How to Attract Your Perfect Wedding Clients | Wedding Planning Q&A

Hi and welcome to Union Podcast. My name is Jamie Wolfer and I'm a wedding planner who absolutely loves to share how I got started and scaled my business to above 6 figures in this amazing and occasionally extremely competitive industry. In this podcast, I share the tech, tactics, mindset, and mistakes that got me to where I am today. No gatekeeping, no cloak and dagger, just full disclosure and a little humor along the way. So whether you're a planner or a solopreneur, my goal is for you to be a better business person than I ever could have been and support you on this journey. Let's dive into this week's episode. Today's episode is one of my favorite things in the entire world, and that is a live Q&A from one of our union mastermind calls.

I know you're gonna love it. Take a listen. Susan says, when you review the priorities list with clients, do you send them the list, ask them the questions down the row, or ask them what their priorities are? Great question. Okay, so the priorities list that she's referring to is the one in the master plan, and if you are not avidly going through the master plan, What you doing? I highly recommend you get in there, especially if you haven't planned a lot of events. Obviously what we do here in this course is I teach you how to run a wedding planning business, right? I think so often we focus on how to plan weddings that we don't focus on how to run our business. And I think that that section is extremely vital. So that's why a lot of what we talk about here on these calls is the business portion of things. But I also teach you how to plan a wedding in the master plan. You can go through that. You can cherry pick out what you like. You can implement what I do. You don't have to implement everything that I do, but that's the framework for how to plan a wedding. And I teach it the same exact way to couples that I teach to wedding planners, because I really do truly believe that the act of planning a wedding is not complicated. It's really, truly not. It's when we're like dealing with our emotional clients or they're struggling to make decisions or we're dealing with boundaries, those sorts of things. But that doesn't— the act of planning a wedding is like just puzzle pieces coming together. So as far as the priorities list is concerned, I'm actually gonna pull that up. Yeah, we've got 95 items on this list. I absolutely do not go down this list with clients. We've got alone time on the wedding day, ambiance, anniversary dance. If this is a, a task that you want to give to your clients to do, again, we treat this like a speed test. We really just kind of wanna see what their focus is. But when I'm chatting with a client, I tend to focus on broader picture things. Like, um, give me your top 3 priorities for your wedding day. Is it— and I give them some examples and I've had a couple say, um, our guests. It's all of our favorite people coming in from out of town. Uh, we want to be really intentional about spending time with them and we don't want to be caught up in like the, or like bogged down in like the weddingy type stuff. And we really want to make sure we're spending time with them. And that tells me timeline. Timeline is the most important. That means I want to be really intentional with our photography timeline. I want to give enough time for the photographer to do their art.

Right.

But I also want to make sure that we're getting them. To the party as quickly as possible. In a situation like that, I would say something like, have you considered a first look? Because if we do that, it will then free you up to take less photos during cocktail hour so you could potentially join cocktail hour. Additionally, if we add on sunset photos, it could lessen the amount of time in cocktail hour that you need to be, um, actively away from everyone. That's something that I would think through. Um, obviously, day of coordinator, if we're looking at this list right here, like there are some things on it that wouldn't really necessarily apply if you're working with them. But it is good for you to go through and understand and know these things because you might have clients who are like, hey, I'm super, super into everything stationery related. And if you go through here, you're like, oh, that would be invitations, that would be save the dates, that would be any sort of signage, that would be table numbers, et cetera. Now I also offer, when I'm talking to clients, I'm like, I've had people say food is the top priority. Okay, well then again, timeline, Tends to be a lot of my response to a lot of these things because having an efficient timeline really does indicate how well the day is going to go. But I would also make sure that they have appetizers brought to them during cocktail hour while they're taking photos because they paid a lot of money for that food. Or, you know, make sure we are very intentional about getting them in line and/or bringing them food, getting their food order, having that ready to go on a plate for them and bringing it to them, whatever their preference is for that. But if it— if the food is really that important, then we need to highlight that. I also remind them, you guys have probably heard me say this a million times, so I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but you probably just— that makes you a really good student— is I'll walk up to a client and be like, this is your only time to eat. People are going to walk up to you and it's going to be so sweet. Keep eating. You pay a lot of money for this food. I want to make sure you enjoy it. You need the calories, especially if you're going to go dance the night away.

Okay.

And they kind of like laugh, but people will come up a lot. So I just encourage them, just try to keep eating.

Eating.

Um, and if they're super, super intent on enjoying the meal, sometimes I'll recommend them having it separate from the rest of the guests. It's a very rare breed that wants to do this, but, um, occasionally they will want to do something like that. Uh, other people will say dancing. Again, timeline would be my response. So I would want to make sure we get all the stuff out of the way so they can get to the dance floor as quickly as possible. Uh, and then I had a bride say, my dress, my dress is the number one priority.

So it kind of just gives you a vibe of what they're looking for.

So these are just good terms for you to know, but they're not essential to have your client go all the way through this. Because if decor is really important to my client, or the overall look, I'm gonna wonder if they're gonna wanna upgrade some of their cutlery, if they're gonna wanna upgrade their napkins, if they're gonna wanna upgrade their plates, if they wanna have chargers, if they wanna do those sorts of things. So I would already know that utensils is gonna be a higher priority, right? If they're really focused on what the tabletop looks like in general. Um, yeah, so it's just good for you to know, but not necessarily something that you have to work your clients through.

I'm only mildly embarrassed to admit that in the beginning I printed out every single piece of paper, every single contract. I took handwritten notes and created a binder for every single one of my wedding planning clients. Now, in theory, That sounds really cool.

Uh, and I thought I would look really cool showing up to these meetings with these binders that are full of all of these contracts with handwritten notes.

But let me tell you the chaos that ensued when I tried to stay organized on my own and got over 5 events at a time. It was a nightmare. Enter HoneyBook. I'm telling you guys, HoneyBook was literally exactly how my brain was processing wedding planning, but just in digital form. It's so easy to go in there and make any sort of customizations that you want from adjusting your contracts to adjusting your packages, maintaining conversations back and forth that not only pop up in the app on the website, but also in your inbox as well. It's a great way to stay organized. So get out of the paper and get onto the digital. Head to wolferandco.com/hb and use code UNION at checkout to get the best deal. We interrupt this podcast because there is something extremely special that I wanna share with you guys. Uh, I don't know about you, but for the last who knows how many years I have been using a Frankensteined, Googled, copied and pasted contract. And while that is extremely embarrassing to admit to all of our listeners, I know that there are people out there who feel the same as I do. And there were a couple of things that kept me from actually getting an attorney drafted contract. Actually, no, there was one thing. It was so expensive and it seemed so out of reach. That's when I learned about LegallySet. You see, Kunbi with Legally Set has created industry-specific contracts for people like you and me working in the wedding industry. They're easy to customize. They're drafted by an actual attorney and not Googled. Can you imagine that? And last but not least, they are so extremely affordable. So if you were like me and maybe using a less than appropriate and/or legal contract, it's time to step up your game. You have no more excuses. Head on over to theunionpodcast.com/legallyset to check them out. Use code UNION for 20% off your contracts.

Justine, super excited because you said, I'm getting ready to do a styled shoot and brand shoot. I have a bunch of photos of couples that I've worked with, but not much else. What are some things I can capture that can add to the collection of my work that potential clients can look at? Um, I, let me see if I can, and if there's more that you want to add to that, please, please feel free to jump on and let me know. So what I love focusing on is I love detail shots. Like, I love them so much. They're really good filler when it comes to your Instagram feed. So it's not just person after person after person. So if there is any sort of— obviously you're probably not going to do a flat leg because you're not going to have any invitations unless you want to create one or order one or do one with Canva, something along those lines to really just round out the look. But I like to have a couple vignettes, dessert if possible. Always fun to collab with a baker of sorts. So you can do like a little dessert table moment. You can also have a— some sort of altar type situation where there's an arbor, something to stand in front of, something that gives ceremony vibes, a faux aisle. So that can really kind of showcase your design skills. A table. So we want to see what a tabletop would look like if you, um, had your way with it. Um, you could do a seating chart. That's something you could put together. Basically, we want to show off your design skills. Yeah. And show off— this is a great opportunity to put out the kind of designs you want to bring in.

Okay.

So if you really love light, airy, romantic pink hydrangea, soft eucalyptus, put something together that looks like that because clients are going to see that and be like, that's me. Um, if you want dark and moody, make sure you put something together that's dark and moody. Now you're not pigeonholed into this at all. Um, a lot of what I did in the beginning wedding-wise was pretty light and airy, but I booked a couple of very gothic weddings and I was like, this is amazing.

Yeah.

So it's, it's, yeah, don't, don't get too afraid that you feel like it's going to like lock you into that. Um, you're perfectly fine to kind of play around with that.

Okay, okay. Yeah, but is there more that's going around with the ideas of like what to do? And I hear a lot about like, oh, put out what you want to attract. But I'm like, what if right now I'm attracting a lot of different people and I'm okay with that? Yeah, like, what if, what if that's the case? What am I actually putting out? What does my Instagram look like? What does it feel like? It's Yeah, that's where I am.

Yeah, I would, I would say just put it all out there. Like, don't feel like you have to box yourself in. I did end up finding the photoshoot that I want to share. So this actually— oh my gosh, I cannot believe this is 9 years ago. Holy smokes.

The OG.

You want to make yourself feel old? Talk about something from a decade ago. Goodness gracious. Just because I feel like it, um, gives a good picture. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and drop us out of the way and go here. Yeah.

Okay, let's go.

There we go. So we have a couple different vignettes here, and what I like is going in really tight for some of these type of photos if you have enough texture, enough things that you could put together for something like that. This is literally the stack of suitcases I have next to my television. So I buy stuff for styled shoots and then use it in my home, or I have it in my home and then use it. That's smart. So we've, we've got a cake that we did. We've got, um, oh, and this is a— that was a zoomed in shot of this. So that's our, um, seating chart. We also designed a— this is the ceremony moment. This is the tabletop that we did. We did a bar. And so it just provided opportunities for us to zoom in and get detail work if we wanted to.

Yeah.

Now this was over the top, so like, don't feel like you have to go to this extent. I'm just hoping it provides some inspiration.

Okay.

Um, having, having people there is great. Especially if they make faces like this. I feel like that just like really sells the brand. Um, but I really did enjoy this tablescape a lot.

Hey. Oh yeah, yeah.

Oh, look at us babies. Yeah, so if, if I went through, we're looking at Table, bar. This was a little vignette, um, ceremony seating chart, and then dessert, which I thought I had another picture of. This is like on a steamer trunk on its side, um, okay, underneath a mosquito net, because the whole point of this was like a Tarzan versus Jane— or meets Jane, but like urban.

I was getting those vibes, so that makes sense. Were you really? I was.

It also says Tarzan meets Jane at the top, so I mean, I appreciate it. So talk to me about the vibe. Oh, okay, cool. I mean, nailed it. Talk to me about the vibe of the styled shoot then. Like, what is it that you're looking to do? What's the color vibe? Do you have a theme?

So honestly, no, I didn't have a theme initially. So like, I'm like, I'm just gonna put together things that feel like a wedding. Um, and I just went based off my wedding, to be honest, like clean, classic. I did like— it was a Brooklyn wedding, so city vibes and yes, like kind of that feel. Um, I'm talking to a photographer that I worked with for my first wedding. She was very nice, and so we're gonna plan a styled shoot in August, and that'll be like That'll be themed. That'll be— what's it called— an elopement theme wedding.

Cute.

Um, I mean, shoot. But yeah, so I just wanted some ideas as I figure out, like, yeah, theme, do it, you know.

And don't feel like you have to do a specific theme. I get nerdy about it. Like, I— we also did another one that was like Alice in Wonderland inspired.

Yeah, I love that because then it—

I— that's how my mind works. And that's how I like to play. If you're like, hey, I just like, like these colors, I got a vibe off of Pinterest board, you don't have to name it anything, but I'm a cheeseball.

Okay, no, that's helpful.

Now talk to me about the brand shoot. Are those two separate things? Are they all in one?

They're separate. Um, so recently another really, really fun thing that's happened, I got a new phone because my other phone broke and No, I decided to use an authentication app that I didn't log into, and so now, long story short, I've lost access to my Instagram. Like, my— not my personal Instagram, but that Instagram for this, Mills Memories. And kind of annoyed, I didn't post much on it, so I'm like, it's fine, my sister's like, the principal, start over.

It's the principal.

I'm like, why, why can't I just talk to anybody from Instagram and get help from this? So everyone said they're not helping me, so I have to start over.

Um, rude.

And I just want to start over like feeling good, like, and knowing that like, okay, this is going to come together and, and work and look better and be cohesive because no one's looking for me right now. So, right, you know, and if even if they could Yep. Yeah, yeah. Gosh, I have to do a brand shoot, and I decided this was a good time to find somebody to help me, like, do my website and do all that stuff, because initially I did it myself, and yeah, it's not my craft. So just, yeah, finding somebody who knows what they're doing, and they're gonna help me do that and trying to come up with a look for the brand that's cohesive across the platforms. I've been trying to do my homework in here, um, Pinterest and all those things. Yeah, so I need to do a brand shoot. I don't know what direction I'm going in yet because she said she's going to help me with that sort of thing, but she's never jumped into wedding websites, so I wanted to get some feedback, like things I should be incorporating if I'm driving people there, if they're booking there. Most of my people come through Zola right now, but I, you know, okay, which is fine, but I'd like other people to just land on my page so eventually I don't have to use Zola.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm definitely not an SEO expert. That sounds like something that, um, that I probably should know more about, but I've always outsourced it. Just be like, I don't know computer things, you do it. Like, I'll just talk on social media. So that would be if you want to find a way to independently drive people there, that would be a really good call to kind of dive into that just a little bit. But also at the same time, that's why I like the social media aspect of it. That's the angle that I took. So I kind of feel like you don't have to pick between the two, but at least if you have something strong in one direction and obviously if you've got traffic from Zola, God bless it. Like we're, we're not going to bite the hand that feeds us at all.

Right. Exactly. Yeah.

And I also like what you did is because you didn't let your branding get in the way of starting your business.

Mm-hmm.

You're like, I'm just gonna do it. Like I'm gonna do it and then start making some money. And then unfortunately you got in a situation where you're like, I can't access that anymore. But at least now there's capital, right?

Yeah.

At least now there's a little something to work with so we can rebrand. Now, how long has it been since you started? Like first client, basically last October. Oh my gosh, I know, that's incredible.

I know, I have 16 couples right now and I'm like, got your face spinning. I'm spinning, I'm excited. I officially— the last time we talked, I was still like taking notes on paper, and sometimes I still do, but I'm like, I can't do this anymore. So I'm officially— everything is in HoneyBook. I hired my sister. I'm like, you want to make some cash? Yes. So she like puts in notes and she does a lot of admin stuff and she is how I'm making it right now. Honestly, she's, she's, she's a rock. 16.

Justine, that's nuts, especially because you don't even have an active Instagram right now.

Exactly.

But people keep asking me and I'm like, um, um, I can't tell you where to go because it doesn't exist.

Right. Yeah, that's mine. Like, I can't respond to you if you sent me something, but that's mine. Yeah, absolutely.

So talk to me about the process with Zola. What's it like? How much does it cost? What— how many inquiries you get versus how many are you booking? Just general numbers.

I don't need to get too specific. Yeah.

How are you liking Zola so far?

I love Zola. I I decided to go there, um, because that's what I used to book my vendors for my wedding.

Okay.

And it's very easy, user-friendly. Um, I thought about The Knot, but I didn't like the vibes I was getting over there. Um, very like, act now, do it now. No, stop yelling at me.

I don't really care for The Knot either. There's like a whole group on Facebook That's like anti-the knot.

It was too much. It was way— like, I just felt pressured. I took the call, but I was just like, this is, this is too much. Um, but for Zola, I'm in a 6-month plan, I think. So it's like $200 every 6 months. Okay. Um, and I'm like, okay, well, my deposit is $300, so if I just put one deposit, that covers me for 6 months. Um, that's how I work it out in my brain anyway. Um, okay.

So wait, when did you start with Zola?

October.

Okay. So you put $300 down, you have 16 active clients. How many past clients do you have? Like how many weddings are over? One. One. Okay. So you've got 17 weddings and wait. 7 months.

Yeah.

Okay. And how many— okay, let's— can we nerd out on math for a sec? Are you okay? Are you okay talking numbers?

Yeah, sure.

Okay. So out of the 17, how many were day of coordination? How many were longer?

So day of coordination— see, now I gotta bring HoneyBook because I don't—

but aren't you glad you have HoneyBook? Because now it's all organized.

It's all there. Like, I just tag everything, color coordinate. It's— thank you, sister. So for a day of coordination, 1, 2, 3, well, I'll just do partial planning first. So I have 5 planning couples and the rest are day of coordination.

Okay, so we got 12 day of and 5 planning. Are you comfortable sharing your pricing?

Yeah. And it changed, it changed.

So when I did—

it went up, didn't it? I didn't, I didn't take it up again after the last time I took it up because I'm like, all right, relax. But, um, the first time I was like, okay, when I start, I'm just gonna do $1,000. I feel like that's reasonable. And I was really scared, and but I got booked. And so I, I kept that for a while because I wanted to boost my, you know, confidence.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Do you even know what you're doing? Like, who do you think you are? So that was that. Um, but then I put it up to $1,500.

Okay, and that's for a month of, or day of coordination, correct?

Yeah, coordination. Okay, that's kind of where it is right now. Um, okay, it feels like I'm doing a lot more. Like, the difference, the only difference between Day of Coordination and my planning, partial planning. I haven't booked the full planning yet. And honestly, I just might take it off because I don't know that I wanna do full planning. We'll see.

Here's the thought on that before you completely take it off, that the illusion of having that third one, a lot of people will not book it, makes the middle package look like a better deal. Okay. So I've— Over all the years that I've done this, I can count on one hand the amount of people that have done the full planning package.

Okay. Okay. All right.

So it is a really nice picture when you're offering pricing, because then the middle package is like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go for that one. That seems like a sweet middle. Yeah.

Okay.

And then how much are you doing for partial planning?

Partial planning is $2,000 or $2,500. So it started at $2,000. Now it's $2,500.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

So let's just, for numbers sake, let's just keep it at your previous, um, your previous numbers, which means you've made $12,000 off of month of coordination or day of coordination and $10,000 off of partial. You've made $22,000.

Yeah.

And you put in $300, right?

Thank you, Zola.

I'm sorry, you profited $19,000 in 7 months?

Yeah, and it feels, it feels great, and it also was kind of scary for a while. Yeah, without the support of my sister, and honestly, your guidance has been gold. Oh, I'm so glad, because without it, I'm like, what am I, what am I doing? What? I don't know how to answer your questions. I mean, you think I can help you, but a lot of thinking. But they believe me, so that's good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

So that puts you—

I mean, if you keep this pace up, that puts you at $32,000 a year. That's a decent job, sis.

Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. You should be. I'm not at a place where I'm like, I'm quitting my job, but like, yo, yeah, yeah, yeah. It feels, it feels good.

That's all we have for this week's episode, guys. If you enjoyed it, do me a favor, screenshot that episode and share it on socials.

Tag me in it.

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I hope you guys enjoy this week's episode and we'll see you in the next one.