, the more happy brides show their images to everyone and then word of mouth kicks in.

all the best and i hoppe there was a little info above to help you a bit.

Barry

[Stemmy]

Hi Nick an welcome to the forum. I think if you have just started you photographic business you are in the right place here.

A few comments about your website.

First of all is really nice and clean. Soo many websites have spinning things here and things that follow your mouse around the screen. You have done the right thing by keeping it simple.

Its easy to navigate and is very informative. Your opening shot is nice and the gallery loads quickly.

The one thing that put me off was your prices :eek: :eek:

You say that there are two of you in the business. How are you making any money with a package at £295. Minus cost - divided by two - you would have to do hundreds of wedding a year to make a decent living. Even your top package £575 if you work ou your hourly rate I think you might be surprised.

If you take into account 1 hour to book the wedding then another hour pre-wedding appointment. 5 hours at the wedding another three or four after the wedding getting the images right (clour balance etc.). Another hour showing the pictures to the Bride & Groom. Another hour sorting prints etc. Another hour dropping prints off with them.

Thats a total of 13 hours work on one wedding. Taking your costs off the package. Petrol, prints etc - say £100. That leaves an hourly rate of £36. Divided between the two of you thats £18 per hour each. Minus tax & NI. You are left with around £12 per hour each.

This wouldnt be too bad if you were working a 45 hour week like "normal people" but we are only earning whilst we are taking pictures. I cannot see how you can make a sustainable profit charging those prices.

By looking at the gallery on your site you are offering a good product to your customers. You should be charging for it. I live in the North West so I dont have to add on the "Southern Tax" to my wedding prices like some photographers have to. My starting package is just short of £800. I never stay later than cutting the cake (before the meal). I do 60+ weddings a year. I am trying to say that there are loads of couples out there that are willing to pay the right price for the right job.

I think you have fallen into the trap of "If we are cheap then we will be busy" I have found this to be the opposite. The more I have raised my prices the busier I have become. In some places people like to boast "I had "blah blah" doing my wedding photographs - ooohhhh hes very expensive"

Then first thing I thought when I saw your price list is "Why are they sooo cheap?"

Start as you mean to go on. People expect to pay for a good job. look at local photographers (the ones you would like to be) and see what they are charging. I cant beleive that the prices you are charging are typical of your area. The problem you will have is OK you are rushed off your feet doing weddings in two years time but you arnt making any money. You will find it very hard then raising your prices because you will have the reputation "Book them they are really cheap"

Will finish ranting now. I hope me moaning on has helped a little bit.

Again welcome to the forum please dont let me put you off. You obviously have loads to offer. Keep posting.