Do you have what it takes to become a wedding photographer? Today’s episode is directed at anyone who is interested in getting started with photographing weddings and making it their profession. I’m sharing a handful of daring moments and hard truths that I’ve experienced on the job, and what it truly takes to make a successful career as a wedding photographer. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Today’s episode is brought to you by the FREE Book More Weddings guide. Learn how to easily capture behind the scenes video for organic referrals, local followers, and increased brand awareness. You want to make sure you have this before your next wedding! 

Review the Show Notes: 

Be Kind, But Assertive (2:51)

Are You Prepared? (5:27)

Think Outside The Box (6:21)

How Many Weddings Have You Photographed? (7:28)

Work An Entire Day Without Food Or Water (8:30)

How Do You Deliver Your Images? (9:13)

Tell Them The Lighting Is Better Near The Dumpster (10:40)

Are You Prepared To Be Booked On Your Cousin’s Wedding Day? (14:36)

Are Your Images Safe? (15:18)

The Longevity Of A Photographer (15:55)

Mentioned in this Episode:

Book More Weddings Guide

Amplify Your Weddings Series

Episode 033: Preparing For Tech Fails to Amplify Your Weddings with Dawn Richardson

Episode 054: The Death Of My Laptop

Review the Transcript:

While many photographers and industry educators are dropping courses and a ton of encouragement to help you become a wedding photographer overnight, I’m ready to drop some big truth bombs and share some insight about some things that no one warned you about. Before you start photographing weddings.

This episode is directed to anyone interested in getting started photographing weddings or maybe a friend has asked you to shoot their elopement or upcoming wedding. And you’re interested in making this your profession, but you have questions and lots of concerns.

I’m Your Biggest Fan

Before we began, I want to remind you that I’m seriously your biggest fan. I wholeheartedly believe that you have everything you need to be successful right at your fingertips. You and I are both overqualified and our self doubt keeps us questioning everything. Well, I’m here to crank out some answers and to help you feel prepared physically, mentally, emotionally and professionally before your next wedding. These points are not meant to scare you away.

I believe becoming a wedding photographer has been the best decision for my life, business and family since day one, the wedding industry in Northern California, Arizona and beyond have been the biggest blessings in my life and I’m forever grateful for my generational clients. I hope you’ll find this episode realistic and relatable to help you decide if wedding photography is the best next step for you.

Even if you’ve already started weddings, this will be a great refresher for your next wedding season. I can’t wait to share more about what it takes and share different scenarios that every photographer encounters on a wedding day, no matter how many guests the location, or how different our personalities can be as your tough loving big sister and photography bestie. I just want to ensure that you have the grit and are prepared for the dirty details and x to truly be the best photographer in your hometown and beyond.

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 of the resources mentioned in this episode at Kiana murray.com/podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart.

Come join me for a dance party ready loves though. This episode is going to get a little spicy and I’m here for it. I see so many educators out here pushing their courses and mentoring and it feels like the literally sell the dream to anyone. But it takes someone really special to be a wedding photographer. If becoming a wedding photographer is your dream. It’s already yours for the taking bait. I’m here to support you and encourage you let’s roll out some truth or dare scenarios.

I’ll start with a dare and answer with the hard hitting truth.

DARE: I dare you to walk into a room with nine gentleman some cylinder boxers, two toddlers running around and Uncle cracking a beer and the groom nowhere to be found.

Your dare is to kindly but assertively get their attention to give them a heads up about their timeline, and to ensure that they’ll be ready for photos and about 30 minutes. The truth is that you’re going to have to have the confidence to give directions and guide the wedding party through the timeline. You may have to use your body language to direct all of the wedding guests to take a seat if the officiant forgets to ask them to sit down, or even corralling large, extended families for portraits after the ceremony takes a lot of guts to keep things streamlined.

Are you prepared to ask three to four guests that snuck early into the ceremony space and ask them to get up like actually get off their seats and move away way out of the ceremony space just to grab a couple shots of the empty but completely just detailed out perfect ceremony site. That’s awkward and kind of scary. Are you prepared to do that?

After over 15 years photographing weddings, I can honestly say that I’ve only raised my voice twice on a wedding day. And that was once screaming at my second shooter while I was on the dock in Lake Tahoe with my couple and I was trying to get her attention to go run and grab the veil during cocktail hour. And then another time I was screaming was actually I was raising my voice because I was trying to prevent a wedding guests from getting ran over and smashed by a catering band. Literally, I was trying to yell the both of them one stop, stop, stop. And then of course the person who’s about to get ran over to get out of the way.

That’s the only time that I’ve ever raised my voice at weddings.

Many photographers will say that they don’t mind being the bad guy and raising their voice. Oh, just no problem. I’ll be the one to make a whole bunch of noise and to get everybody’s attention. You better listen to me. I don’t mind being the bad guy.

But personally, I just believe it’s not necessary. Do you have what it takes to command the room with your voice, presence and assertiveness in a very kind and genuine manner.

This episode of The Quianna Marie Weekly Podcast is sponsored by Book More Weddings, your guide to creating content at your next wedding to help you book your next wedding. You’re already doing the work, babe. Just share it online. Grab the free guide in the show notes or tap the link on my Instagram bio book more weddings before your next wedding.

I know you’re amazing. Your family loves you and your past clients are raving about you. It’s time to shine online, grab that guide today.

TRUTH: Are you prepared to save the day if the shutter on your camera just stops working?

Now part two of this question is Where exactly is your backup gear? You may be thinking oh, no, no, no, no, no, I would never show up to wedding day without my backup camera without backup lenses, batteries and extra cards. Let’s say you’re in the middle of a ceremony and all of a sudden your camera craps out on you. It just dies. The shutter is not working. It won’t turn on. It just won’t take a photo. Where exactly is your backup camera?

Are you sporting a dueling camera situation so you just keep shooting? Or is your backup camera under the DJ booth without cards ready to roll. Having backup gear and investing in the best equipment you can afford is the best way to ensure your clients day is covered to the best of your ability. Okay, ready? Let’s keep rolling with these truth videos. These are so fun.

DARE: I dare you to tell the bride that it’s time for the first look, but she refuses because it’s too windy, and she doesn’t want to wreck her hair or makeup before the wedding.

This is a hard truth about wedding photographers and vendors in general. Sometimes we have to make fast decisions that best serve our clients with any given scenario. Having the ability to think on the fly and to solve problems that you’ve never anticipated will set you apart from the pros to the Joe Schmo shows. This type of dilemma on a wedding day would kick me into gear sharing indoor options, or possibly another location hidden by everyone, especially the when photographers must be seven steps ahead of everyone and ultimately create a safe, fun and beautiful experience for their clients in that moment. Okay, we can’t just be thinking about the final images.

Even if things don’t go our way, or shift in our favor to deliver gorgeous editorial style images. We must always do our best in the moment. Do you have what it takes to think outside the box? Are you capable of taking the initiative to make changes to exact locations? Or even adjust the timeline to best suit your clients?

TRUTH: How many weddings have you photographed?

Are you prepared to answer this question? If you only photograph less than a handful of weddings? What would you say if you’ve never officially photographed one? Here’s the catch on this one. We all start somewhere bathe and many clients will trust you even with a tiny portfolio. But what exactly are you giving them to trust? Are you sharing your own experience with all types of photography? Maybe you have high school seniors to share or past family shoots to share?

Are you communicating well with them and then answering their questions? Do you have the confidence to share what you value on wedding days and what you’re looking forward to capturing for them? Or better yet? Are you willing to listen to your clients and authentically capture their date based on their needs and what their requests are? That’s a hard truth to swallow. But it’s true.

We have to ask them the truth. And this question doesn’t matter if the answer is that you’ve only shot four weddings or you’ve shot over forty! What are you sharing with your dream clients that proves your value and gains their trust? Okay, in the next one.

DARE: I dare you to work an entire wedding day without being offered any food or water.

In the 15 years of photographing weddings, I’ve never whipped out my contract on a wedding day and pointed to a clause I’ve just never ever ever done it and I never ever, ever will.

Sadly I’ve worked dozens of weddings when the catering team didn’t offer us a plate until every wedding guests was fed. And by then toasts were rolling out and there was no time to eat. This is a reminder that even with our meal requests in the contract, sometimes things happen. As vendors and photographers, it’s our job to fuel our bodies.

This is your reminder to pack plenty of water and snacks. Please grab enough food for your second shooter as well, just in case.

TRUTH: Tell me, how do you deliver your images?

Are you sending a link to a gallery?

Do their wedding collections include any prints? What’s the process for ordering albums? Can your couples share the download code with their family and wedding guests or even the wedding party? What exactly are your policies for sharing images with vendors? Are you delivering black and white photos? PS before I go on, please please please please if you are delivering black and white photos, please also include the color version of that as well. I can’t tell you how it’s just like the biggest when you deliver a photo don’t get me wrong.

Some photos are kind of like unsavable and you may have to flip them right into black and white and I get it but I just it’s just been a thing. Just if you’re going to include black and white, please include the color as well, I’m saying that from a photographer’s perspective, as well as just a future client, okay, like we want to see both and long story short, it will prevent you from so much back and forth if you just deliver both, or at least if you deliver black and white deliver that color.

Sorry, that was a tangent. This is a lot to think about when it comes to questions about delivering your images.

But before your next wedding, it’s important to understand what this system looks like. The beauty of being your own business owner is that you get to make up these rules and create offers that feel aligned to you. Giving your clients a clear understanding of what your photography collection includes, will be a great start before it becomes an issue. Okay, the next day and like this one.

DARE: I dare you to tell the mother of the groom, that the lighting is better near the dumpster in the parking lot than in front of the water fountain in the garden?

No, really, moments like this will happen when it comes to location hunting and finding the best light, especially for large wedding parties where you need everyone in similar light, preferably open shade. So how would you approach this scenario, I’m going to want you to imagine that this mother, the group is looking at you cross eyed, puzzled, throwing up her arms thinking what is this photographer doing? Why are we in this crappy parking lot, we should be over here in the garden.

Personally, I would let my confidence shine with every step as I pose and photograph the entire day. So I don’t ever really open this up for discussion. Okay, now, let me make this perfectly clear. I do ask the couple prior to their wedding day.

After their wedding venue has been confirmed, literally, then they booked me next, they booked some other high, high value vendors. And then we go over the process of what their wedding day is gonna look like and why they chose that venue.

During that time, that’s when I’m asking, Hey, is there anything specific about this wedding venue that you absolutely love, and that you just couldn’t imagine getting married here and not having photos taken there? I have had couples that get married and wineries. And they literally tell me, you know, we don’t really drink.

It’s not a huge deal for us to have images in the vineyard. So that’s okay, we don’t really need that. So that’s something that we can ask in advance. I never asked my couples on the day of a wedding, where they would like to photograph next, what that does is it just kind of creates a little bit of confusion. And I don’t want to have my couples thinking on their wedding day, I only want them worried about where they are. I want them worried about what’s going on.

I don’t want them to create any extra confusion. Okay, I learned this trick when I was actually photographing newborns for first day photo back back in the day. And the trick is, anytime you are photographing a new location, let’s say you’re photographing the wedding party in front of the oak tree, and then you move the wedding party on the steps of the church and then you move the wedding party and you’re taking photos.

I don’t know, let’s say I’m just making something up like in the courtyard, okay. If you deliver those images, and you do not include images in front of the oak tree, they’re going to ask for them. They’re going, they’re like, Wait, we took photos in front of this location. And I’m saying I brought up the first day photo, when I used to photograph newborns because I would do that I would put the baby on the hospital bed, then I would put the baby on the futon or the chair in the room, and then I would have put it somewhere else. And then if I didn’t include those photos, that and it became an issue.

So this is just kind of a friendly reminder that as you are photographing people, no matter if it’s on a wedding day or a family session, even if the lighting sucks, even if the lighting is not your ideal, like artwork, I personally have reduced a lot of headaches and a lot of back and forth by including just a handful of images on that spot.

How To Navigate Different Locations

So to answer that question about that mother in law rolling her eyes been so confused that you’re preferring the couple and the wedding party to be in the parking lot near a dumpster instead of in the garden by the fountain. I would tell her Oh, no problem.

Absolutely. I’m gonna grab a couple of these here by the dumpster even though this looks ridiculous, and they don’t see what we see. Get my thing I get the shots that I want. And I need, then I would, I would, I would actually have people stand in front of the fountain. Get a handful of photos. iPhone photos were great, like family and guest and people that are like just looky loos that are watching, they’re gonna want to get those photos of the wedding party.

But then I know in my heart that I got those dumps or photos that are going to be just amazing, right? So that was a long answer to that truth or that dare like app telling them that this is where it’s got to be, uh, but it’s gonna be so worth it.

Okay, so do you have the authority and the confidence to tell them no, or to redirect them? Even if they think they have better ideas?

TRUTH: Are you prepared to have your cousin booked another photographer for her wedding, but to also have a wedding booked on that date?

Yikes. Things like this happen often for wedding photographers and I’m not gonna lie. It really really sucks. This is why it’s so important to share your calendar with your closest family and friends and ask them to give you a heads up as soon as important dates are scheduled. I’ve missed it. handful of really important graduations, baptisms, family camping trips and weekends with friends because of weddings. It’s a sacrifice but also a gentle reminder to add a clause in your contract that an associate lead photographer may cover the wedding in case of an emergency.

But that’s a conversation for The Legal Paige and other day.

TRUTH: Are your images safe and backed up in case your mother spilled water all over your laptop on the kitchen counter?

Check out episode number 54 The death of my laptop? I share way more insight on how to prevent your business from crashing and burning after drowning? No, but really, how prepared are you for the worst to happen?

Many things to Don with tech savvy creative for dropping a ton of priceless knowledge and tips to prevent each disaster you can think of anything technical, in episode number 33. Those are both episodes that will save you big time and truly help save your reputation in case anything were to go wrong.

Now that I’ve shared a handful of crazy scenarios on wedding days, the longevity of a photographer can be broken down to three things, confidence, creativity and care.

Confidence:

Are you a confident person, maybe you’re not in your everyday life, and that’s okay. But you’re confident with your camera settings and that you’re the best person for the job on wedding days. having confidence in the way you speak, carry yourself and address your clients and wedding guests will go a long way.

Confidence is the best way to gain trust and add so much value.

Creative:

Are you creative? Do you have the ability to think outside of the box? Can you put out fires before the flames even start bursting? Do you arise the occasion and the time of need? Or would you rather hide?

Being a photographer isn’t about becoming a magician on wedding days, it’s more about making the best of what we have and making quick decisions.

Care:

Do you even care? I believe being a photographer in general means that you actually really care for people. Then once you become a wedding photographer caring for your clients is on a whole new level, you’ll most likely be spending time planning, emailing and connecting with your clients for an average of nine months to over one and a half years.

When you’re prideful of your work, your value shines for generations. Wedding Photography is not the business to get into if you want to make money. And I say that lightly. Because I know that it can be very lucrative to to make wedding photography, your career.

But if you’re going into this thinking that you can make $5,000 $8,000 $20,000 on a weekend, or maybe even you have in your head, gosh, if I had just booked a couple weddings a month, I could easily make $40,000 a year within the wedding season of just four to five months in my hometown due to weather or just due to your kids schedule or something like that. Like if that is what your plan is solely to make money.

I’m sorry, sister, but it’s really gonna suck like this is not the business to get into if you want to just make money like there are other affiliate programs to do. There were other tons of other incredible careers that you can do with that mindset. But the most successful photographers I know do it because they would do it for free.

They love photography. Love capturing moments they love, kind of like balancing that fine line I call it watercolors between creating and curating and capturing. They just they love what they do and they have a passion for it. Let that shine and let that be the reason why you want to pursue wedding photography. I hope this episode made you laugh and honestly make you worry a little bit about what you’re actually offering.

Wedding photography isn’t for everyone. And the only way to find out if it’s for you is to try. Make sure to check out the entire wedding photography series called amplifier weddings here on The Quianna Marie Weekly podcast. I interviewed dozens of wedding vendors and real life clients to share a ton of education about booking more weddings, creating an impact and building your dream business to live the life you’ve always dreamed of.

I’m cheering for you, babe, if this is something that you want to pursue, you got it, it’s yours for the taking. You can absolutely do this. If I can do this, you can do it too, with a smile and figure it out.

You have to have that mindset that everything is “figureoutdouble” that you are able to just make everything worth celebrating. Take really overwhelming situations and make them a fond memory. You can do it. It’s possible. I just wish people would share wedding stories. It’s popular to share birth stories. Like I really do. I’ve never been pregnant before.

But I want to hear all the stories. And so I’m excited to share some more on the podcast. keep you in the loop. And as always, always, always, always I’m cheering for you baby. Hope you have a beautiful day! I cannot wait to hear about your next wedding season and how I can support you. Keep on dancing baby.

I can’t wait to see you next week. Okay, love you. Bye.

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 if you show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancin.