Catch Parts 1a & 1b of this 3-part series with Jasmine if you missed them!
This is part two with Jasmine of Let's Frolic Together. We are doing a three-part mini-series on beginning wedding photography. So the last episode was actually broken up into two parts because we ended up getting into some good stuff regarding gear, cards, lighting and all that stuff. Parts one and two are already published. If you missed those, this is Section two, I guess?
Today we're going to talk about preparation for weddings and what you can do as a new photographer. If you're just getting into weddings, and you're starting to shoot lead, what you can do to be prepared and other ways that you can help prepare your clients so that the day runs smoothly.
Jasmine if you want to just say a quick word about your business, and what you do, and where people can find you, and then we'll dive into preparation.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
Absolutely. Thank you again for having me back. I am so excited to be chatting with you and connecting with your audience. When I first started out back in the day, I'm not going to even say how long ago, it was a bit of a rough time to get information and resources about how to run a photography business. And so it's been really rewarding to hear your episodes and see how much great information you're sharing with people about getting started.
Natalie Jennings
Thanks very much. And I remember those early Flickr forum days…
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
…the old days.
Natalie Jennings
Yes. Any sort of new information was gold. And it really set I think the industry up for a lot of the trends we see today, which is really, really interesting. There was a small group of people that we were connected with that I think we're kind of pioneers, which is really cool.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
And it feels really exciting to see how much new talent and new energy is out there. And how things are shifting in new ways that are so different from when we initially started out. So I'm glad to be a part of adding some, hopefully helpful, information to help out.
Natalie Jennings
Awesome. And Let's Frolic Together is letsfrolictogether.com and at @letsfrolictogether on Instagram and Facebook.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
You got it.
Natalie Jennings
Cool. All right, let's dig into preparation. So part one of prep is sort of how you can prepare as a photographer before you head out. There's heading out the day of, and there are things you can do leading up to the wedding.
What sorts of things for you, Jasmine, are like “must do's” in terms of preparation for yourself?
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I liked how you broke that up preparing for the actual day versus general preparation for the big picture. I would say for me, one of my essentials is that I use a CRM. Customer relationship management is what that means. It's just a business management tool to keep track of basically everything.
It's one of those things where it might not be useful right when you're kicking off your wedding business. But as you start the juggle, when you have your spreadsheets, and your notes in your emails, you have some paper notes in a journal…When you're trying to keep track of everything and it starts to feel like a confusing juggle, there's a point where it makes sense to upgrade to a CRM. It's basically just an online system that helps you manage your business, all aspects of your business. The one I use is called Pixifi. But there are quite a few out there.
Natalie Jennings
Yeah, I started with Honeybook last year. People listening to the show hear Honeybook all the time.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
And I think there are quite a few out there that makes sense for different people for different reasons, in terms of what they offer. When you're ready to start improving your organization, when you start feeling disorganized, as a photographer…
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
The minute you forget that you had a client meeting, or the minute that you can't find the contact info for somebody, a CRM becomes a really great one-stop shop where you can just have everything. It's essentially a big database of a lot of information.
Natalie Jennings
That's right. And you and I are very organized, planner-oriented kinds of folks. And so I was able, personally, to go most of my career (like eight years plus) without a CRM.
You are a rare breed. And I think it's important to tell your listeners that not everybody can do eight years handling and managing on spreadsheets alone.
Natalie Jennings
I know and it's crazy. Like my email label system is insane. And so I'm saying that because if you know right away that you're listening to this and you're like, “I am not organized,” like if you know that that is one of your things, this is something you're going to want to look into. And a lot sooner than if you're someone that feels pretty in-control, and you're not that busy, and you don't have a ton of work coming in. But if you're already kind of like, “Whoa, it's hard for me to keep track of stuff,” I completely agree with you there.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I just wanted to point out: if you have certain things down, some people are like, “Oh, don't worry, I do all my invoicing through QuickBooks. So I'm organized, so I don't need that stuff.”
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
It's important to keep in mind that a CRM can do a lot. It's broad, so you can do your contracts. You can do your workflows and checklists, you can track staff, you can get your payments. There are so many things that it can do. You might be organized in one area, but you might find that there's an area that you're not on top of.
It's still worth considering upgrading if you feel like it could be easier to bring all of your disparate elements into one place.
Natalie Jennings
Alright, let's dig into some things that are past the sort of booking contract signing payment phase. What do you do to prepare for a wedding after a client's already booked?
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I think this will be a good time to shift to a little analog item that I do. It's possibly a little less tech-savvy. I'm gonna seem less tech-savvy by doing talking about this. But I tell you what: with all of my technology and my apps and my systems, I still use a physical checklist for my gear when I'm prepping for every wedding. I have a literally printed checklist with all of my gear on it. Not just gear, but the helpful, useful tools of making sure the wedding goes smoothly.
It's all on my checklist and this is how I ensure that I do not ever forget anything. If you're imagining that this list emerged from forgetting something, you would be right.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I once shot a wedding with without my camera strap. I might add, I shoot double cameras as we talked about in a previous episode, which means I was holding a camera in each hand all day. That was the day I decided that I needed a physical checklist.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
As I'm packing up from my wedding the night before because I always do it the night before to stay stress-free. I hold my physical checklist and I am checking each item off as I put it into bag, and as I clean it, and as I prep it. Even though I have apps that work for checklists, and so on, for me, the physical checklist is the most secure way that I know I have everything I need. I'm not missing anything.
Natalie Jennings
Awesome. Do you want to share a couple of things that are on that list?
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
Sure. Yeah.
I mean, in general, anything that you take for granted as you wouldn't forget, that's the thing that you probably will eventually forget. So I have quite a few items on my list.
As a side note, that's also how my contracts have evolved.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
Some examples of what I include on my list: I have all my gear on there, as a given. Of course, all my specific cameras and lenses and flashes and stands. But I also have things like spare batteries, lens cloths, rain gear, timeline, my worksheet printouts.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
While I have them on my phone, I also have printed backups because I told you in the previous episode, I'm a doomsday prepper on a wedding. So I like backups of everything.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I have on my checklist a spare outfit change, my spare shoes listed. I have fashion tape. Everything that I want to make sure that I have in my bag that I haven't accidentally left out for one reason or another. It's on that list and it helps ensure that I am armed and dangerous and that when I need to grab something out of my bag, it's there. I haven't left it behind.
Natalie Jennings
That's perfect.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I find it helps alleviate the stress of planning for a wedding when you're not like, “Ooh, did I pack this? Or what am I missing?” My checklist helps keep me focused.
Natalie Jennings
That's awesome.
Let's dive into how we prepare our clients. What is your process for sort of leading up to the wedding day?
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
My client's stress on the wedding day is an absolute concern for me. I do not want my clients to feel stressed. I want to alleviate all of their stress so that they can 100% stay immersed in the experience of their day. As a result, about two months before every wedding is my worksheet-reach-out point where I get in touch with them and I provide them with their wedding worksheets and their photography worksheets.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I ensure that they are giving me all the information I need so that I don't have to bug them at all with any questions or any uncertain things on the wedding day.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
The worksheet allows them to be free of having to worry about anything on the wedding day and lets me be sort of in charge of everything that's photo related. So when I send that worksheet, it includes things that are straightforward, such as addresses and contact info and so on. But it also includes some impactful details: if there are any special family situations I should be worried about, or sensitive to. Do they have any special decor projects? Do they have any unusual events that I should prepare for? Who are their vendors?
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
And then, of course, the most important of all is a family groupings list so that I know exactly what they want me to shoot, who they want me to shoot, and then I can give them feedback on how much time that will take. The reason why I get in touch with them two months in advance is that it gives us enough time with the lead up to the wedding to make some changes or massage things if we need to. But at the two-month mark, most decisions are pretty solid things are pretty final. They're not like, “I don't know yet I'll have to get back to you.” Two months is when I reach out, and I try to ensure that they have it completed by one month at the latest.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
Then often I'll hop on the phone with them at that point, to review anything that was confusing to me or anything I have feedback about. A lot of the time it's timeline related. When they're like, “We want to do these 10 things and we want to do it in these five minutes.” It's not realistic. The worksheets are just a resource for making sure we're entirely on the same page, and that the clients also know that we have their back.
We are taking care of them. We have thought of everything. And it alleviates any stress or anxiety they might have regarding this as well.
Natalie Jennings
No, I love it. And I like that you do a worksheet. You and I do similar things. I'm usually in touch four to six weeks before the wedding day but I work off of a Google doc. I have standard questions. Same things: phone numbers, balance, the ceremony start time, is grandma going to do a dance during that…you know, like special things like that kind of stuff.
Natalie Jennings
But it also really helps to contact your clients before the wedding so that you can work photography into the timeline. You love seeing the shot list. I personally encourage people to do it as well, but I always tell them to hand it off to someone that knows everyone that day. So that's kind of where we work differently.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
Yeah, we work differently, but there's a similar tone.
I don't want a shot list of anything other than the family groups.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
People had clients I want a photo of the kids and I want a photo of the kids. And I want a photo of the… the only shot list that I work off of is the family groupings. And the reason I like to have it in advance is so that I can tell them exactly how long it will take to accomplish that. And that I can advise them when I see it to say this is really redundant. We don't need to do this. This we could push out till later on. And so that I can keep it streamlined and efficient.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I do have them name somebody who is not a member of the immediate family who can help be my people-wrangler on the day so that I can hand it to another person and have them help me because we don't know who these people are. That's why having a sidekick who's actually a member of the wedding party or involved in the wedding to source those people can really make a difference in helping us. I also obviously recruit my second shooters to help wrangle as needed, but I agree with you that having a resource is really valuable. I just don't trust people to be good at it.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
So it's a combination where I'm involved in the process. And I help refine the list in advance to try to ensure that it's only going to take us 10 minutes to do those family groupings, maybe 15 max. It's very rare that it takes me longer than 20 minutes. Like a long family list, I can still do in 20 minutes, because nobody wants to just wait and smile fake and stuff. It's not an enjoyable part of the day for many clients and their guests. So minimizing that makes it efficient and convenient for everybody.
Natalie Jennings
I totally agree. And I think to wrap up this sort of preparation phase like the general idea is that you have a sense of what's going to happen before you arrive as the photographer and that your clients have a sense of what's going to happen and how their day is going to shake out with the photos, all the great photos that they want.
Natalie Jennings
I'm sure your worksheet is digitized. Just being able to pull it up and look at it the day-of because a lot of times you're chatting with these people like eight months ago, and then two months before the wedding. When you're busy remembering everybody's details is almost impossible. And I love just pulling up my phone, being able to look at the stuff that I've outlined with the clients, being able to see exactly where we're at. And just, you know, I think the bottom line and all of this, and I don't know if you agree with me, but it's just over-communication with everyone.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
One hundred percent.
I honestly feel that in the rare scenario, where you have an unhappy client or miscommunication of some sort, having this “paper trail” of information, where you've talked about everything thoroughly, you've been very clear, is really valuable.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
While it's really rare, sometimes clients do get frustrated or unhappy, and it's really valuable to be able to go back and say, yeah, we talked about all of that. We organized all of that. I told you exactly how long that would take. It can help ensure you feel like there's no confusion. There are no miscommunications, everything was upfront clear, and really well discussed. And the clients just felt like their expectations were really well set.
Natalie Jennings
Yep, there you go meeting expectations. I totally agree.
Jasmine Fitzwilliam
I also think as a sideline, it helps with your communication with your second shooter as well. Even though they weren't part of the discussions with your client, they can get up-to-date on what all that information is so that all parties involved are really clear and on top of everything.
Natalie Jennings
Totally, totally.
Just taking charge of the photography portion of the day and meeting people's expectations and being clear, you're going to have a much easier time every time you shoot.
Natalie Jennings
So thank you for that Jasmine. We're going to wrap up today's session we have one more session where we're going to talk about lifesavers; anything you can't live without in wedding processes, advice for those of you that are just starting out, it's going to be kind of a catch-all topic for part three of this beginning wedding photography series that we're doing. Thank you again, Jasmine.
notes:
- Let's Frolic Together
- THE BUNDLE: https://jennings.photo/bundle
- 50% off first year of Honeybook: https://jennings.photo/honeybook
- Leave A Review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-business-help/id1462340415
- Join our FB group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/photobizhelp/
- Follow on IG: https://www.instagram.com/photobizhelp/
- Transcribed by: https://otter.ai
- Cover photo: https://www.briannalanephotography.com/
- Contact Natalie: natalie@photobizhelp.com
