Trying to work out details on an idea for (possibly) a new service...

Ok, I'm always looking for new streams of revenue. Some of you may be reading the funeral photography thread I started recently (still haven't worked out whether I'll try that or not). My wife and I were sitting by the firepit the other night with some friends. One of them (a woman) asked why I don't do wedding photography. I explained I'm not comfortable doing that just yet because of a lot of things, not the least of which is I don't have redundant equipment for everything.

I mentioned I do engagement shoots and really enjoy them. She mentioned she wished she had someone who had taken photos of her and her friends when she was picking out her dress and a few other things. My wife then chimed in and said the same thing (I wasn't into photography back then). It seems like most women have lots of photos of their wedding--and maybe engagement shots--but not much about some of the most important times like picking the dress, etc. She mentioned that might be a neat service to provide.

Now, I agree, however, I'm at a little bit of a loss on how I would market this sort of service...especially since I'm not doing weddings at the moment. If I were shooting weddings I'd just offer it as an additional service. However, since I don't shoot weddings I'm not quite sure how I'd position this sort of service. I'm thinking I may have to bite the bullet and work to get to the point where I'm capable of shooting weddings then add this as a service.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw this out to everyone and see if anyone is currently doing this sort of thing and to discuss how this service might be marketed if you're not currently shooting weddings.

Thanks.

We did a variation of this a couple of years ago when weddings was a service that we were actually chasing. We approached some of the wedding dress boutiques and offered to setup in corner of their store and offered free pictures of the brides-to-be in their various dresses. We weren't doing this as method of selling images of that particular subject but we were after getting their wedding booking. Saturdays are their busiest day so we set up by 9 in the morning and did this until closing near 5. We came away with several leads which turned into 4 bookings. While I took the images my partner was doing 4x6 prints for them to take home to help them make their decisions. We worked with the same shop for another date in the future so they had time to post it on their website and some local forums. It was never our intent to make money off of the shots in the dress shop other than to obtain future bookings.

To be totally honest I doubt that you would sell much. For every picture that I took the bride, maid of honor or the mother of the bride had their point and shoots out taking shots. Their objective for the day is to try on dresses and accessories. Most of them hadn't done anything with their hair and makeup was minimal. If they were to pay for these as a sitting you would have to advertise it so that they came prepared. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you can find a cooperative shop and get them to put something on their home page and perhaps a flyer or two in their windows announcing this you might get some paying traffic but I seriously have my doubts. I never realized how many dresses some of these women actually try on before they buy. Some of them were in there for half the day even though their appointment time was well over they get pushy and demand extra time from the sales reps. I thought our job was tough until I saw what the brides and the mother of the bride put these poor sales people through.

I give you credit for thinking outside of the box. There are so many people that build a website and then assume the cash will roll in. You have to get out and knock on doors. When the bride comes into a bridal boutique they are in total wedding mode and it is a good time to offer a sales pitch. You won't get much in the way of solid bookings on that day as the bride is going to want to talk to her groom to be in most cases. I have done some weddings where the mother of the bride booked me without the knowledge of the bride. That does happen but not often. You can never book people, whether it be for the full wedding or a sitting of another kind, unless you are actually in front of them. I would say that you should give it a try.

Hmm, that's also an interesting idea. I was thinking more of offering it as a service to brides-to-be rather than just being in the shop and hoping they'd buy shots. Seems the women have great photos of most other things associated with their wedding but not this part, which is vitally important to them and they treat it like a party.

I'll have to give this a shot as soon as I'm ready to step up and do wedding photography. Just not quite there yet--mainly because of a lack of redundant equipment.

I'm with you, however, I'm still not sure this would be a viable service unless I'm doing wedding photography already. That's my concern here.

if you think dealing with a bride on her wedding day is rough, imagine dealing with the bride and the bridal party as they make decisions around the dress!

Sure, it's a unique opportunity, but I think it wouldn't be an enjoyable experience and would just add stress to an already stressful situation. While I'm sure many women think about "oh, it would have been nice to have a photo of that moment" in hindsight, they neglect to recall how nerveracking it already was and how they probably didn't want any images of all the 'ugly' dresses they tried on before picking the winner.

I would also keep in mind that a lot of bridal boutiques do not allow photography in their stores, especially if they have an exclusive contract with a designer.

kazleberry wrote in post #13514853
I would also keep in mind that a lot of bridal boutiques do not allow photography in their stores, especially if they have an exclusive contract with a designer.

Hmm, that's something I didn't know. That would certainly cause a problem.

kazleberry wrote in post #13514853
I would also keep in mind that a lot of bridal boutiques do not allow photography in their stores, especially if they have an exclusive contract with a designer.

Its not like you walk into the store and start shooting. It is something you arrange with the store ahead of time and if they have restrictions they will tell you. I don't know how many different bridal boutiques I have been in but it is many and I have yet to see one that wouldn't allow photography of the brides in their various dresses.

We had a different criteria than the OP had. Ours was to gain exposure and book weddings, not to provide pictures of them in their dresses. Even though that was what we did it was a means to the achieve the end result which we did.

ssim wrote in post #13519632
We had a different criteria than the OP had. Ours was to gain exposure and book weddings, not to provide pictures of them in their dresses. Even though that was what we did it was a means to the achieve the end result which we did.

I do plan to branch into wedding photography sometime next year. I'm just not in a position to do it (properly) currently. I feel I'm perfectly capably of shooting a wedding (have shot as a 2nd) but I don't have the redundant equipment I need. I don't want to be that guy who's gear breaks down the morning of the wedding and then have to make a call to the bride telling them they don't have a photog for their wedding.

Just trying to do it right.

I think economics are working against this too, whilst some brides might think theyd like this coverage, would they be happy to spend $50 an hour plus to have you follow them?

Phil V wrote in post #13522411
I think economics are working against this too, whilst some brides might think theyd like this coverage, would they be happy to spend $50 an hour plus to have you follow them?

Yeah I think that's the death knell of this idea...I could see it as an add-on to video coverage of the wedding (i.e., "behind the scenes") but as a photo service I can't really see the market bearing the cost.

But if you can make it work, more power to you.

joe

Honestly, sounds like more trouble than it's worth. You found a couple of people who said they would like it but more likely than not, a bride would be more than happy to have a friend document the day with a point and shoot and not have a photog following her around on that day.

elrey2375 wrote in post #13522592
Honestly, sounds like more trouble than it's worth. You found a couple of people who said they would like it but more likely than not, a bride would be more than happy to have a friend document the day with a point and shoot and not have a photog following her around on that day.

While I see where you're coming from, they could just as easily do this for their wedding photos, etc. yet a lot of people still hire a photographer.

Now, I have no idea whether this is a viable idea or not. I'm kinda skeptical myself--mainly because I don't shoot weddings. But I've spoken with a lot of married women and all of them have said they wish they had better photos to remember the times before the wedding like this. Now, whether they'd be willing to pony up some money to (professionally) document it or not is certainly debatable.

One thing I've learned--and live by--is, photography is a luxury, not a necessity (even for something like a wedding). So, you still need to find the people who a) have the money and b) are willing to spend it.

This service--like any other photography service--won't appeal to or be affordable to everyone. I don't expect that. What I'm trying to figure out is whether anyone would be interested in doing this and who they would be. Then I have to figure out whether there are enough of those people to make it worth my while pursuing it.

This is my dilemma. I'll be speaking with some people in the coming week (or so) and seeing whether it might be a worthwhile endeavor.

ssim wrote in post #13519632
Its not like you walk into the store and start shooting. It is something you arrange with the store ahead of time and if they have restrictions they will tell you. I don't know how many different bridal boutiques I have been in but it is many and I have yet to see one that wouldn't allow photography of the brides in their various dresses.

Once again I've come across an unexpected cultural difference - while wedding dress shopping in Australia I've discovered that the standard policy of most high-end bridal boutiques is that you can't take photo's of any of the dresses until you put down a deposit. This is a problem I ran into when I wanted to show my sick mother the dresses I was choosing between but the girls in the catalogues were all wearing jackets or ridiculous accesories that made it dificult to see the dress entirely - or even worse, those shots of a woman sitting down in the dress or a close-up of the model, showing absolutely nothing of the dress (who thought of that for a catalogue, by the way?!)
Sorry, had a little rant there!

GadgetRick wrote in post #13523851
While I see where you're coming from, they could just as easily do this for their wedding photos, etc. yet a lot of people still hire a photographer..

These are very different things. The wedding is the final cake, dress shopping is pre-heating the oven. It would be nice to have more memories captured of the preparation, but it's the big day that really matters.


I'm just one bride, but I can tell you it's not something I would want a pro photographer to come along for. Here are a few cons that pop to mind...

1. I don't want to be rushed or distracted while dress shopping. If I'm aware of the fact that I'm paying someone to take photo's I will want to be as quick as possible top get as many photo's of as many dresses as I can.
2. You're male (I'm assuming by your mention to your wife) and I don't want a guy seeing me in the bad, frumpy, or problem-dresses. It's the sort of thing that the girls can have a laugh about, but if there is a straight male there it becomes embarassing.
3. Dress shopping doesn't take one day. I have spent, since I got engaged, about 6 separate days going to boutiques and shopping around. Thought I'd found "the dress" twice. I'm not sure whether there are any people who have the money to pay a photographer for 6 full days for a few nice shots of the pre-wedding planning stage as well as going through the hassle of organising it all.
4. Wedding planning is stressful. Most brides in the current economic climate are looking for ways to cut corners. The kind of bride that has the money to splash around on a photograher at the dress fittings wouldn't be likely (I don't think) to hire someone who is just starting out (as was the impression I got from your post.)

Now that's just my opinion and I could be way off, but there you have it.

kazleberry wrote in post #13534779
These are very different things. The wedding is the final cake, dress shopping is pre-heating the oven. It would be nice to have more memories captured of the preparation, but it's the big day that really matters.


I'm just one bride, but I can tell you it's not something I would want a pro photographer to come along for. Here are a few cons that pop to mind...

1. I don't want to be rushed or distracted while dress shopping. If I'm aware of the fact that I'm paying someone to take photo's I will want to be as quick as possible top get as many photo's of as many dresses as I can.
2. You're male (I'm assuming by your mention to your wife) and I don't want a guy seeing me in the bad, frumpy, or problem-dresses. It's the sort of thing that the girls can have a laugh about, but if there is a straight male there it becomes embarassing.
3. Dress shopping doesn't take one day. I have spent, since I got engaged, about 6 separate days going to boutiques and shopping around. Thought I'd found "the dress" twice. I'm not sure whether there are any people who have the money to pay a photographer for 6 full days for a few nice shots of the pre-wedding planning stage as well as going through the hassle of organising it all.
4. Wedding planning is stressful. Most brides in the current economic climate are looking for ways to cut corners. The kind of bride that has the money to splash around on a photograher at the dress fittings wouldn't be likely (I don't think) to hire someone who is just starting out (as was the impression I got from your post.)

Now that's just my opinion and I could be way off, but there you have it.

I totally get why someone wouldn't want this. I've spoken with quite a few (married) women and they've all expressed they wish they had captured this. Now, this doesn't mean I've figured out how to properly (or effectively) capture this because of what you've raised as objections.

And I'm not just starting out. I'm just starting out (possibly) with this direction.

In short, I really don't know whether this is a viable revenue stream. Just trying to think of things others have not. EVERYONE does weddings but NOBODY seems to do this. Is it because it's something nobody wants? That certainly could be the case, in which case, I won't get this thing off the ground. However, it's something like this may work. Maybe not in the form I originally thought but maybe there's something else I can do. That's why I'm discussing this with other photogs--to see what we all can come up with.