My booking policy for weddings.

I’m a solo photographer. I don’t outsource work or have associate photographers working for me anymore. I tried that business model, but I much prefer to do everything myself, from the initial consult, to shooting the wedding, editing, delivering and printing.

I’ve also made a decision a couple of years ago to only take on about two weddings each month, which means, I usually end up booking peak months pretty quickly. June, July, September, those book up right away.

My booking policy is “first to sign” - meaning that once the initial consult is done, and a contract is sent to you to review, if I have multiple couples inquiring for the same weekend, the first person to send a signed back contract gets the date.

I don’t often have two or three couples inquiring at the exact same time, but it does happen, and honestly…when it does it feels great - but it’s also a little stressful because I do NOT like saying “hey I have other couples interested in booking me” because it sounds like an obvious sales pitch.

I also don’t like not saying a thing and then having someone be upset at me because I didn’t inform them of another inquiry.

So, I tell everyone in the initial consultation of my policy. When I send out contracts to review and approve online, they are already pre signed on my end, so if there is a situation where I have two or more contracts out, it’s up to you to make the decision and commit.

I also don’t hassle you to make a decision. I usually send a text or email saying that I have others interested and leave it at that.

There really is no other fair way of operating my business. And this is actually one of the only parts of what I do that I dislike.