How To Become a Successful Wedding Photographer – 10 Steps for Victory

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill

Introduction

death valley national park sand dunes portrait hand and arrow photography 2

It was back in high school that Jes and I thought about photography as a possible career path. We have been together for almost 20 years at this point, having grown personally and professionally with each other in this time. In high school, photography was a dream job – but not something we could really believe in as a route for making an income and supporting our personal needs.

Like so many other people out there, we decided to put aside our dreams in exchange for more comfortable options. We’ve both worked jobs since we were 16 – from restaurant service work to retail and eventually to better paying corporate jobs. On paper, we were already successful considering our young ages – but something was missing…

In January 2017, we decided to establish our own photography business. This was inspired not just by our passion for photography as a hobby, but through Jes’ exploration of wedding photography as an assistant and second shooter for other photographers. At the time, it felt like an easy way to make some extra spending money, but not much more.

After about 6 months of shooting weddings for other people, Jes learned that this is something she was not only good at, but something that could be translated into an actual career. There was money to be made in photography after all.

In that cold winter month several years ago, we decided to hedge our bets and establish ourselves as a professional photography business. We registered as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), opened a business bank account and credit card, and started investing heavily in pro photography gear and services that would benefit our clients. It all started when we spent $3,000 out of our personal savings to buy a Canon 5D Mark III, and over a few years swelled until we had invested a lot of money, sweat, time and tears.

But all of this was only the beginning of a road to success as wedding photographers…

Defining Success

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
John Rockefeller

There is no one size fits all algorithm for success.

Every wedding photographer will define this differently depending on their personal and professional goals.

I’d say the definition we gave success at the start of our photo business was a good one, and we’ve continued to refine it as we’ve grown. It looks like this:

Success is the result of hard work. In the photography industry, it is not often a quick thing. There will always be a sense that what we have is not enough, as our goal is to continue growing. In the short term, our idea of success is very simple: earn enough income that we can replace the salaries from our current jobs, pay off our bills with relative comfort, and do things that we really want to do from time to time (like travel the world).

Our explicit long-term goals:

Have enough money to live comfortably and thrive
Get more personal freedom
Do something we love
Nurture relationships with our clients so the work we do brings them joy

As you can see, our definition of success is very personal and not tied explicitly to the amount of money we are earning.

It is very common in the world of business to think that a person is successful if their business makes 6 figures a year. While that may not be wrong, it is short sighted.

Money is only useful as long as it is helping you to achieve goals. Everyone needs money to pay bills and to do the things they enjoy. At the end of the day, a bank account loaded with cash isn’t worth much if it’s just sitting there.

For the first few years of our business, success was something we aspired for.

Success doesn’t really have an actual end point, but by setting goals you can begin to feel successful as you grow.

The Road to Success is Difficult

If you want to know how to become a successful wedding photographer, it’s important to see the whole picture – not just the good stuff.

Don’t worry – we’ll talk about all the great things that have happened in a bit. But, we also want you to come into things realistically.

Our path to becoming successful wedding photographers was hard. Plain and simple.

It was hard to get our first booking. We translated this into a great post – The Wedding Photography Booking Process in 10 Steps (+ Helpful Tips to Secure More Clients!).

It was hard waiting until we would actually shoot a session or wedding – because these things are often booked months or years in advanced.

It was hard to learn how to start our own website and market our content.

It was hard to build our portfolio.

It was hard because we had very little time to spend with each other and would often work around the clock between our full time day jobs and our full time business.

It was hard not spending a dime that we earned from our business on ourselves in the course of 2.5 years.

It was hard to feel like a failure at times when we were slow on booking new clients and wondering if the time we were investing into our business was actually going to be worth it.

We could write a book just about the difficulties we faced starting our wedding photography business.

The Good News Is…Success Goes to the Most Hard Headed Person

From time to time, I like listening to the philosophical talks of the late Alan Watts. He once spoke about success, and said…”…success goes to the most hard headed person…”

For the majority of people like us, success requires a lot of effort, blood, sweat and tears.

But…when you’ve started to become successful, first in small little victories and later in much bigger ones, the feeling is incredible. It is difficult to translate into words, but the closest we can come is to say that starting a photography business feels like this constant build up of pressure, and as you achieve successes – that pressure is released.

You Can Become Successful Too!!

If you are wedding photographer struggling, or someone just thinking about becoming a wedding photographer – let me tell you this:

You have the ability to become successful. You can make your dreams come true!

Through all the anxiety and self-doubt. Through all of the people in your life who might suggest you can’t make it. Just looking around and seeing the market absolutely saturated with wedding photographers – you can make it.

I’ve talked already about some of the challenges we’ve faced, but it’s important to realize that every challenge is just a new mountain to climb. Some mountains are easier, while others will feel like trying to scale Mt. Everest.

The feeling of success in the wedding photography industry feels very much like reaching the peak of a mountain. These climbers train so hard and long and get to see some breathtaking views from the top after pushing their bodies to the limit.

10 Actionable Tips for Success as a Wedding Photographer

We consider ourselves experts on wedding photography and starting a business. Jes & my experience in these areas has been hands on and deeply personal. As I’ve shared already, we’ve experienced the ups-and-downs.

With all of this experience, I want to share with some actionable tips for becoming a successful wedding photographer.

There are probably a million ways to go about trying to be successful in this industry, but (being honest) most will lead to failure.

By reading our tips and applying them, you can grow your wedding photography business because these methods have actually been applied and work in real life!!

Tip #1: Evaluate How Much You Need to Make to Be Happy

Real talk: we all need money to support the lives we want to lead.

I need money to pay bills, have food to eat, have a house to live in. I also like a few basic creature comforts like my Hulu subscription (no ads plz). It’s not a complicated life, but it does require some money to manage.

When working a day job with a set salary, you have to make determinations on how you will spend (or save) your money with the knowledge that every payday you will have a certain amount in your account. When running a photography business, we have learned that our earnings potential is much less limited – but there are costs that come up in the form of taxes and expenses that you won’t have at a regular 9-5 job.

At it’s core, the most important thing for you to do when setting out to be a successful wedding photographer is to figure out your cash flow. This is a fun business term that refers to the amount of revenue your business brings in, how much your expenses will cost, how much is lost to taxes, and how much you actually get to keep for yourself.

The Easy Way to Figure Out What You Need

Hint: It’s probably less than you think!

The good news is – for most people, the amount of money you actually need is much less than what you may think. This is something we learned about ourselves when we determined how much it actually costs to support our current lifestyles.

At it’s core, in order to find out how much money you need to make as a wedding photographer to be successful to the extent that you can support your current lifestyle – simply make a list of all your costs and add them up. We recommend keeping figures for your monthly costs and total yearly costs. (This turns into your cost of doing business calculation!).

Ours looks something like this (with specific figures changed around to preserve some privacy on our personal finances):

Monthly Costs:

Car Loan: 250
Car Insurance: 150
Gas for Car: 60
Phone Bill: 70
Hulu: 12
Rent: 1500
Utilities: 200
Extra Spending (Food, Entertainment, Etc.): 500
Total: $2742

Yearly Costs:

Car Loan: 3,000
Car Insurance: 1,800
Gas for Car: 720
Phone Bill: 840
Hulu: 144
Rent: 18,000
Utilities: 2,400
Extra Spending (Food, Entertainment, Etc.): 6,000
Total: $32,904

In this scenario, the amount of money you would need to live your current lifestyle is $32,904 a year. This would, of course, be after taxes – so you would want to plan to take a gross salary of around $40,000. You will also need some additional business income to cover overhead costs to pay for things like a client booking platform, accountant services, and so on.

No doubt, your specific lifestyle and monetary needs will be your own – and that is most important.

If you are happy with renting a cheaper apartment, and spend less money on food and entertainment, then you will bring these numbers down dramatically.

The good news is: making enough money to support these types of cost is entirely possible with wedding photography. You would need to shoot between 15-20 weddings a year at $3,000 per wedding – which is very much in the ballpark of what people pay on average for a wedding photography service.

Tip #2: Run Your Photography Business as a Business

Brutal truth time: the one area where many wedding photographers will fail is by treating it as a job where you “just take pictures” and nothing more.

The most successful wedding photographers are running their own business. Jasmine Star, Jeff Newsom, Christian Oth – these are just a few names that spring to mind when thinking of success in this industry.

The beauty of being a wedding photographer is being able to combine your personal and business goals with artistic ones (in the form of photography). But, no matter what, it is important to be able to step back and remember: you’re providing a paid service that could be considered a luxury.

In the scheme of things, no one needs a wedding photographer. We need a place to live, food to eat, people to love us – but a photographer at a wedding? A very nice thing for sure, but not an absolute requirement.

Because of this, I find it easier to separate my business needs from my generally empathetic and compassionate side. It helps me make better business decisions – some as simple as saying “No, I do not offer discounts” when asked. My wife and I understand our value, and stick to it.

With this said – there is space for flexibility from time to time. Not necessarily on price, but on just being available for the people who trust us to be there for them on a hugely important day of their lives. A great wedding photography business will learn to strike a balance between remembering that…this is business after all…and – these are great people wanting to have these memories documented to look back on for years to come.

Tip #3: Be Professional in All Things

Bringing professionalism to your wedding photography career is an excellent way to stand out from the pack.

Wedding photography is an attractive career route for many people. There are thousands of photographers around the world, and weddings are one of the most consistent sources of income for these people.

These days, becoming a wedding photographer has become so much more accessible than it once was because of a lower cost for getting photography gear and an ability to easily market online through social media.

Because of this accessibility, it has brought out a lot of poorly equipped people stepping into the shoes of a wedding photographer.

Even a great photographer can make a bad wedding photographer (read that twice!) if they aren’t getting the client experience right.

Not to mention, I’ve observed a number of wedding vendors do unprofessional things while they should be there for our mutual clients – something that frustrates me to no end.

Fortunately – being a professional is a lot easier than it sounds.

Really, it boils down to a few extremely simple things:

Set expectations
Be kind and generous
Understand the stress of the day, and be a calming voice
Know when to say “no”
Always be responsive
Go above and beyond for your clients
Fulfill your commitments

These are really the most baseline things we’d expect from anyone we do business with. You won’t always be perfect, but most people (fortunately) don’t expect perfection. All it takes is that one time where you go out of your way to really shine a light for someone – and people will love and respect you for it.

Tip #4: Set Your Prices So You Can Live

One of the BIGGEST MISTAKES of any small business owner is setting prices just based on what you feel people will pay you OR when comparing your service with someone else.

Let’s face it – if you’re wondering what to charge, you’re probably starting off by looking through Pricing pages of other already established wedding photographers. The thought process probably goes like this…”If they can charge that much money, so can I!”

Reality is very different – and your prices should reflect your personal reality.

This starts with setting prices that allow you to have enough money to live the life you want to live. You should be able to earn enough so you can pay your rent, bills, grocery shopping, and so on. It might be the case that you don’t need to charge the sky high prices of your competition – and can move towards those numbers over time as you become more “in demand”.

Note: when you just start off in wedding photography, your prices will (typically) be low. This is expected, and convincing people to pay large sums of money for your service requires a quality portfolio and established reputation. The goal should be to get to a point where you can price to live.

Tip #5: Save Money for a Rainy Day

Having a solid amount of savings is a great way to take serious control over your financial situation.

As a wedding photographer, we are especially vulnerable to things like an economic recession – meaning, if the economy collapses and people need to stop spending as much, they will put off luxury expenses like wedding photography.

Saving money is a good practice in general, and especially valuable to keep yourself afloat even if you have trouble booking weddings for a month or two. If you happen to be in that boat right now, we talk about some tips to secure more clients in our Wedding Photography Booking Process.

But…how do you save money effectively? Well, we’re basically pros at this by now. You can go the route of hardcore budgeting (like we do…), but I think reality can be far simpler. Stop buying things you don’t need. I’m pretty sure I’ve been wearing the same 5 shirts for the past 2 years. It’s uncomfortable in the short term, but when you arrive at a point where you can now rely on savings for an extended period of time if the worst would happen – then you will breath a sigh of relief and not regret skipping a shopping trip.

Tip #6: Work a Day Job if You Must

If you have the ability to go straight into doing wedding photography as a full time gig, go for it!

Unfortunately, most people will not be able to do this…

Your personal situation will define what you are able to do. As we mentioned earlier in this post, we worked full time day jobs for several years before even being able to consider cutting free.

As difficult as it can be to work a job while wanting to do wedding photography, having a steady job will make it possible to do a few simple things:

Pay your bills (you need money to afford your rent, food, car payments, etc.)
Invest in good equipment out of pocket (you need pro gear to take pro pictures!)
Save extra for the future

Tip #7: Get Hands On Wedding Experience

It’s easy to romanticize wedding photography as this absolutely amazing profession because you’re capturing people in love on the biggest day of their lives.

There is definitely some truth in there.

At it’s best, wedding photography is a beautiful thing. At the weddings that still resonate with us months and years later, we’ve shed tears as our couple’s exchange their vows. We’ve seen grandparents cry and could hardly hold back our own emotions during an impromptu anniversary dance during the reception.

But, like any job, there are challenges you will face during every wedding.

Some things can be ironed out with a little practice, like being able to dial in the right camera settings in different environments. Other things, like working with bad wedding vendors that negatively impact your work, will never get easier.

By shadowing other photographers (either as an assistant or a second shooter), you are getting exposed to how wedding photographers work. This was a HUGE help early on for us.

But…how do you find photographers to work with? This is actually pretty easy!!

One of the best go-to places is through social media. We’ve met other creatives through Facebook and Instagram. By joining local photography groups or following local hashtags, you can get into conversations and more with people in your area. This is how we found our first second shooting gigs, put together styled shoots, and have continued to connect with people as we’ve grown.

Related posts:

Tip #8: Build Your Reputation Through Customer Reviews & A Powerful Portfolio

Many of our wedding photographer tips have been oriented towards teaching you how to better prepare yourself, but what happens once you’ve started to get bookings? Well – you start by doing a great job for your clients. Afterwards, you can deliver a gallery of images – and ask for a review.

Sometimes, clients will run right to the best review channels like Facebook, Wedding Wire, and TheKnot and immediately post a review. Other times (…most of the times…), they will be too excited by what they see to even consider it. It’s not you, but they probably just don’t review most things they purchase – so no harm, no foul.

With that said – reviews are an intrinsic part of any wedding photographer’s ability to market themselves.

Reviews do 2 key things:

They show social proof to others that you have done a great job (or a poor job)
They can be used by you in marketing materials such as on a testimonials page on your website

It also helps to be able to address people asking for references about your work. It’s much easier to say – “Yes, check out all of our reviews here, here, and here!” than “No, sorry I don’t have any references right now…”

While it does take time to build up these reviews, they are vital to your success.

Here’s a recent review one of our clients left us – amazing right?!?

Tip #9: Enhance Your Client Experience

Your success will be rooted in the experience you can provide your clients.

If they are having a great time, you will know it. And, more importantly, they will make it known to you, their friends, their family, their colleagues, and so on.

Most of your business decisions should be designed around providing a great experience from the start of the process to the finish line (and beyond!).

Some of the things we have done make things better for our clients:

Provide a simple process for booking. We use Honeybook – a contract and invoice system (customer relationship manager) that allows us to connect with our clients online, handle online payments, and sign contracts digitally. It’s amazing, but so many wedding photographers are still operating in the old school pen-and-paper approach that just highly inconveniences people. This system keeps things easy!
Be responsive to questions and concerns. We are available most days 9-5 and by appointment at other times. We aim to respond to all emails within 24 hours or so. This is one of the most key parts of the client experience to get right – and it doesn’t cost a dime!!
Simplify package pricing. There is no need to over-complicate how much people need to pay for your service. Create effective packages and some a la carte add ons to keep this streamlined. Remember: no one likes hidden fees, so be upfront about it all, too!
Have fun when you’re shooting together. When photographing the wedding day (or engagement session), make it a fun experience. By doing this, you create a positive atmosphere for creating great pictures together.

Tip #10: Invest in Yourself the SMART Way

When you set a firm foundation, growing towards success becomes much easier to do.

I’m going to pull out my nerd glasses for this section…SMART is not only a word, but a word that has become an acronym in project management circles when talking about achieving objectives. This is a great thing to think about in the context of success because we don’t just want success to be this abstract idea, but success should be something that is achievable, too.

SMART means:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Assignable
R – Realistic
T – Time-Related

As you look to buy new camera equipment or otherwise invest in your photography business, you can apply these same principals. Here’s how:

Specific. Choose specific products/services that will benefit a specific aspect of your work. You may want a new camera or flash setup to take better quality images. You might also need a client management platform to help enhance your client relationships. Whatever it is you need – define it in real terms.
Measurable. Find ways to measure the value your purchases are adding to your business. When buying new lenses, consider how much time you’ll actually use the lens. If you’re going to be shooting with it 90% of the time – it’s probably a good choice!
Assignable. If you’re just a solo wedding photographer, you’ll be the only one making purchases and using the products. If you happen to be working with a partner, you’ll need to make purchases for both you and them. Jes & I have had to make purchases like this knowing that there are two of us involved.
Realistic. One of the most important features of this SMART approach is setting realistic investment goals. This means being realistic about how much money you have to spend, and realistic about what you really need and how much stuff you actually need.
Time-Related. Finally, time plays a big role in start up purchases. Some items will be essential – as in, you can’t do your job without them. Business insurance, a camera body, some lenses – these all will fit the bill. For other items like the weird but cool tilt shift lens, it’s maybe not the most necessary thing to buy immediately (but it’s definitely rad to have down the line!).

You can check out our Recommended Gear page for our details suggestions and discussions on products that help make us tick.

Where Are We on Our Road to Success, and Where Do You Want to Be?

Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.
Chris Grosser

Through talking with many wedding photographers early on, we learned that it takes 2-3 years to become an established and successful wedding photographer.

We have experienced this pretty much perfectly – and in this time we worked full time day jobs and grew our business gradually but with a purpose.

Recently, we wrote a blog post – How To Start a Career in Photography – Advice From a Pro & Action Plan to Make It Happen – where she talked about her latest victory: getting to move away from her day job to pursue photography as a full time career.

For myself, photography is a dream job that I am heavily engaging in. I am fortunate to see so many successes along the way, even though I am still tied to my day job.

Success is often easiest to measure financially (you see more money in a bank account and feel more successful), but in practice – I actually am most inspired and feel the most successful when I read positive feedback of the work I’ve done. There have been serious times where things have been very difficult – attempting to manage so many client requests, my day job requirements, and personal needs – and just getting that little relief means everything to me.

It really means something is being done right, and it turns into fuel to make it to the next chapter.

Enough about me – where do you want to be?

Sitting here on “the other side” of starting a wedding photography business, I can tell you with confidence that it is possible to have success.

Sure, it’s not easy every step of the way. You will face many challenges and some setbacks, but through rigid determination and perseverance – you can have a self-created job that you love. That’s not something everyone gets to say in their lifetime.

In the comments below, tell me about your vision for the future. Do you think becoming a wedding photographer is the right direction for your life? What will be the first thing you do to make that a reality?