Booking 10K Weddings 💼

In this masterclass today, we're going to be Talking about the three steps to booking 10k weddings as a photographer.

Because ultimately the goal is to stop hustling to burnout, sacrificing all of your weekends.

I know as much as anybody else who has a family, who likes to travel, who has life goals, does not want to spend 30 plus weekends a year dedicating that to your job.

But before I get into all of the accolades and fun stuff, I'm allure I started my wedding business 12 years ago shooting very cheap weddings.

Second shooting, always discounting to pay my bill, all of those great things.

And I'm now going to teach you the strategies today that helped me go from burned out to CEO making a hundred K peacefully with two little ones.

And I think at the time My daughter was 4 and my son was a newborn.

So it can be done.

I've also helped hundreds of wedding photographers build profitable businesses since 2016.

So I'm not a new mentor.

I've been around here a while.

So, you're here because I know you like the back of my hand.

Maybe you want your couples to go from inquiry to book in two hours because who doesn't?

You want more dream wedding inquiries than ever before.

You want them booking your top package maybe in 24 hours without questions or with add ons that's the best.

Or maybe you feel like it's time for a rebrand.

Like, you want to launch a rebrand that fills your inbox with dream weddings and repels the rest.

You want to be at a point where you don't need to accept 30 weddings, 25 weddings a year, because you want to actually only attract the best of the best.

The weddings where you're driving there and you feel, my goodness, I can't wait to shoot this wedding.

The content's going to be so good.

I'm going to be able to have fun.

Those are the kinds of thoughts you should be having versus being, here we go.

Another wedding, another day, another dollar.

You want your website to compel your dream couples to hop on a call and book you.

You want them to already know we are ready to book.

That's the best part of an inquiry, when they're so ready to work with you because they've already seen your work.

They already know.

And of course, you want to double or, triple your prices and charge 10k for weddings.

So maybe right now you're just getting ghosted and you're feeling discouraged, right?

I hear this a lot, especially with this new economy shift.

Maybe you're hopping on a call and it's exhausting because you have no idea what to say, and then you feel lost, and then you get scared.

Scared.

And then what happens?

You let the couple take over and then they're like, okay, we'll see.

We'll get in contact with you versus you being in charge of the call.

Or most couples book your lowest or middle package, and you're like, why?

sometimes I have people who are like, I can't even book my lowest.

And I'm like, okay, this is an SOS Maybe you haven't rebranded in a while, but you constantly tweak your website because it needs help.

Or you'll see a trend and be like, ooh, let me change that.

Or you thought of something randomly like, let me just add this in my captions in my abouts, right, to make me sound cool, but it's not working.

Or maybe you want to serve a different market and you're ready to raise your prices to get out of the current clientele you're in.

And I say this all the time, but there are different customers at every set of price points, and we'll talk about that too, later.

Or maybe you just want to stop booking 25 plus weddings to make a hundred k.

I understand.

I know what you want because I know you want to be a profitable CEO with thousands to spend and save, right?

Or you just want an iconic personal brand that only attracts dream couples and repels the rest.

You're at the point where you're like, okay, I've hustled to get to this point, or I've made a certain amount of money, or I've booked a certain amount of weddings, I know who I want to work with.

Or, maybe you just finally want that artist mindset with unlimited creativity and strategies you can implement in your work and in sales and your marketing.

Or you just want to build a life first based business.

If you have kids, if you want to have kids, if you want to get married, all of these things.

Anything that involves your life so that you can vacate during busy season, maybe take a month or two off just because you can.

Not even going on vacation, you're just like, I'm actually out of office.

Love you guys.

Bye.

Or you just want a wedding photography business that you have created your own way at minimum 100k a year, which is essentially the goal.

So you're going to learn the same strategies that our students have used to raise their prices, book their highest package so they can actually build a six figure business.

And we've helped dozens of girls do this.

So.

Meet Savannah.

Savannah tripled her rates and made over 150k in one year with SEO, blog and messaging and converting, Google searches into luxury bookings.

Meet Emily.

She rebranded three times without results until she used our artist story.

And then she booked 100k while recovering from childbirth and took sales calls from the nicu.

And this is a true story.

She was booking weddings in the hospital waiting room.

It's possible.

It is definitely possible.

And Jenna was stuck at 2500 for five years.

I remember she came and joined our program and she's like, I can't do this anymore.

She's, if I can't make this work, I should hang my hat.

It's been long enough.

I've been, way too cheap.

So I ripped her prices apart and she ended up booking a 6k wedding in less than nine months.

And of course her husband's like, if you book that wedding, you're going to Hawaii.

So I think she went to Hawaii.

Good for them.

So now I'm going to tell you my story because you're probably like, okay, Laura, like, you can talk about us, but what do you know?

I know I went from broken busy to profitable CEO with children.

Okay, so here's my story.

I booked 30 weddings in 2017 charging 3k.

And that's not including second shooting guys.

Because I had friends and we would shoot for each other.

I don't even know how much more it was than that.

Could have been 40.

I didn't raise my prices because I was scared no one would pay them.

I was scared I would break my business.

And the very famous thing that people say to you, no one's gonna book you for X amount of price.

I wouldn't even be that.

What do they know?

I rebranded a few times a year to boost my confidence for major imposter syndrome.

And I will tell you about that.

Because I changed my brand so much, y'.

All.

The designers were like, are you sure it's every six months?

Right?

I felt like a terrible mom because I was always gone.

I was gone every weekend, and I was always on the computer editing.

I was also gone during the weekdays because all of my packages included engagement sessions.

So I debated burning the whole business to the ground.

Yes, I made six figures, but I was not happy.

And that video was actually real.

I remember saying, I'm never going to record myself crying, but I remember just getting out my camera and being like, laura, one day this video is going to ring so true.

I think that was me in 2019, like, right before the pandemic.

So as a result, I was burned out and depressed.

My biz was a hot mess.

For lack of better words, My brand was unclear.

I made more or less because I never raised my prices.

So what I would do is be like, I don't want to book as many weddings, so I leave my prices alone and then book less weddings.

And then my income tanked, right?

And I shape shifted my brand all the time.

Cause I'm like, this is trending.

Let me change my colors.

Let me change my vibe.

I didn't have a strategy.

I was just doing stuff.

I see this all the time, is if you feel like you don't know what you're doing, then I know you're just doing stuff.

And you can only do that for so long.

Like, it's good for the hustle phase if you're getting your business off the ground.

So here you are, guys.

These are brands.

This one I did myself and Word Document shout out to me for always being there for me.

I think this was a WordPress block.

Now, all of these, I think, were second shooting.

And I did a lot of, like, lifestyle stuff to pay the bills.

But as you can see, it was like, one year.

You're a cursive girl.

One Year you're strictly documentary.

One year you're a boho girly.

And then one year, what is this?

The world will never know.

I call this shape shifting or even better, brand whiplash.

Because I was a new person, y'.

All.

I think every few months.

They didn't know what was gonna.

I didn't even know what was going on.

I was like, I think I just won another brand launch.

So I had a choice.

I could keep spending all my money on shiny object syndrome.

Whenever I saw a nice template, that's really what it was.

Template customization was the death of me.

Or I could create a strategy.

Stop mindless spending and scrolling and figure out what weddings I wanted to book and what couples I wanted to work with.

Versus the ica where it's my dream client is a girl who shops at madewell.

No, I flipped that on its head and just created something my own way.

So afterwards I hired a web designer.

That's why you guys gotta stick to the professionals.

And I created an amazing brand story to implement my website as my main strategy.

I knew I wanted something editorial and I wanted to mix documentary together.

So if you look in the past, I felt like I had to pick.

I was like, you're either light and airy or you're dark and moody, or you're an educator.

You can't have both.

But then finally, I just owned it.

I was like, you know what?

My style is both.

So I'm just going to mix it together.

And if they don't like it, they don't have to hire me.

You are not forced to work with me.

There's tons of inquiries in the sea, right?

And I was able to actually get consistent inquiries where couples would say, my gosh, I'm in searching for a photographer with a style like yours forever.

You're doing something that nobody else is doing.

I'm so glad I found you.

Are you available?

And I attracted couples that shared my values, that loved my work.

They were willing to pay my middle to highest and add ons.

It was to the point where they were like, please don't give away our inquiry yet.

I had to talk to my husband.

Going back when I shape shifted, people were like, we'll get back to you.

We're looking at other photographers.

No, when I stuck to myself, it was like, wait a minute, I don't know anything like this.

I cannot lose her.

So I was confident in my brand once and for all.

Just from the strategy to the visuals, to what I was putting out there.

And of course, what I was able to achieve.

And so I feel like, everything lived in perfect luxury harmony.

As a result, because of the demand, I tripled my prices.

The clients kept coming.

There was like a little lag in inquiries, and then it was like, boom.

And then I hired and trained my associate, team to book weddings because I had my son, as you can see, my little squish.

My squish is four now, but back then he was a baby.

And I said, I only want to book 12 weddings a year, but I can launch a team that will book 10 to 20 weddings a year for me.

And I get to keep all the money, right?

So I book less and I doubled my income.

And I had the best of both worlds.

I had a summer.

I went on vacation for the first time since the pandemic, which really was the first time I ever went on vacation.

Me and my family went to Disney World.

We actually explored Lake Michigan because we have such beautiful things here.

And I feel like I actually had it all.

And I'm like, so this is what a CEO is like.

Building a strategy, creating something and building this dream life while having kids.

People say you can't have it all, but I am proof that you really can have it all.

And you can have it all with a newborn.

Here's my hot take.

The market actually isn't saturated, but if it were, it would be a good thing.

Here's why this would mean everybody wants this.

Everybody wants a wedding photographer.

All you have to do is to convince them to book you specifically or attract people that already want to book you specifically.

And I hate to say it, but copying your peers, prices or competitors in the industry doesn't mean you're going to get bookings.

I had so many people in my DMs being like, I already know what to charge.

I already looked at what everybody else was charging in this area and I'm like, but how much do you need to charge to pay your bills?

Radio silence.

And also, having a website doesn't mean you're going to attract dream couples 24.

7.

It's a little bit deeper than that.

And you can't just post a reel of you dancing and get 100 inquiries anymore.

Gone are the days, guys, where your reels go viral and they're like, that's my photographer.

She can dance like no other to this trending audio.

So what is working right now?

Charging profitable packages that actually keep you in business, because without this, you're not even gonna make it.

And I think they say most businesses Fail within the first year.

And I say most photography businesses fail in three years.

So designing a unique brand that actually attracts dream weddings and repels price shoppers, those two things go hand in hand.

That's like the non negotiables.

And then once everything is aligned, your visuals are good, you know what you're doing, then you're gonna have a strategy and you're gonna market like crazy to where your dream couples are at.

So you're attracting them.

they're inclined to want to book with you.

There's no forcing in the DMs, there's no cold pitching.

I just, I'm not into it.

But you will learn sales psychology to book weddings at your highest package without feeling salesy.

And so pricing psychology and sales psychology actually go hand in hand.

And it's actually tried and proven to make sure that they book your middle to highest package or something custom, which is even higher.

So let's talk about the three steps to booking 10k weddings that gives you this profitable business that you want so bad.

Now introducing Frank.

I love him.

We love Frank.

He's the best father.

The Bride is one of my all time favorite movies.

But also, can we give perks to Franck?

He was a luxury wedding planner and I did some research on him.

But let's dive in.

The first step that you need is an incomparable brand.

So if you were like me, maybe the mistake that you're having right now is you launch a website rebrand every year or six months, or maybe you haven't launched one in a few years.

Maybe you don't have this year plan.

Like, maybe you're just posting on social media and all your images are outdated, or you don't have a clue who you are or what your brand even stands for.

Why you're a wedding photographer, why do you love this, what your style is As a result, you're going to attract couples that aren't a dream or aren't a fit.

And you're wondering why.

You're like, okay, do I really want to do this?

Why is everybody having such better luck than me?

Why am I not attracting dream couples with an incomparable brand?

We can help you launch a strategic rebrand.

Maybe you, it, just needs a refresh because a lot of times people come to us and they're like, I've already had a rebrand, but it does need tweaks, it does need new images, it does need new messaging because the copy doesn't sound like me.

And I hired a copywriter we can help you with that.

And as somebody who's a serial rebrander, went to school for web design and psychology, I know a thing or two.

So you will also create this brand story and use it to guide your business instead of just doing random things or shape shifting and trend shifting.

And then your clients will actually tell you what your secret sauce is, and you'll be able to build a brand so iconic that you can raise your prices repeatedly without pricing drama.

Okay, so pricing psychology.

The common mistake is your Prices range from 2K to 3K.

And you're like, okay, there's no profit.

What's the point?

Your clients want everything in the kitchen sink for a 3k or less.

I had a student, and she was like, yeah, my middle package was 3K.

And they were like, that's not in our budget.

I said, no, not even entertaining that.

3k is at least average, right?

We're not playing tug of war for a couple thousand dollars for ten hours of coverage.

You pulled your prices out of the ether and have no clue how much you actually need to stay in business and pay your bills.

Or even worse, your popular package is the lowest.

This is the biggest sign that you need pricing help.

If your popular package is the lowest and you have no clue how to get couples to even book the, middle, let alone the highest package.

Okay, guys, let's talk about Frank.

Let's give it up for him.

He's the best.

Guess how much Franck's wedding planning rates were.

Okay, so he was a luxury wedding Planner in the 90s.

Because I remember when he listed his prices, he was like, welcome to the 90s, Mr.

Bonk.

I can't be the only person who loves this movie.

$18,000 in the 90s.

Okay.

In the 90s.

It's crazy.

This is literally crazy.

So it gets better because that's, how much it is technically, with inflation now.

So I'm like, okay, let me see how much money 18 grand in the 90s is to today.

$43,000, fam.

$43,000 today.

Why are they willing to pay this in the 90s?

You probably ask yourself, like, what in the world is anybody even worth that much?

But he was the best.

So I remember the wife telling him that Frank is the best.

She's seen his work.

She was selling her husband on hiring Franc because she already knew she wanted to work with him because he was the best in the industry and because she valued what he did, valued his work.

And to be fair, Frank is the best.

Now let's ask ourselves, what would Frank do?

So if Frank wants to raise his prices from 5k to 8k to 11k, I suggest there's two different ways you can actually have your prices.

You can have anywhere from two to four packages at a range.

But I know a lot of people who get to a certain place where they're like, I want a flat rate package because it is a non negotiable for me to spend this amount of time with this deliverable.

Maybe it was like they need 10 hours of coverage and they have to do an engagement session.

So they would do a flat rate and then if they want to add more things on, they can.

If you're really good at sales, you can absolutely do a flat rate and couples won't think anything less.

So let's ask ourselves what would Frank do in a package positioning, situation?

If I were Frank when he was starting out because obviously he's at 18k, maybe I would do something like this.

What you want is your lower package to have something in the middle package to have a little more something, anything less than the higher and the higher package should feel like a steal.

It should feel like a deal.

So this is like how I would help somebody go from 8k to 5 figures.

Now I am not telling you to drink the Kool Aid.

You don't need to triple your prices and charge 10k.

yeah.

Obviously there is a system which is like how it goes, it's like a ladder.

So let's say you're at 3K.

I want you to aspire to move on to the next level because I know some of you guys are like what in the world?

Why is she showing us 8k pricing starting?

Because obviously we will be working towards that.

Right?

But if you're down here right now starting, it's no big deal.

But I don't want you to stay here because only dupe and gloom right now.

If you're okay with making less or if you're okay with making more and sacrificing your weekends and stay at 3k, don't even listen to me, like why did you come?

Right?

But if you want to book less and make more, you are going to have to raise them.

So this is like how we teach to raise your prices without raising your nervous system and anxiety.

Okay, now I'm going to give you some real talk though.

Low pricing does repel high end weddings.

And I'm going to say why?

And I can just speak from experience myself.

But lower pricing is actually associated with affordable, cheap and little to no experience.

People know if they're going to pay for something cheap that it's going to either be low quality or it's not going to last long.

And price shoppers eat that up because they're like, I'm getting a deal, I'm getting a steal.

This is my budget and that's fine.

I think there needs to be people at every price range for everybody.

You can stay at 3k if that's where you want to be.

I have people who are like, I'll never raise my prices because I love the clientele here, so be it.

Right?

But at this price range, I am going to be real with you.

People do compare photographers like crazy to see if they can get a deal.

Unless this does happen too.

Unless you have something different and of really good value, they will be willing to stretch their budget for you.

Which I, have experience with my students and it can be done.

You can get out, but just want to be real with you guys and let you know what's going to be at, every pricing range.

Meet Katie.

She was terrified to get on a phone call with her clients, but she wasn't booking and we had to fix it, right?

So we did a pricing makeover live in one of our group calls.

Because the middle package was the least profitable at 3k and offered way too much.

We actually raised them and moved things around a little bit.

She was actually able to book 16k in weddings in just a month with just pricing psychology.

That's how powerful all of these methods are and how they all build up on each other.

So how we help you, I want minimum everyone's prices to be starting at 5k with, with profits to spare.

I want you to be able to more than break even or not be in the negative at the end of the year.

Right?

And your clients want it all and they should be willing to raise their budget to work with you.

And it's possible.

We've done it time and time again.

It's this side of the world does exist, people are willing to pay more, right?

And also you'll know your cost of doing business, right?

And you'll know how much you need to stay profitable.

And you'll have a goal of working towards it.

You can be like, okay, this year I'm willing to book this many couples at this price point, but I know next year I want to be starting at this price.

So you'll have a strategy and we want your popular package to be your middle to highest and with possible add ons including so the last part of the three steps is gonna be attracting dream weddings.

So let me know if this is you.

Maybe you post and goes cause you're overwhelmed with social media or you just make tweaks to your outdated website hoping inquiries come your way.

So we help you attract dream weddings because we teach a strategic four part marketing plan that's easy to implement so that you are everywhere at once.

And that's not just social media.

Social media is important.

There are many other ways that you can market in your business in a way that feels comfortable for you, in a way that you can show up.

There's no limit to what you can do in terms of marketing.

And it's free, right?

Plus your work will be a reflection of who you are and what you want to shoot.

And so we have on demand website reviews and portfolio reviews.

And I can be able to tell you like this doesn't match with what you said.

You're not showing the right image.

That's saying the same thing like visuals and words need to speak together.

And you'll be proud to show off a website that feels like you.

And you'll be booking dream couples that value, your work as an artist at higher rates.

And you'll be getting inquiries from everywhere because you put all this work in place months ago.

So meet allie.

She joined charging 3200 for everything.

And she had a dream of becoming a destination photographer but had no idea where to start.

So she actually used our marketing strategy plan and she implemented it on TikTok.

So she went viral many times and she was able to book destination weddings ranging from 9k to 11k.

Yeah, she's a five figure photographer, y'.

All.

And when I first found her, she told me she was like, I'm burned out.

This is my last shot before I close this business down.

Honored to be able to have helped her do this.

Okay, so now you know the three steps to booking 10k weddings is an incomparable brand, Pricing psychology and attracting dream weddings.

So this is how your business will look like without one or the other.

So without an incomparable brand, you'll feel like an imposter photographer because maybe you just don't know who you are and it's hard to be confident in something that you're just unsure of.

Maybe you feel lost, maybe you struggle with an identity crisis and mindset or you feel like you're always in a creative rut in terms of pricing psychology, maybe you struggle to book your cheapest package or you give them everything for nothing.

Or you don't break even and you're losing money to be in business.

Or with attracting aligned weddings, you just aren't getting inquiries.

And the couples you do get ghost you or you get price shopped.

And let's be real, no inquiries, no bookings.

So you need all three, you need all three of these strategies and concepts because missing one will affect the entire business.

So there is one belief that that is probably holding you back from success.

So we're going to dive into mindset stuff.

I can't raise my prices and book high end weddings.

Guess what?

You actually don't have to hustle and burnout to scale to a six figure business.

And I'm just going to show you what that looks like.

So here's what a hundred K math can look like.

So there's 52 weeks in a year.

Let's say you want half of your weekends free.

That's 26 weeks, that's 26 weddings.

But if you want even less, maybe you want to book 20 weddings at 5k and that's a hundred k in revenue.

Now that is only 50k technically in profit.

Once you give 20% to savings, 30% to taxes, give or take, and so you're left with 50k.

So then let's say, okay, I'm willing to book 20 weddings at 10k, maybe that's a good life for you.

It's worth it.

That would be 200k in revenue and that would be 100k in profit.

Boom.

Business plan already created.

So we teach you how to work less and actually make more.

And here's an example of what that looks like.

So this is what a 12k month looks like.

It's pretty simple.

You got a couple portraits and this is the bare minimum for portraits.

I hope you're charging more than $500 for portraits.

And two weddings in a month, that's already a 12k month.

So maybe I have a little photographer, so I like to show this example.

But maybe you do elopements for 5k on weekdays and then you raise your prices to 7, 8, 9k on your weekends and then your portraits have gone up.

That's a 26k month.

Okay, so like one of 35k month because I'm greedy.

When you get to this point, if you're at five figures, honestly your portraits should be at 950.

Absolutely.

And then let's say you do elopements, you're like, okay, it's no big deal if I do elopement on my off weekends because I Only have two weekends that I spent and this is pretty low life.

You got a portrait, then you have a wedding, you have an elopement.

What is that, three or four hours?

Portrait wedding, elopement, that's 35kmer.

So let's say you want to add associates and you're like, okay, I raised my prices, let me hire a team.

Or maybe my portraits now are going to be super high end because I have a family and I need to count for that.

Or you want to do one elopement or your team does the elopement.

Whatever you want to do.

This is going to be, a 40k month.

So you only need 20 weddings a year to actually be booked 100k, because we saw the math.

You only need 10 weddings at 10k to make 100k.

You saw the math.

So here are some of the drama free book beliefs you probably need.

And you can screenshot this because it might help you as you go along your road and raising your prices.

My dream couple exists.

You don't have to take on everybody.

That is, if there's one thing you can learn today is you don't need to book 30 weddings.

It's just, it feels weird to be like, my gosh, I'm not booked.

Or my goodness, I can't book all the inquiries.

I'm like, do you need all of them?

Do you need all of the bookings?

Yeah.

My brand stands out in the industry.

If others can do it, so can I.

I can build a peaceful 100k business.

That's why not, me.

Hard work now pays off later.

When I make more, I book less.

I can raise my price.

It's 10K.

And you could even just say, I can slowly raise my prices.

Or you can just be like, I'm the best photographer in the industry.

I can do this.

I got this.

If you'd like to get access to all the strategies and implement everything and See what our client 2 Ah.5 as a collective have done, you're invited to join us.

So this is for you.

If you're tired of feeling like a starving artist in your business, you're ready to book Dream Weddings at your highest package.

You're ready to double your prices, free up your weekends.

Maybe you're just ready to launch a strategic, iconic rebrand.

You're like, it's time for me to get out there and put my best strategy forward.

Meet Jen.

She joined Wedding Atelier wanting to raise her prices and she was like, I don't know how to do it, I want to do it.

So she doubled her prices after working with me and made 38k in two months.

Crazy.

You can listen to her podcast if you scroll down a little bit.

on my podcast, her journey from scientist to artist.

So within the next seven days, it's this easy to calculate your profit and expenses to create your new pricing and then book your next wedding.

It's that easy if you're able to put in those two pieces to figure out how you're gonna book your next wedding.

Because we give you a sales script that kind of guides the conversation