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Wedding photography invoice for Research and Development

hi guys welcome back to another video on my youtube channel i'm hilary mulick a wedding photographer based in north carolina and here on my channel i share education for photographers teaching them how to streamline their businesses and i also share little peeks into my personal life as well today's topic i'm so excited to share with you about i figured this was a great topic for it being right after the holidays when a lot of people are getting engaged and starting to inquire about their wedding dates for either this year or next year and you're probably going to be doing a lot of wedding photography consultations whether they're on the phone or through video chat or in person and i just wanted to go through photography consults one on 101 on how i do my wedding consults how i structure them and just some things to think about as you are starting to schedule those for this upcoming year now when i very first right before i start a wedding photography console i actually have a template on my computer in google docs of a different of the structure in which i want my photography consults to go so it starts off with some questions and then some information that i'm going to give them some more questions and i feel like this structure has been working really well for me i've been using this template of mine for i don't know the past five years or so and i feel like it makes my photography consults go really smoothly and it helps put the couple at ease when they're planning their wedding when they're talking with me about just details that are important to them and when they're trying to decide whether they want to hire me as a wedding photographer or not and whether we're going to be a good fit or not so let's dive in the very first thing i have in my notes when i'm talking to a couple about their wedding is i get them talking about themselves so i start the conversation off of you know how did you guys meet what do you guys like to do together and what i'm trying to accomplish with asking them these questions of course i'm interested in them and just who they are as people but i'm also trying to find some common ground with them something that we can talk about and relate about and they just can see me more as someone who's really relatable and someone that they're going to enjoy working with so i ask them if they have animals because i have a dog i ask them you know what do they like to do together to try and find some common ground there i asked them about how they met try and find some common ground there and that's um my goal in asking them these questions as well as trying to get the to know them a little bit better then after that i start asking them about their wedding venue so in my contact form on my website there they have to fill out where they're getting married for you know the venue for their ceremony as well as the venue for the reception and so during their consult i asked them about their wedding venue and i asked them why they chose that wedding venue now this gives me a really good idea on the type of vibe of wedding that they're going for so if they picked a barn venue that doesn't necessarily mean that they want this country rustic wedding having the barn venue could mean a lot of different things i actually had a bride a couple years ago who actually booked a barn venue not because she liked the barn because she actually hated the barn aspect about the venue but she loved the land that i was on and she planned on having majority of her wedding outside and overlooking the fields and she just really loved that about her venue and that was really important for me to know so ask them about their venue ask them why they chose it why they were drawn to it and why they ended up booking their venue because chances are that they've booked their wedding venue before they've started talking to you next question is i ask them about things that they're excited for in planning their wedding so after they're talking about their venue it's natural to go into just their wedding planning i just asked them what are some things you're really excited about for your wedding that you're really excited to plan or just some aspects of the wedding day that you're just super excited about and again it just gives me a better understanding on just what their focus is for their wedding so that i can tie that into what my focus can be as a wedding photographer at their wedding so for example if they tell me that they're just really excited to have a great party and just to see their friends and family and be on the dance floor and be hanging out with everybody that's just something they're really excited about later on when i'm talking about my photography services i can talk about how much i focus on candids how much i focus on capturing things in the moment and not necessarily pulling them away from the party so i might tell them you know if you do a first look and we can do all these portraits ahead of time then you can really stay with your guests after the ceremony and you can be with them during cocktail hour and we can get all of those fun moments captured with you hanging out with your friends and family during that time and then they say oh yeah that's something that's really important to me and i think in my head yeah i know because you told me that so those are just some things that i think are important to ask them so that you can tie those in later when you're talking about your services and how you can be a really good photographer and a really good fit for them the next thing i ask them is we started with you know their wedding venue then we went down to planning their wedding some things they're really excited about and now we're narrowing down even more to wedding photography so i say okay now that we've talked about everything that's important to you for your wedding tell me about your wedding photography what is something that is really important to you for your wedding photographer is important to you when looking for your wedding photographer and these are this is just really great information um again just getting to know what their must-haves are so that when later when i'm talking about my services i can tie those in and help them see that i'm the photographer that's going to solve those problems for them and um is going to let them have the best wedding experience that they have been dreaming of so then you know after we talk about what's important for them for wedding photography this is when i start going into my services and things that i can provide for them so i talk them through timeline options i asked them you know have you thought about doing a first look versus a traditional eye reveal i explained the differences of both what the timeline would look like for both and just what the wedding day in general would look like and then with that it kind of gives me an idea of how much coverage i think they need so i have three different packages with different hours of coverage it helps me be able to tell them okay based on everything you've just told me and everything we've talked about on the phone i think this amount of coverage would be great for you i also talk about my booking process and my client process so after we've talked about timeline and amount of hours that are good for them and what i'd recommend for them and also ask them if they have any questions i'll then talk about my booking process my client process so i say okay once you've decided what package you want to move forward with this is what my booking process looks like it's super easy everything's online i use honeybook so i talk to them through that process and how they're going to book me and then i tell them what it would be like being a client of mine and i think this is really important because it helps them imagine themselves as a client of my business and i walk them through okay right after you book this is what i'm going to do i'm going to send you my wedding planning guide we're going to get your engagement session on the calendar this is what it's going to be like planning your engagement session this is how your images are going to be delivered back to you it's super easy because it's all online and then i tell them you know a few months before your wedding i'm going to send you your pre-wedding questionnaire and we're going to you're going to fill out everything that's important to you details that you really want photographed family photos are important to you timeline things that are important then we're going to hop on the phone and we're going to talk about all of that so that everything is solidified before the wedding date so that when the wedding day comes you don't have to worry about photography you can live your best wedding day life knowing that your photographer me is going to take care of you and then i talk them through the process of after the wedding their sneak peek gallery how their images are delivered how their album is delivered and then of course i ask them if they have any questions after that the very last thing i talk about in the consult as you know after i've answered all their questions i've talked through the process we've talked through everything i asked them you know can i send you a proposal right now so if after we've talked and you know i've told them what package i think would be best if i feel like they agreed with that and they're like yeah i feel like that that amount of coverage would be great that package would be great at the end of the console i say can i send you a proposal for that right now then you can look at it you can see what it looks like the proposal is good for two weeks so that when you decide you want to move forward with booking i never say if i never really give them terminology that's going to make them think that they don't want to book with me and that they have other prospects and other options because in the end i want them to be thinking about the experience with me and booking with me so i say let me send you the proposal now so that when you're ready to move forward with booking you already have it and it's super and i just keep talking about how easy it is to book with me um they can fill out everything online they can sign the proposal electronically they can send their retainer online and then i'll send them their planning guide and we can just get started with their planning process and they can cross wedding photographer off of their list of vendors i also ask them if if they're not really sure on what package they want to move forward with and they're not really ready for me to send them a proposal at that point i asked them how soon are you hoping to book your photography and it helps me get to know how serious they are in this moment so maybe they're just talking to me because they're in the beginning of their wedding planning stages and they have a few months that they want to really be looking at different vendors i want to get a sense of that so i know how soon to follow up with them and just know when they're actually wanting to move forward more seriously with wedding photography so anyways those are all my tips on just my workflow in going through the wedding the wedding photography consult process with a prospective couple who's inquiring about booking with me i hope this is helpful to you i hope that maybe you can apply some of these things to your own wedding consult process and it'll help things go a little bit smoother a little bit more streamlined and help you book more weddings this year and next year if you have any questions leave them in the comments down below and i'll see you next week for a new youtube video bye guys