Savvy Wedding Spending

Need a wedding Priority Worksheet? This past month one of our (well hopefully soon-to-be-our:) gorgeous couples – I will call the bride “Boo” because I love that nickname – attend 2 bridal shows to help prepare for their beautiful wedding day. I reached out to Boo to inquire how the shows went. Her response was:

“Hi Michelle,

Thank you for reaching out! We are slowly going over all the information we gathered over the two bridal shows we attended. It was a little overwhelming and a lot of information! We love your work but one of our biggest hurdles has been trying to reconcile the cost and fit it into our budget. So…it might take us a while to come to a decision on a photographer/videographer while we research all our options. Thank you for bearing with us!” 

And we totally understand that overwhelming feeling. 15 years ago when we said I do, Brandon and I too were overwhelmed!! So I reached out to ask what was causing the feeling of being overwhelmed – with the desire to help her and other couples who are planning their weddings. (I also asked if I could share this on the blog to further help other couples:) This was her response:

Our Bride’s Email

“Thanks for understanding! You’re welcome to use my story for a blog post.

I think a common frustration for most brides is that they’re going about the whole process for the first time so everything is new. I think a lot of us have a vision and dream of what we want our wedding day to be and look like but when it comes down to the execution of the details there’s a lot of harsh realities we have to face. The biggest reality being the cost. If any brides are like me, wanting to be in control of the planning process – it can be very jarring and overwhelming. I’m blessed to have a wonderful fiancé who has been so supportive and patient throughout! We also have the ability to flex our budget a bit, to save in certain places and spend in certain places. Trying to juggle where to save and where to spend can be one of the biggest hurdles.

In terms of questions I would like answered by a wedding photographer – you guys have been great! To be honest, we haven’t really met with anyone else, so you guys have sort of set that standard for us, haha. For someone like myself, I’m very interested in knowing what I’m paying for – ability to see the photos (galleries), all the details – the timeline, how many pictures we get, how many pictures are going to be edited, will guests have the ability to download pictures, loved how you guys went over how you would be positioned in the church, whether or not we are going to do a first look. The list goes on and you have been very helpful with providing the questions I wouldn’t have known to even ask.”

Our Response

Boo you nailed it on the head!! Before the wedding shows we had met with our darling Boo and her soon to be hubby – which is what she is referring to above. During a consultation we covered it all… pricing, what’s included, galleries to view, timeline, how many photos you get, how they will all be edited, how to download them and more. Which gave them a great headstart on questions to ask when meeting with other vendors and yes other potential photographers.

Yes – I said other photographers! They have not booked us yet and it is totally ok that they are looking at other photogs as well. We actually encourage it. Crazy… no not really. More like smart. We want our couples to be completely and whole heartily ready to book us.  We want them to fall in love with our artistic ability + our personalities. It is soooo important that you select photographers you JIVE with and are excited to work with.

We totally JIVE with Boo, but again we too understand budget. Boo said something in her email that was key:

“We also have the ability to flex our budget a bit, to save in certain places and spend in certain places.”

We have heard this from so many of our couples. About 98% of the couples we work with put a huge importance on their photos – photography/cinematography is in their top 3. The reason why (from their words) – “photos are the one thing we will have after the wedding day is over”.

Wedding Priority Worksheet

So to help our couples decide where to invest more money and where to save we though we would put together a simple wedding priority worksheet, you can download it by clicking below.

Wedding Priority Worksheet