Building trust with your couples is so important and the easiest way to do that is to provide them with resources that will help them believe in you. In today’s episode I’m sharing how I’ve created intentional touch points in my client experience to earn the trust of my couples, but also giving you a sneak peak at the customizable shot list I’ve created for my couples to build off of for their wedding day. By bringing my own shot list to them with all of the shots I intend to capture, my clients have belief in my work and can trust me with the most important pictures.

If you want to provide the same experience and build trust with your couples, you can grab my Customizable Shot List for just $59.

Remember who the beep you are.

Building Trust with Your Clients (2:33)

Creating Email Touch Points (3:46)

• Cost Saving Tips for Bachelorette Trips
• DIY Hacks for Centerpieces
• Bridesmaid & Groomsmen Gift Ideas
• Honeymoon Ideas

From Friend to Pro (4:32)

Creating a Customizable Shot List for My Couples (6:13)

What’s Included in the Shot List? (8:39)

Grab this Customizable Shot List for just $59.

Review the Transcript

Good morning beautiful. Today’s Motivational Monday is all about remembering who the beep you are. Yes, it’s time to shine, baby. No more scrolling on your phone looking for inspiration. No more self doubt. We’re crushing limiting beliefs and building strong foundations for our daily life and business. You are incredibly smart, resilient, soulful and too legit to quit. If you’re feeling stuck, wiped out and ready to level up. I’m glad you’re here.

You make the world a brighter place and your life’s work is impacting generations. The choices and connections you’re making today have incredible ripple effects. And your name has been mentioned in rooms without you even being there. positive and good vibes only, of course. But what if you don’t always feel that way? I know we’re all working on our mindset shifts, healing generational trauma, and becoming magnets for abundance. But sometimes life gets tough. Today’s episode I’ll be sharing a secret for wedding photographers that gain trust, clarity and connection with brides and grooms before the wedding day. Now, I know we’re all not photographers here, but most of us are dreamers and small business owners. Before I dive deep into wedding photography, I want to share a message for all small business owners. Your dream clients are praying for you. Yes, they are scrolling Pinterest and social media hoping to find someone just like you. They’re asking their friends for trusted referrals. And they’re craving someone that just gets them.

Now let me ask you this. How are you showing up for them? Are you offering education, tips, tricks and answering questions your dream clients didn’t even know they need to ask. You are the expert babe. You know, you’re the best option for your dream clients. But how are you providing that experience? How are you creating a professional and trustworthy experience? 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 at Quiannamarie.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? Oh, let’s go. You know that feeling when a client tells you, oh, whatever you say, I believe you and those magical three words. I trust you. Oh my goodness, that tiny sentence it gives me the chills. Now we all have friends and family members that trust us through years and years of experiences and have new forever friends that we instantly feel a vibe around and just want to work with them because it feels right. Well, I challenge you to come up with ways to create that trust and dependability online. You’re already providing integrity, kindness and support in real life. Let’s just get that online and add those experiences to your workflow. This way everyone feels well taken care of and supported. One way I create this trust and value for my wedding couples is to create a shortlist and a gameplan for pictures months before the wedding even happens.
Since we’re not all photographers, I challenge you to come up with templates, emails, guides and questionnaires that can help provide for your future in your current clients so they know that you’re in charge and you’re always thinking ahead. This could be as simple as quick bullet point tips on your Instagram posts, and then bundling those tips into a guide on your Instagram or sharing stories that can live forever in your highlights.

I provide email touch points, sharing cost saving tips for bachelorette weekends, DIY hacks for centerpieces, bridesmaids and groomsmen gift ideas, and even local but luxury honeymoon location ideas, stuff like that. So I’m often top of mine and constantly adding value for my couples. What are some ways you could adopt those tips for your business? If you ever catch yourself feeling drained, not appreciated or questioned? As a professional, I challenge you to feel the sting, but prevent those feelings. Get ahead of those questions and concerns and be the superhero. You already have everything it takes to be adored, trusted and valued, share them and be proactive about crushing any doubts from future clients?

Now let’s dive into this one secret that helped me go from being just a friend taking wedding photos to a pro wedding photographers. This one’s for you. I see you. Your work is beautiful and you’re constantly improving. Do you ever wished your couples would just trust you? As my business grew? And I started booking more weddings? I used to cringe when I would get an email with a shortlist request and brides would request photos of their shoes. The first kiss a photo with their mom, I literally would roll my eyes. A da, what? A Yes, of course, I know I’ll be taking those Of course I know what I’m doing, it would instantly deflate me and I would always feel crushed in honestly kind of like an idiot. Now, the flip of that, I would think of My Brides. They’re excited their wedding planning and dreaming up their own wedding moments. They probably just discovered some Pinterest shot list and want to make sure we’re all on the same page. Yes, even as adults today, we have this mindset that if we don’t ask will never receive. Plus, they may have heard horror stories from their girlfriends or their friends about not having certain photos from their wedding days. That just sounds like a nightmare. I can guarantee Well, I think every past bride has sent me a shot list that has never thought, hmm, I don’t think you’re capable ki i bet you don’t know what you’re doing. So I’m going to send you this list anyway. They’ve always sent it with love and it was only me that would get butthurt about it. Not having that trust or making them think that I would not be doing the bare minimum as a wedding photographer. Like I wouldn’t even be doing my job.

That was totally a me problem. So I took matters into my own hands and I created a customizable shortlist. I sat down one day I went through multiple galleries and created a fat shot list for every single possible moment in detail to capture on a wedding day. Every checkpoint of the wedding day is accounted for starting from the getting ready details all the way down to the send off if there’s fireworks and sparklers. So photographers this shortlist is a fully customizable Canva template that allows you to add your own photos, brand details, and copy your own words with hints and tips sprinkled throughout for your couples. I send this out to my couples about a month before their wedding, not only to stay in touch, but to remind them before we even start their wedding day that they’re in good hands. I asked every couple to scroll through the list and make any additional requests that maybe you need to them. So for example, family group photos for formals. Of course we mean that shot list especial heirlooms, or jewelry or anything honoring guests in heaven, stuff like that. But I remind them in the guide that we can always request photos before and on the wedding day. But never after of course.

Plus I asked couples to share this list with their mothers as well if they want to. If not, it’s totally not a big deal but it is impressive to share with mother in law’s so they also know that the photography is well taken care of. Okay, but why does this customized shortlist need to be added to your workflow? Well, circling back to our mantra for this week, let’s remind ourselves who we are. You’re in charge. You’re capable, you are the best and most qualified photographer, you are passionate about weddings and truly enjoy the dance between capturing and creating emotional moments. Plus, let’s be honest, if you’re still cracking into weddings, this list works perfectly as a cheat sheet. And a gentle reminder for you. As the day gets busy and crazy, you can always reference this list, it’s really a win win for all of us, head over to the show notes or pop over to the link in my Instagram and select shop to start customizing your list today. For only $59. This shot will help maximize your legitness give yourself and your couples peace of mind and confidence that you need. Plus, I even include a Canva tutorial to help you get started with simply dragging and dropping your content. So you can start shooting these out to your couples ASAP. Your dream couples will adore it and help you become the hero that they always dreamed up.

Let’s dive into the table of contents for your customizable shot list. Everything starts with a breakdown. And I cover a whole page if not two pages of lists for photos that you can be capturing or that you can be creating. And I say this often about capturing versus creating. And really as a wedding photographer, you’re in charge, there are going to be so many moments on wedding day where you feel like a fly on the wall. You’re just letting things happen organically and naturally. And you just are a documentary for the day. But then I also love and fusing moments where I am actually in charge and I create a little bit of assertiveness and I make things happen. This is all explained in the shortlist where you can start kind of adding your own type your own wording and make it sound like your own voice. But let’s dive into a little like sneak peek into the table of contents. So here’s a long list. It will be in the show notes. So don’t feel you have to draw all these down right now. But let’s start with the wedding details. Then we have getting ready both for both sides for each couple first look. Wedding Party, this ceremony, cocktail hour, family portraits, romantic sunset portraits, the reception, dancing and the send off include In the shortlist or that list, or is it that list for each of these, and it’s just a great way for everything to be in one location. So I want to dive into one specific list I think is really important, which is the ceremony list.

This is something like I mentioned earlier about brides requesting the first kiss to like, we just laugh and say, Well, duh. But oftentimes, there’s, there’s so many photos that we’re taking as photographers, and we’re being really proactive about, but we just want to make sure that they know that we’re thinking about it, because our couples and typically the bride will be the last, the last one to walk down the aisle, will be the last to arrive to their ceremony. And so we want to make sure that it’s so well covered and documented even before it’s even touched, right. So I’m going to go through this really long list real quick, it goes by fast. But let’s start with ceremony decor. When I say ceremony decor, I’m thinking of the venue location, I’m thinking of the florals of the chairs, of all the little details, right, wedding signage, details, then we roll into guests arriving, I like to think of guests arriving. I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a cruise ship. But typically when you arrive to a cruise, right there, as soon as you enter, they have this like, random backdrop and something that’s a green screen and just like interest, another picture. But they take photos of couples and families, everyone that interests the boat, I think it’s secretly for security reasons, or just a way to document all of us that are entering the boat.

But it is a great way to capture all the guests arriving. So I kind of keep that in mind, either for myself or the second shooter to start capturing guests as they arrive. Wedding Party lining up for the aisle. This is awesome. There’s always intimate moments going on between parents before everyone walks down the aisle. And all those nerves and jitters and sweet prayers sometimes before are just so sweet. So that’s definitely on the list. Wedding Party entrance. Of course, we’re capturing all of the wedding party coming down the aisle, front row reactions. This is huge, because you want to make sure that you’re getting those tears Those laughters I love when parents and grandparents are holding hands during the ceremony. I think that’s really sweet. And sometimes unfortunately, we may have empty seats in the front that hold you know, some type of heirloom or special mento or whatever that word is like something sweet for a past parent or grandparent that deserves a seat in the front. So it’s important to capture those as well. wide angle shots of the full ceremony. So not only just when things are empty, but of course and everybody is there.

I love sneaking up to they call it like the choir loft in a lot of the churches, they have those in the back, you can sneak up there to get those shots. Those are beautiful too, if not just being as far back as possible. To capture the full ceremony is amazing. Of course, we have the ring exchange that is in there getting those up close details of the Rings far away as well. special prayers or readings, when there are special guests that pop up during the ceremony. We love capturing those. Of course the kiss this is huge. Of course we need to be center aisle capturing that kiss. And then always I even include this in the shortlist. I always include the kiss at the end. So that is such a fun little touch to add. I’m usually doing sign language with my couples because sometimes I forget because of course there’s the moment and it’s so exciting. But I’ll actually like throw my hands up like a stop sign and like Stop, stop. Then I’ll point to my lips kiss kiss and I’m like moving my hands to get them to go into that dip kiss. And sometimes they just blast right through me because they’re just on cloud nine. They’ve just been announced and so I get it. But capturing that dip kiss is like this so cute. And so I love that and then of course celebration and hugs after. This is huge. This is another kind of like timeline sucker that we can talk about another time. But it really is such a special and intimate moment for our couples because that time was like a blur. It feels like five minutes and five hours in the same breath.

And everyone is congratulating them a lot of times, caterers or wedding planners will swoop by and offer champagne and out appetizers which is which is cute. But absolutely capturing those hugs and kisses and all that celebration after is really sweet. And I love including that time in the timeline so we don’t feel rushed or feel like we’re have to pull everybody away and say sorry, don’t look at anybody because we have to go take photos. let them soak that up. It’s so special. So that is just one portion one tiny page of the shortlist. And I even include just for the ceremony even include little reminders for the couple as well. So sprinkled throughout the shot list you can find just like you know, little text boxes. And so one of the reminders I have for the ceremony is considering having an unplugged wedding so guests can truly be present. This is a moment for us, right we were always requesting people to put their iPads down and put their cell phones down like it’s just too ridiculous. But adding this in the shortlist is a gentle reminder and great for officiants to remember to. So our couples hopefully can remind them as well. Another note I have for the ceremony is if it is possible, your ceremony location should have three aisles, the middle and two sides for photographers and videographers to move around without being too distracting. So this is huge. Not all wedding venues actually offer this right. So I get it. Sometimes we are just dealt the cards that we get. And sometimes chairs are touching walls or plants and we just like can’t get around the edges. And so sometimes we are forced to just kind of try to discreetly without being too annoying go up or down the aisle. But I always try to remind my couples that if you are designing your ceremony space, if you have the luxury of designing it or having it in a particular location, please leave little room leave wiggle room on each side of the ceremony space, or should say ceremony space. But you know next to the chairs on the outer edge. So as videographers and photographers can easily bounce around without being really annoying and being in everybody’s way. So once again, this is just a little reminder included our photos that of course you’ll be replacing as your own. But I want to just give you a taste. I wanted to give you a taste of what’s included in the shortlist. Just going over the ceremony there are like I said, there’s a whole index and contents list for every possible like I call them chapters or touch points throughout the day. And I really hope this helps. Thank you so much for joining this conversation today.

I’m thrilled you’re here. If you have any questions about content ideas are ways you can maximize your legitness from a professional experience that makes your clients trust you beyond measure, send me a message send me a DM I hang out on Instagram often and we’d love to hear about your business and how I can help it grow organically. Can’t wait to chat soon. Keep dancing baby, you’re on fire. 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 and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing