Starting a Business in Wedding Photography

Becoming a Professional Wedding Photographer

Creating a successful wedding photography business is a lot of hard work but doesn't come without its rewards. Just because you can take a good picture doesn't mean that you are ready to start your own wedding photography business. There are many stages involved in building a successful wedding photography business. Believing in yourself and your abilities as a photographer is essential in starting your new business in wedding photography.

Some things to consider when starting out. What makes your images unique, for example, are your images more of a photojournalistic style capturing candid moments, and working in all natural light? or do you enjoy working with off camera flash in a studio like setting. Always be true to yourself, find your own creative style. If you perfect your skills in a certain style of photography you're passionate about this is the best way to building confidence in yourself. Practice on friends and family, but don't take their word for how good your work is as naturally they are going to be bias. The average customer you will get as a wedding photographer is going to be more critical about your work.

You might be wondering how to get exposure out in the field? You currently have no portfolio to show potential clients, and no experience dealing with new clients. From my experience, one of the best ways to start out in the Wedding Photography business and start building your portfolio is to find work as an assistant or second shooter for an already established photographer or studio. This is the best way gain confidence, and get first hand experience not just for producing some great images, but also customer service and learn how to direct a shoot. Even at this early stage you should always carry a backup camera.

I wouldn't recommend taking on a friends wedding as the main photographer, this is way too much of a responsibility, even if you think you are well prepared. Its their special day and shouldn't be time for you to practice wedding photography.

You need to also be critical of your photography. Know that you're good, but also know where there is room for improvement. Rather than trying to compete with a million other wedding photographers out there, set yourself a personal high standard. If your not at the level you need to be at, find a photographers work that you admire, research what makes them successful, understand the quality of work they have to offer and know whats involved in producing it. Forget about the rest, there are a lot of ordinary photographers out there too. Remember you need to aim high. Research what you need to get to that high level. You can never spend enough time researching new photographic methods and the latest equipment on the market. Always use your camera in manual mode, know your equipment like the back of your hand. This will give you the confidence and practical skill that you will need as a professional.

It is also of great importance to be proficient in post processing, spend plenty of time using Lightroom and photoshop, buy photography magazines, watch tutorials online, you can educate yourself, as everything you need for honing your photographic skills is online. I've always thought that if you do a course in photography, you are only ever going to be as good as the person that teaches you, their technique is not necessarily the best, teaching yourself builds more confidence, you are learning your own style not someone else's!

After gaining some experience as a second shooter, and you have your own portfolio, you might be thinking that your ready to begin your own business, remember not to don't rush into it. Try to save as much money as you can from your assisting work to go towards advertising your business. If you have enough work on as a paid second shooter you can think about advertising your business locally and online, and see what kind of response you get. If you have a good contact that you are assisting for that has plenty of work, I wouldn't recommend moving on to your own business until you are close to fully booked for a year.

When setting your prices an important factor is knowing your value. don't set your prices too low, people will second guess your quality, even if you do great work, they will perceive it differently. Of course don't charge too much either if you are just starting out, you don't want to lose clients because you're too expensive! I find smack bang in the middle is a good option. That way clients won't second guess your prices. If they like your work enough they normally have a set budget for their wedding photography, and they'll hire you. The average for photographic coverage with all images in high-resolution on a disk is $2500, this doesn't include an album, but with the disk they can print as many photos as they like for their own personal use, and perhaps create their own album.

Establish a relationship with a local print lab learn about the proper conversion of files from digital to print, get some test prints done and figure out what type of finish best displays your work. Make sure you have a logo, and business email, its these finishing touches that make a big difference in how you present your business.

Look into wedding album suppliers, and have some ideas for when a client requests an album, getting a sample album made up is a good option, you can take this or an iPad with you to show clients your portfolio.

When running your own wedding photography business, start locally. Pick an area and start advertising with local business linked to weddings. That includes:

Dress makers

Cake makers

limo drivers

wedding planners

wedding venues etc.

Get some quality business cards and brochures made up to give to them. A good idea is to offer a finders fee for any referrals. 10-20% is a good amount. This will mean that they will be actively promoting you by passing on your business cards, and brochures and recommending your work to new customers looking for photographers.

After registering your business, you should be promoting your own website online. A great way is doing some SEO - search engine optimisation, again, this takes a lot of time and research, but you will reap the rewards if you put the hard work in. There are great tools online that will scan your website for keywords, meta titles and tags, this is how people find your website. If you don't promote it online, you will not have a presence. People will never see your work. Pick only your best images to display online. Photomerchant.net offers some great web templates specific to a professional photographers needs with pages in HTML format which you need for optimising your site. Make sure you monitor your site online using Google analytics and web master tools. If its not performing as well as you'd hoped, you can do tweak as necessary by doing more SEO.

There are plenty of wedding photography business listings online that are worthwhile to sign upto, a lot are free, and some can charge $100 or more per month, most of the time their reasoning behind charging that much money is because they get so many views per month. Check compete.com, this shows how popular their site is and then maybe you can possibly trial them for a month and see if you get any leads.

A very important aspect of being a wedding photographer is your customer service skill, always be on the ball and be very clear with your clients, don't wait to long to reply to their emails, and keep them unto date with whats happening by confirming their payments, and delivering contracts to them.

Its very fulfilling when you start your business from scratch. Your images should speak for themselves when it comes to marketing yourself, but with wedding photography producing great images is 50% and the other 50% is great customer service. If they loved working with you they are going to pass on the good word to their friends and family. Do your job well, and you will find most of your work is in referrals.

Choosing a Style for Your Personalized Cartoon Wedding Koozies

If you are having a less formal or casual wedding then a cartoon wedding koozie can be a great choice for your personalized wedding favor, being both fun, functional and very flexible! In fact, there's so much choice of different cartoon styles it can be tricky to try choose from the myriad of designs that are out there, so just to help, we have put together some of the very best concepts to inspire you.

Simple Cartoon Wedding Koozies

Very simple drawings or sketches work brilliantly, but with subtle clues by a talented designer even a stick figure can be made to represent the bride and groom with ease! Subtle changes of respective height or hairstyle are common requests and props are another quick way of making a cartoon figure more like you too. Cowboy hats and boots, fishing rods or surf boards are popular choices - and ones that will have your guests chuckling! Other ideas you can look at with stick figures is putting them in cars or other vehicles to change things up a bit, or add a wedding cake into the mix.

Of course a simple sketch does not have to be of the bride and groom - if you do not think that would work for you why not look at other ideas such as a line drawing of a wedding car with 'just married' on the back or maybe some silhouettes of some other icons to represent you, like two love birds in a tree?

Filled or 'cell-shaded' Wedding Koozies

A step up from line drawn cartoon wedding koozies are the filled or colored type. With these you can start to choose colors of the hair, eyes and clothes of your digital (and then print) representations. Good designers will be able to also adjust hair styles as well as color - making length and cut match those in a photo that can be sent in by email. When adding a bit of color to your cartoon it opens up a lot more choices of styles that can work - from the really simple to more elegant, stylized types. Each one is able to edited to match your looks of course! It is just a matter of preference.

Some of the best designs can just be a black and white style drawing or even just a silhouette. Try and ask your koozie designers if they can outline you and your partner from a photo with a great pose and just add accents to suit.

Anime (Manga) Style Wedding Koozies

Ever fancied yourself being an anime character then these designs are just for you - characterised by beautiful shading and large eyes these illustrations look great on anything, let alone your wedding Koozies! Again suppliers with strong in-house design teams will be able to adapt template designs to look more you and your partner. Quick and simple is just changing the hair and eye color, and also the color of the grooms suit and tie ensemble. Taking a little more time will be changing hair styles and length - due to the complexity of these types of illustration some suppliers may charge a small fee for this service, but they are great between option for those that do not want a full caricature.

Draw-it-yourself Wedding Koozies

A current popular trend is for couples that are thinking of getting married is to either draw themselves, or get a friend to draw them in a simplistic and casual style. The drawing might be either realistic (but not a high quality caricature, try tracing a photograph scanned into an art package carefully) or very simplistic - the key of course is to make sure which ever one you choose that it easily recognisable. The easy way to do this is to accentuate things about you that people associate with you. Do have a nose that is on the sharp side - let your imagination go with it! It will look great, and things that good on paper will look even better once they are scanned in and printed onto the real thing! Remember that you can have lots of goes at getting things right - and if you get one person right on one drawing, and the other person right on another drawing most designers will be able to join the two good drawings on the one koozie.

When drawing you characters use white paper and a dark ink, black is best. That way it will be easier to 'isolate' your drawing and manipulate it later on a computer. If you complete your drawing in this manner, black pen can be easily changed into white pen if you'd prefer a dark colored background for your Koozie.

Caricature Wedding Koozies

The creme de la creme of the cartoon wedding Koozie is the caricature. Caricatures can be completed by talent friend or family member, but also there are several online services that can help too. Some of the bigger Koozie suppliers will have their own in-house caricature artist too. The great thing about online artists is that you can have a look at their portfolio first, so you can choose an illustrator that looks most likely to be able to render you and your loved one in a style that you'll be happy with sharing with your friends and family on your wedding day! Lots of caricature artists go for the exaggerated heads style you are sure to be familiar with, but many will bring things back a little and produce something less amplified if you like.

Most caricatures start with a short brief of what you'd like and a couple of photos. Some brides like to attach a picture of the wedding dress they are going to be wearing so that can be incorporated - as well as shots of hairstyles they are intending to have on the day. Done well, these caricatures can really raise a smile, and many Koozie suppliers will let you have the original artwork too. Printed out, this makes a great addition into the wedding album!

A compromise if you cannot, or do not, want to go as far as a full caricature is a blend of an existing template and a photo of you and your partners heads. This sounds possibly a bit strange, but with a bit of photo editing wizardry the result can be really, really good!

Create a New Wedding Album Using Your Old Wedding Photos

Digital Photos

If you have digital photos from your wedding day and you want a wedding album style display that includes self mount pages then you will need to get the photos printed before you start. It is better to have this done professionally in order to ensure that the photos will last as long as possible and look their best once printed and mounted. For a photo book, digital photos are the best option because they provide the highest quality when printed professionally.

Scanned Paper Print Pictures

Old paper print pictures that have become battered and torn can be updated and used again. Scan your wedding photos and have the resulting digital images printed professionally. It is a good idea to scan the pictures even if you intend to use the originals because you never know whether they will become damaged beyond repair. Some printing services will work with the photos that you provide in order to remove signs of wear and tear and damage.

Wedding Photo Album Customisation

The customised wedding photo album can be personalised with a photo on the cover of the album. The standard layout lets you choose a single photo and have it printed on both the front and back cover but you can opt for more complex designs of your own that use a different photo on the front and the back of the photo album design.

Customised Wedding Photo Album Options

Three sizes of photo album can be used to store and enjoy wedding photos. Small albums are perfect for landscape pictures up to 6' x 4' in size while medium albums afford you the use of portrait pictures up to 8' x 6' size and both have 60 self mount sides for adding photos to. The large photo album can be used for mounting portrait or landscape pictures up to 10' by 8' in dimension.

Wedding Photo Books

Rather than having to mount the pictures directly on each of the photo album pages you can instead opt to have them professionally printed on the sides of a photo book page. A photo book comes in similar sizes and as well as choosing a photo or photos to customise the covers you can pick pictures to print on every single side of the wedding photo book.

Presentation Tins And Boxes

Whether you choose a wedding photo album or wedding photo book you can benefit by including a presentation tin or presentation box with your order. Both are used to keep the item in the best possible condition and free from physical damage of virtually any kind. A presentation box is customised with a photo on the lid while the presentation tin is a high quality and beautiful looking, lightly textured metal tin.

How to Choose the Right Wedding Photographer For Your Wedding Day

One of the many decisions a couple has to make when planning their wedding is to choose a good wedding photographer to capture the moment. You are going to be showing off that wedding album for many years to come and possibly even generations to come. You want those special moments preserved forever so that your children will one day be able to get a sense of what that special day was like for mom and dad.

The cost of hiring a photographer for your wedding can vary drastically. Your budget may decide right away whether one particular professional is suitable or not. Some people do not see photographers as being all that different from one another. I can assure you that they are.

You will find some really low priced packages where a photographer shows up the day of the wedding and does the absolute minimum amount of work that he has to in order to get paid for the job. At the other end of the spectrum is a wedding photographer that really prides his or her practice on producing the highest quality photographs that capture the very emotion of a moment during the day. These people are the true professionals.

It does not take a rocket scientist to learn to take clear photos. With modern technology, uncle Bob can get pretty clear photos from his digital camera. The wedding photographer is supposed to do something that uncle Bob cannot do. The professional will know how to position everyone for a family photo. They will know what poses you should try depending on your personality. They will know how to get the right light under the given circumstances. They will work with the location you have chosen to get you the best possible results from any given circumstance.

So how do you go about picking one?

1) First decide how important your photographs really are to you. Do you want to be able to show off your photos for many years to come and also have ones that you can pass down to your children?

2) Do a quick scan of your area to see what price ranges exist. Depending on where you live, the prices can cover a wide spectrum.

3) Check out the websites of photographers in your area. If they have a really professional looking website then chances are good that they are true professionals. You can tell a lot about an artist by looking at how much effort they put into the work they display in public. Their website is a reflection of that effort.

4) Make a list of some of the more impressive ones.

5) Start at the top and call every photographer you have on your list to get a feel for what kind of work they do. Make sure they are within your budget for the quality of workmanship you expect.

Once you have done all of this, you will find that selecting the right wedding photographer for you is a piece of cake. Then all you have to do is make sure you book them before someone else does.

Understanding Fabric Properties of Wedding Veils

Fabric choices for wedding veils typically include tulle, lace, organza, nylon net, and chiffon. Understanding the fabrics properties used in fashioning bridal veils will assist brides in choosing a veil that will meet her expectations.

Tulle Netting is popular because it is light and has a floating, elegant, and lacy like look. Four different types of tulle netting are available.

• Bridal Illusion: This fabric has a medium body making it suitable for creating some height when gathered on a hair comb.


• Glimmer Illusion: This fabric is quite similar to Bridal Illusion; however it is not quite as soft. It has a beautiful, sparkling, and brilliant sheen.


• English Netting: This fabric is made of 100% cotton or a polyester nylon blend. It is the least sheer variety of tulle netting. It is a heavier fabric and will hold its shape well, but do to its heaviness may not drape as well as the other types of tulle netting.


• Silk Tulle is very soft. It is superior in its ability to drape and flow. A bride that does not want a poofy veil may prefer silk tulle, since it does not create height well when gathered, as Bridal Illusion does.

Organza is a nice thin, crisp, translucent, and lightweight fabric. It is available in either silk or synthetic fibers. Silk organza has a beautiful sheen.

Nylon Netting is also light in weight and comes in a variety of mesh patterns, including hexagon, honeycomb, fish net, birdcage, etc.

Chiffon is a non-transparent fabric with a soft finish, made of either rayon or silk.

• Polyester Chiffon veils are not very poofy due to the weight of the fabric. These veils flow and drape nicely and are very durable.


• Silk Chiffon veils are very light, flow beautifully, and have a dramatic fluidity. They feel and appear quite luxurious.

Lace is a fabric which is made utilizing a variety of construction methods. Lace fabrics can be simple to exquisite with a wide variation of price points. Some laces have patterns only on the edges of the fabric. Other lace fabrics encompass designs and motifs throughout the body of the fabric.

• A French needlepoint lace called Alencon Lace is made with floral designs. It may or may not have beads and sequins.


• Venice Lace is a heavier damask fabric. It most often has an open background with floral leaf patterns.


• Sheer Organza Lace has fully embroidered lace motifs that often have spaces cut out to emphasize the pattern. Organza lace may or may not have beads and sequins.


• Tulle Lace has fully embroidered designs on soft tulle.


• Chantilly Lace is made in Chantilly, France. It is a handmade bobbin lace.

As you easily see from the previous descriptions, there is a wide variety of fabric choices available for making gorgeous wedding veils. Your veil can be the length that is just right for you and your gown. It can be anywhere from simply stated, but beautiful to exquisitely sublime! The choice is your is all yours. Happy hunting!

Outstanding Wedding Photo Ops

The photos from your wedding will be some of your most cherished mementos. Think beyond the standard posed shots, and explore some special and unique settings that will really make your photographs stunning. These are some ideas on outstanding wedding photo ops that are not to be missed.

What is special and unique about the place that you have chosen for your wedding? There may be a stand-out detail at the reception venue, an unbelievable view at your ceremony site, or perhaps there is something that is iconic about the city or town. Don't be afraid to venture off-site to have photos taken. They may end being some of the most special ones in your entire wedding album.

When you are looking for the best backdrops for your photos, ask yourself what you love most about your location. For instance, if you are getting married in San Francisco, you really must have some photos taken riding a cable car. By the same token, no wedding in Paris would be complete without a few shots under the Eiffel Tower. They might not be original, but they will be fantastic pictures, all the same.

Often couples will share special memories about one or two places in their hometown. Maybe there is a wonderful classic wooden carousel in a park near your home. Imagine how lovely the newlyweds would look riding the horses in their fine attire and bridal jewelry? Perhaps there is an outdoor ice skating rink where the two of you have shared many a laugh; it could be a perfect site to take memorable wedding photos.

Other outstanding photos can be taken at a place that has sentimental meaning to the bride and groom. If your fiancé proposed to you in Central Park, then you surely will want to have some wedding pictures taken there in your bridal gown, veil, and pearl jewelry. If no place makes you happier than the porch swing at your parents' home, then ask your photographer to take pictures of you snuggled into the swing with your new spouse. The idea of having photos taken in all of your wedding finery at your favorite everyday sorts of locations will result in fresh and interesting images.

Most venues have some terrific features that can be highlighted as well. Let's say that you are having your reception at a graceful antebellum mansion; you can't go wrong with wedding photos taken by the porch columns. Perhaps there is an old stone wall that you can sit on. To make the photos more dynamic, your photographer can try taking them from unusual angles or unique vantage points. Many of these types of images will be especially captivating in black and white.

Don't overlook the natural beauty of your wedding site when you are looking for great pictures. Is there an ancient oak tree in a field or a babbling brook? These would make excellent photo opportunities. Sometimes the photos can be taken through the veil of nature for an interesting effect. The newlyweds can stand behind a field of wildflowers, for instance, or even in the fog or mist, for one-of-a-kind shots. It helps to have a photographer with a creative eye.

Your wedding photos are so special; you deserve to have a collection that is beautiful and that really captures the spirit of your wedding. By thinking beyond the standard shots, you will be able to create a true visual record of your wedding day that reveals the character of the newlyweds. These are the types of images that you will enjoy revisiting for a lifetime.

Wedding Photographers

A wedding photographer is not just any photographer who comes along to take some photographs; they should be able to connect in a friendly and confident manner, with the bride, groom, parents, grandparents and any children at the wedding and sometimes, the pet dog as well. The photographer should feel all the emotions and become a part of their day, by that I mean that they should understand the emotions of the people attending the wedding, after all, how else can the wedding photographer capture these emotions on camera, if they don't feel and understand them.

The romance, excitement and the final realisation of months, maybe even years, of planning for this one day and it's the wedding photographer's job to capture these emotions in a realistic yet, beautiful way. The bride and groom will be nervous, the parents hoping everything runs as smoothly as they have planned for and the kids, trying not to look too bored with all the fuss around them. I often capture some great photographs of the kids at weddings. The photographs should reflect the events of the day in such a way that, looking back, when you're an old married couple, it will seem like the wedding was only yesterday.

All the details need to be photographed, including the church or venue for the ceremony and of course, the reception. As a wedding photographer, I consider it a vital part of my work, to arrive early, get to know the layout of wedding venue, select the best positions and angles for the shots that I want to capture, during the ceremony and strive to produce incredible photos.

Unfortunately, there are still some people who will not allow the religious ceremony to be photographed which is another reason I like to arrive early, to give myself the opportunity to chat with the minister, priest or official who will be conducting the ceremony and if possible, gain a little compromise, in such cases. A good wedding photographer will be aware of all the areas to consider for every occasion. Your wedding will be unique and your wedding photographs should also be unique.

I chose to specialise in wedding photography, initially because I didn't have a photography studio however, while I run a photography business, I also get so much personal enjoyment from photographing weddings, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My approach to wedding photography is very relaxed; I prefer the wedding photojournalism approach, as most top wedding photographers do. My wedding portfolio is full of photographs of relaxed couples enjoying their wedding day and spending time with friends and family not, the photographer. These photographs are far more enjoyable to look at and also help to capture the wedding's events as they unfold, naturally.

In short, wedding photography is very much a specialised area and wedding photography should always be left to the professional. Weddings can't be re-photographed in a photography studio. The photographer who chooses to photograph weddings, had better know exactly what he or she is doing and be able to get it right, every time. It's a huge responsibility and requires a responsible wedding photographer.