Wedding Bookings

[Alan Schofield]

This thread could have been discussed already but here goes.

Bookings for the year

When do you take most of your bookings for the year ?

Are 50% of the weddings for the following year booked before or after Xmas?


Are your bookings for 2006 down or up from previous years ?


For me I have found that around 50% seem the book before Xmas to get the dates early during the summer months & the rest after Xmas/ Spring filling up the rest of the free dates with the number of early weddings especially dropping down over the past couple of years.

Are they taking longer or are the numbers of bookings coming down?

How far in advance are you booked ? I am often booked for the popular dates ( summer ) 18 months in advance. My winter/spring weddings seem to have dropped off over the past 2 years. Is this the same for you all ?

Alan

[Stemmy]

Exactly the same for me Alan.

Whatever I have booked alt Christmas I can expect to double to the end of the year.

I have 6 bookings for 2007 and have had a couple of telephone enquiries for 2008.

I find every year different. Usually September for me is manic - last year I did two weddings. December is usually quiet - this year I did 9 weddings !!.

I am finding its quieter during March & April than it has been for a couple of years but again this could just be a blip.

35 Weddings booked as of now - can expect 60+ this year in total.

[Alan Schofield]

So if your bookings seem to follow my pattern were do the bookings come from ?

Web-site
Yellow pages
Telephone
Yell.com
Radio
Local newspaper
Wedding shows
Word of mouth

What % from each !!

Alan

[Stemmy]

Web-site - 20 %
Yellow pages - 5 %
Telephone - included with the others
Yell.com 5 %
Radio - NIL
Local newspaper - 10 %
Wedding shows - 15 %
Word of mouth - 45 %

[Dotty.c]

most of our bookings came in during Sept, but they are spread through out the year the only month with nothing yet is november, 20 book so far & 2 2007, only did 24 last year. usually double what ever was booked before christmas.

Yellow pages 30%
webb 30%
weddingfaryes 15%
word of mouth 25%

[Alan Schofield]

I find all of this really interesting as we all seem to get our bookings in the same way & around the same time ?

Does this mean that our web-sites are just a very expensive way of showing our work to future customers ( & other photographers ) & that most of the bookings still come in the good old fashioned ways !!, I hope that this is not true as I feel that our web-sites should show B/G's who can offer what they are after & not who is the cheapest.

Do you put your prices up for all to see ( I do )

Alan

On his own down in Devon !!

[england1965]

Do you put your prices up for all to see ( I do )

Alan

On his own down in Devon !!

No - I was considering it - but as my bookings happen right across the country and sometimes involve hundreds of miles driving , one or two overnight stays and anything from 3 to 17 hours work with anything from 16 to 300 guests. It's difficult to come up with a generic pricing model that would mean that I or the B&G got a "bad" deal.

Also, I can adjust the cost if it's a job I really want to do (or occasionally not)



Most of my bookings come from the web (80%) with the rest word of mouth. (To answer an earlier question in this thread)


Cheers
Mark


Cheers
Mark