What if I told you that you could book future weddings while you’re working your current wedding? Well, guess what, you can and you should be! In today’s episode, I’m sharing five strategies that have revolutionized my wedding days in working with Queen Bee Brides and allowed me to connect and book future weddings while working.

If you’re loving Quianna Marie Weekly, make sure you’re following the podcast on Apple Podcast App or Spotify, leave me a rating & review, and connect with me on Instagram! You can view more episodes from this podcast here.

This episode is brought to you by the Book Dream Wedding Program, launching soon. If you’re ready to book more dream wedding, make sure you’re on the waitlist for when this program goes live! Join the waitlist here!

The Queen Bee Bride (2:12)

5 Strategies that Revolutionized My Wedding Days (6:29)

1. Create a Stress-Free Wedding Day (6:45)
   Bonus Tip: Dress Comfortably and Be Prepared
2. Create an Honorary Position for Yourself as a Bridesmaid or Groomsman 9:47)
3. Leaving the Drama for Your Mama (10:50)
4. Creating a Shot List (13:07)
5. Creating Behind-the-Scenes Video and Short Film (16:00)

If you’re ready to book more dream weddings, make sure you’re on the Book Dream Weddings Waitlist to be the first to know when this program goes live! Book Dream Weddings is a program that serves as the mack daddy of all online and coaching courses. You’ll have weekly access to me directly to answer your burning questions, discuss strategies that boost organic referrals and keep the motivation and encouragement flooding. Get on the waitlist now!

Links
Book Dream Weddings Waitlist

Review the Transcript:

People often focus on the gear, when I believe it’s more important to focus on how you make others feel. today’s podcast is focused on photographers, especially wedding photographers that are interested in booking organic, local and loyal future weddings from your next wedding. Wouldn’t that be incredible? If you could take the time that you’re already putting the work in? You’re already hustling on a wedding day, you’re already creating a magnetic experience. Photographers, wouldn’t it be a dream? If from your next wedding, you easily booked your next wedding? Now, I’m not talking about the wedding that you’re going to book next fall. And then the next weekend book their very best friend. But what if we can start planting these seeds to really make a difference in the work that we’re already putting in? I get it. These algorithms are really frustrating. And these trends are so fleeting. But what if we use some strategy and truly pour our hearts into serving the clients that we already have? Plus, as you know, I’ve said this before on the podcast, good people, no good people. So if you’re connecting with a specific couple that you just fall in love with, I can almost guarantee that their best friends, their cousins, and their extended family are most likely really awesome. And they’re probably a little bit similar to them. Welcome to Quianna Marie weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins, big or small, by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams. You can find all the resources mentioned in this episode, Quianna murray.com/podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation and chat about growing themes, finding genuine connection and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready, let’s go. I want to introduce you to a quick concept. We can dive deeper into this into the future. But I want to introduce you to what I like to call a queen bee bride. Now, let’s be totally transparent. This is not high school. Okay, so I am not talking about the most beautiful bride in your neighborhood or in your community. I’m not talking about the wealthiest couple. I’m not talking about the couple that has the most beautifully curated Pinterest feed. That is just you know, Dream weddings beyond dream weddings. Personally, for me, when I think of a dream wedding, I think of how I feel on that wedding day. It’s not about the floral budget and how expensive things are, or the luxury of the venue. I like to feel good at work every single day. And that includes working with people that I think are really awesome. So getting back to the queen bee bride, I’d like to introduce you quickly to Jessica. Jessica’s wedding alone has helped me booked for more weddings, including destination wedding to Mexico. So one of her bridesmaids Kira actually helped me pack my bags and took me to a destination wedding. It was absolutely beautiful. Not only was it able to book for weddings from from Jessica’s wedding, but I also had the opportunity to have a couple that modeled for me for a styled shoot, which brought me in turn tons of connections with even more incredible wedding vendors, and helped me land a spot on a vendor list to a winery that I absolutely love. And I love shooting not year after year. All of this happened from one queen bride. Now as I started analyzing this because I love of course thinking about the past and going over all my thoughts. I started to wonder, did I book these weddings just because Jessica said so or just because I’m a nice person and I happen to take really pretty pictures. The more I started dissecting my moves and my actions on a wedding day, I started tallying up all the different queen bee brides and I know you can’t see me but I’m doing air quotes over here. The more I started tallying up these queen bee brides or king grooms as I’d like to call them two guys often get really great referrals as well. I started to realize that this is a process and there’s actually a strategy behind this. Because if you’re just a nice person, and you’re just kind and you’re friendly, and you happen to have an expensive camera, I can guarantee you that there’s something missing or there’s a hell of a lot more things that you could be doing on a wedding day that is going to attract and create these magnetic experiences.

wedding photographers if you’re feeling frustrated and infused wishing you had more Ingres and dream weddings on your calendar. I got you. I’m launching book a dream weddings. And this may be the answer to your prayers. I know you are passionate about weddings and your gorgeous work speaks for itself. You’re friendly and go above and beyond for your couples yet still struggle with filling your calendar with Dream weddings. This program is the mack daddy of all online coaching and courses. You’ll have weekly access to me directly to answer your burning questions, discuss strategies that boost organic referrals and keep the motivation and encouragement flooding. In addition to one on one coaching will also have weekly group coaching parties, like mini masterminds to bounce ideas and share real wedding experiences, as well as videos and workbooks to help you learn in your own pace. It’s the cluster of online learning that we’re all craving. Let me help you book your next wedding from your next wedding. Click over to the show notes to get on the waitlist today. I’m so thankful you’re one of the first to hear about this. I probably have about a dozen of these queen bee brides that have booked me if not, at least two, I would say at least two or three brides from one wedding would consider themselves a queen bee bride. But I can say there’s over a dozen of these girls in my life that have booked me for multiple, multiple weddings. And I started to realize, okay, there’s got to be a strategy behind that. So that’s what we’re gonna chat about today, we’re gonna go through five specific strategies that I have implemented into my business that have completely revolutionized the way that I work on a wedding day. So let’s dive into those right now. The first and most important thing about preparing for your weddings is creating a stress free wedding day.

And to be perfectly honest, this starts with you, no matter how much planning, the wedding planner is involved, no matter how I call it like the Monica bride, though, you know if we have a Monica bride and she has her binder, and she’s prepared Monica from friends, I try to think of, okay, there are so many things that I can do as a photographer to even meet me on that first time I walked through the front door of a wedding. And that starts with you. So educating yourself becoming confident in your gear, knowing the ins and outs of your camera settings of your lighting situations. Walking into a wedding day feeling confident in your craft, confident in the services that you offer, is wholeheartedly going to set yourself up for success. How? And I’m not even asking a rhetorical question here. Like I’m seriously curious, like, how can you expect a wedding day to go smoothly and stress free if you’re a ball of anxiety and your stress? It’s just impossible. So I highly encourage you to take the time, educate yourself, second shoot for others, and truly feel confident in your own skin on a wedding day. This includes creating a timeline, building one with you and your couples stress in mind. I used to build out these timelines thinking, okay, they’re all about the photos and they’re all about the best lighting situations which is absolutely true. However, I’ve taken them a lot deeper with creating checkpoints throughout the day. So my couples know that they don’t have to feel rushed. They don’t have to feel like their day is escaping them or that their wedding day. Even though ironically, it doesn’t make sense. But I hope it doesn’t feel like a huge photoshoot. Their wedding day should be sprinkled throughout the day with checkpoints and fun photos. But it shouldn’t ever feel stressed where they feel like their temples have headaches from too many smiles or they feel like they’re being posed throughout every single little milestone on their wedding day. This is why it’s important to really take the time to build up that timeline with vendors involved with stress free moments in mind and truly padding the day for extra time. Also, another little key point for tip number one is to be as comfortable as possible. And this includes dressing for the day making sure you have comfortable shoes making sure you look professional but still mobile. And of course as always, I’m queen snack girl, always making sure that you have food, plenty of water and snacks. I have in my contract that I request to have meals for both me and my second shooter or my assistants through the day. However, as we know sometimes it doesn’t happen.

And instead of me being crazy about it or raising a stink about it or you know, having a conversation with the Caterine about it getting all butthurt about that situation I always ensure to have my snacks. Number two, rolling into creating a magnetic experience for your current couples is to create an honorary position of yourself as a bridesmaid or groomsman on the wedding day. This is so huge if you You can step into that role of being a helper of being a servant going above and beyond. Honestly, just trying to be the hero throughout the day, I can’t tell you how many times I have sprinted upstairs back down to the beach, to have the veil for sunset photos, I have had to put out fires, literally, things are burning on tables from candles. There’s just so many things that happen on a wedding day. And if you can pour your heart and soul into creating the best experience for the couple, your whole entire, the like the whole game will be a different day. This is important. The third way that you can help create that magnetic experience is leaving the drama for your mama. Now I know that wedding parties can get a little crazy, I know in laws can sometimes create scenes, and that’s totally normal. But I bet you wouldn’t guess I’m actually talking about the relationship and the connection you have with videographers that day. This is huge. When you are working with videographers, you absolutely have to be the first person to introduce yourself, create game plans and remind them that you’re both on the same team. There can be a stigma between wedding photographers and videographers, I’ve had many brides reach out to me and ask, you’re gonna you’re gonna get along with my videographer, right? Because I just don’t want any drama, right? And I just start laughing thinking, Okay, if there’s any drama on your wedding day, I can guarantee it’s not coming from me. However, I will try to be as proactive as possible to make sure that this doesn’t happen. They’re going to get in your way. There’s no doubt about it, we can have a game plan, we can make gametime decisions on a ceremony but guess what their butts and their backs and the back of their heads are going to be in some of our photos. Instead of rolling your eyes and creating a scene and huffing and puffing that they’re annoying or that they’re not going by the plan for the ceremony or for the first dance. Just move your feet. I have learned this I don’t want to say the hard way. But Quianna like five years ago, totally would have got butthurt about this situation would have literally been having conversations with my eyes and my facial expressions with wedding guests. As they’re looking at me thinking I’m going to tap them on the shoulder, ask them to move and key on. And now five years later, after having all these experiences, I can honestly say that, honestly videographers and I, we get along, we’re buds it doesn’t matter. I love working with them, especially when we are in a time crunch. And we don’t have time to split each other, especially during precious sunset times. We work together and I make sure to let the videographers know that I’m on their team. So I do a lot of posing a lot of action. Of course, we do some of the professional portraits where we feel a little bit more stiff. But I love creating movement. I love dancing, I love spins, I love walking and transitions. And those, of course, are perfect for video. So ensure to let them know that we are both on the same team.

Number four is creating a shot list. Now to be perfectly honest, I kind of think of a shot list like a grocery list when I go to the grocery store or when I pop into Target. I have my list. And sometimes I pick up some more things that I had in mind. Right? I think that it’s inevitable for a lot of us. Hopefully some things aren’t missed something isn’t missing off the shelf, like having a drunk cousin who went straight to the bar instead of joining us for family portraits. Sometimes that happens. And that’s exactly how I explained it to my to my couples, I try my best I have my list. But just like whipping up a meal, when I get home, I have my ingredients. I have all my people there. I know the combinations that we need. I know exactly. Who needs to be there. And sometimes, I may not know the names of these people. But after so many years and so much experience working with families. Sometimes I even come up with combinations that the couple didn’t even request and I try to be really proactive about asking I call them the VIPs. So asking mothers asking more parents and sometimes Auntie’s as well know, who’s the VIPs for the family and who should be there and maybe even who should not right. So including those types of photos are important. Adding a couple more bullet points to creating a shortlist in creating this magnetic experience for these organic and super easy referrals are to consider the vendors on wedding days. Mostly wedding vendors are running around so busy, they maybe whipping their phone out for quick little behind the scenes or sometimes they pause and take photos mostly with their phones. But a lot of times wedding vendors are banking on us and just hoping and praying that we send them a link to their to their photos to see and to share. So going above and beyond thinking of wedding vendors and what they would like on the wedding day. I take the time to pause and capture the florist putting the final catches on the ceremony space. I love creating time lapse, and photos of the hair and makeup team getting all that glam squad put together, the wedding coordinators for the venue when they’re running around. I’ll ask them, Hey, do you girls want a quick headshot, I’d love to provide this for you. And oftentimes they look at me and they’re usually frazzled, they have their tennis shoes on. They’re definitely sweaty from running around all day. But I told them, let me just tap to this for you, I know you’re going to want these. And I do. So that has been a great way to incorporate extra images, extra details of the day that they’re going to want to share. And once again, this is just creating easy steps for people to talk about you and to refer you and to be thankful that you’re there knowing that they’re going to be covered. And last but not least, number five, is creating behind the scenes video in short film. This by far, I saved the best for last. If you’re still listening, I’m so happy you’re here because this one tip truly has amplified my business beyond measure. When I take the time to pause without my phone, capture the details. This is honestly been a game changer for me, capturing checkpoints throughout the day. Fun little details and highlighting once again, highlighting the vendors highlighting special moments has truly just taken my business that I have in real life. And the passion that I have in person working with these couples and with these families has been able for me to put this online and to break those barriers, crushing these networks. And I should say like crushing these walls of these little networks around me.

When couples have these little cute little behind the scenes clips, they’re going to be so excited to share it. I can’t tell you how important it is as a wedding photographer to have bridesmaids and groomsmen and wedding guests excited to easily share your work. Because think about it. Oftentimes we are posting and engaging with other photographers and other wedding vendors around the country, which is great, we have to have that support system. We love our Instagram lala land where we are supporting our friends. And just honestly getting inspiration and just kind of staying in the know with what’s going on as we squirrel. But what if we can connect with local girls, I’m talking about the friends that go to our local gyms, that the girls who go to the local nail salons. And these are the women in your circle that I feel like a lot of us are sleeping on if we don’t maximize this exposure by these quick little Insta Stories and these quick little reels. This is exactly the type of organic marketing that I really want you to focus on. So that pretty much sums up just some quick pointers, just quick little five key tips that you can absolutely maximize the work that you’re already doing. I know that I’m a really scrappy person, I love making everything that I do max like to the max, right, so I don’t like I don’t like to make more work for myself. And I don’t want you to feel stressed that you have to constantly be on your A game on social media, you are already doing the work. Let’s amplify it. So going back to the quote for today. A lot of times a lot of times, photographers will invest crazy amounts in their gear and be really techie which yes is important. We have to have high quality gear, and we have to know how to work it. But instead of putting that as your primary focus, let’s focus on loving and serving the clients that we already have. Let’s focus on trying to get those next bookings with people not even questioning your pricing, not even questioning whether they’ve seen your photos from that day or not. They know that the experience you created on that wedding day is something they cannot live without. So photographers I challenge you at your very next wedding, implement some of these key tips really truly love and serve the clients who already have and let’s book your next wedding from your next wedding. Ready loves dance. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at quiannamarie.com/podcast. I’d be honored and so grateful if you showed your support by leaving a review in writing on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing.