“With win/win/win, we all win,” spouts Michael Scott on The Office:

 

No different in the wedding industry, actually. The Client wins. The team of vendors win. We all win.

Our theme was a hit last nigh at the First Annual PUG Wedding Industry Night (WIN) held at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. What fun! For those who don’t know, PUG stands for Pictage User Group, a bunch of photographers who use Pictage in their business and we gather once a month to talk photography. This has been a great opportunity for me to meet other photographers and industry professionals, very helpful for me since I moved my business from Denver to Minneapolis two years ago. I was very excited to witness our largest turnout since I joined the leadership ranks in May! If you are interested in joining our group, we meet on the 3rd Tuesday of each month in various locations. Contact me and I will send you an invite to join our Facebook group.

I loved the stellar conversation by our panel of wedding professionals who shared their time and expertise:

Hana April Chughtai {Mani Mela}
Melissa Stratton {Sadie’s Couture Floral & Event Styling}
Julie Johnston (The Knot.com}
Julie Lyford {Fabulous Functions} who brought tasty treats provided by Taste of Love Bakery.

Our surprise special guest, Kyle, offered wonderful “guy” perspectives as a recently married groom. He’s also one awesome next door neighbor, too.

After a champagne toast and treats, we kicked off the roundtable discussion (we did have a “round table”). We shared how wedding vendors can best serve each other and our wedding clients. It was an awesome opportunity to network and learn from local wedding professionals in a supportive and encouraging environment (our room was super cozy and comfy, too!). We hit on several important topics near and dear to wedding clients, florists, stylists, and coordinators.

Professional athletes train the fundamentals over and over again despite years of practice. As a wedding photographer, I say perfect practice makes perfect especially since my Shaolin temple style defeats your monkey style. I share my notes:

10 Tips Offered at the PUG Wedding Industry Night.

1. Trust, trumps. Wedding photographers can earn trust with vendors the most by being organized, detail-oriented, on-time, dressed ‘professional,’ practice effective people skills like ‘listening’ and ‘observing’ situations, and can set the mood of the wedding through personality and enthusiasm.

2. Make the bride feel beautiful. Sharing a sneak peek of a few images on the back of the camera can help the bride feel more beautiful on her wedding day, says Hana April Chughtai {Mani Mela}. The result can boost self-esteem and re-affirms that she’s beautiful, especially on her wedding day.

3. Stay in control. With larger bridal parties, staying in control of group during portraits helps keep things on track.

4. Offer location ideas for the First Look. This makes one less thing for the wedding couple to worry about. And make sure there’s a back-up location in bad weather.

5. Share images quickly. One week turn-around with images goes a long way in terms of keeping wedding couple excited about their images.

6. Offer references. If you are meeting with a client, offer references so the couple can connect with past clients for an honest review.

7. Text  weather report. On the morning of the wedding, sending a text message to the wedding couple with the weather outlook shows you are thinking of them and the outlook, no matter sunny or rainy, will still be a great day to get married.

8. Write thank you’s. There’s nothing like it to help finish what you started with the wedding couple.

9. Colorful ads ‘work’. According to Julie Johnston at The Knot, ads that work well include bright colored photos with contrast.

10. Stay ‘professional.’ Proof of insurance, a solid wedding contract (my tips here), back-up gear, and emergency back-up photographer / second photographer, quick email responses, and ‘good’ website all help make a “professional photographer,” according to the panel.

TAKE AWAY *** Managing client expectations and earning trust remain a very important part of what we do as professionals.***