barbara_lucas_wilson

<p>Adoramapix does really nice albums too, very affordable.</p>

<p>I like Lumapix FotoFusion Extreme. Very versatile.</p>

<p>Elle,<br>

I feel your pain. I've researched the competition, tried to create relationships with wedding planners, venues, etc. Thought about doing bridal shows, but I just don't have the cash to invest in it right now. Visited all the free sites and created listings, advertise on the localarea.com wedding planning site. Done FB. All sorts of things. Had several weddings last year, plus expanded into maternity, newborns, families(and did those for free, since I was just starting out.<br>

Then this year it seemed like it just crashed. Very few phones calls or emails. People who came for appointments didn't book. Very discouraging. We've been doing weddings since 2007 and enjoy doing it. We had raised our prices, but only so that we don't go broke. And we both have other jobs that pay for the house and other stuff. If we didn't, we'd be homeless.<br>

I'm not sure why our inquiries bottomed out. I think that folks are really price shopping now, and we're not the cheapest. But we include 2 photogs, images on disk, on-line galleries, album credits, etc. Custom coverage and products depending on what they want.<br>

I figured it had to be marketing, but we couldn't figure out what to do or what to change and improve. Right now it needs to be free, because it's tight and I can't just throw money around.<br>

If you want to chat and commiserate, feel free to email me.<br>

Thanks,<br>

Barbara</p>

<p>Business is down tremendously for us. Last year was great, we even expanded into families, maternity and babies. This year, people are not booking us based on price (we did raise our prices in order to actually make money this year). But even inquiries are down. I am headed to the poorhouse. i just wish I knew why in has gone down so dramatically this year.</p>

<p>I actually have tracked all those numbers, and I do ask where folks have found us. The numbers are half of last year, down significantly. I did meet with a potential client on Thursday and sad to say if they don't call back, I won't be sad. Didn't really feel a connection. And we need the work...</p>

<p>Is anyone else finding that inquiries and bookings are down from last year?<br>

2011 will be our 5th wedding season and it was building each year, more engagements, we had even branched out into some other kinds of portraiture. But this time last year I know that I had more inquiries and more bookings, we're low volume, so twice as many isn't like at a high volume place.<br>

I was thinking that it might be the economy and people just procrastinating. But I've also been checking the analytics for our website and it seems that we're having trouble getting people to our site. Even with all sorts of keywords, listings on Weddingwire, Yahoo local, Google local, and a site that lists local vendors. we also have reciprocal links with some other wedding vendors, a FB page and a blog(although the blog is new). Adwords has not helped, neither has FB ads. Any suggestions as to what we could do help? We do plan website redesign before the end of the year.<br>

Just wondering how everyone else was doing...<br>

TIA for any advice!</p>

<p>I had a wedding not long ago where the B&G had contracted for 5 hours. They asked us to stay for a little while longer to get cake cutting, etc. We did that and charged for the half hour. Got payment before we left for the evening. If it had been an all-day package, I often add extra time to check out the venue ahead of time, do test shots, etc. Or stay until the end of the evening. But for a specific time contract, they get charged appropriately.</p>

<p>Hey all,<br>

I saw a post somewhere that mentioned "Classic Album" as a company. They had what i think was their "Vienna" style (sort of a classic matted style of album). I have tried numerous internet searches and cannot find this particular company. I find a Classic Albums LLC, but it isn't the one that I want.<br>

If someone could help me out with a link, I'd greatly appreciate it!<br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>Not sure why yours are smudging, I use the same ones and have no problems. I always burn the disk first, and then print. Let them dry overnight while I do other stuff. Never an issue. Epson R1800 printer with Epson inks.</p>

 

<p>At Photo Expo Plus this past fall, Canvas on Demand had one of these on display. Looked great! I think they just used black Sharpies to sign it.</p>

<p>I like Black River Imaging, easy to work with and their customer service is great.</p>

<p>I use the same ones from Neil Enterprises, and my bride's love them!</p>

<p>I think that both are good options. We list both "packages" and a la carte. I was watching a video on wedding marketing that actually recommended 5 tiers, with the center tier being what you want to sell most of the time.</p>

<p>Don't forget that there's a lot more than just hotel and airfare. Add a perdiem for food, rental car, tips for everyone from the skycap to the waiter, plus taxes, etc. Go with the highest season rates for the area your traveling to, add in all the other stuff and then add 10% just in case. And of course they pay the whole thing, why wouldn't they??</p>

<p>Bristol, CT? Have you tried WPPI, or WPJA. or even WedFog? They might be able to help you out.<br>

CT is just a bit too far for us. Good luck!</p>

<p>The B&G get to pick whatever they want, sometimes they even have it in their heads how they want the layout to look. I do whatever they want, make up a mock up, explain about aspect ratio and how page size can determine how many pics go on the page, etc. Once they approve it I send it off to be printed and bound. I'm using LumaPix FotoFusion and love it! Easy to use and their on-line help is really helpful.<br>

I saw a post somewhere else the other day that had the B&G picking out 10 images they loved, 10 they liked, and 5 that they didn't want. Although, with page numbers that could certainly change.</p>

<p>I've had mixed resulta from contacting venues, the big ones don't want anything to do with me unless I sign up to do their bridal shows and shell out big $$(which I don't have). I'm had better luck with smaller, non-traditional venues. I also started contacting wedding/party planners, dj's, a florist, and have had good response from them. I really think the keys to being booked are: get your name in their hands early in the process, have a website with pricing and pictures for them to look at, and be willing to be flexible in your coverage. Since we're only in our 3rd season, we're not booking too far out, so our availability is very good for people looking at the "last minute".</p>

<p>I ordered a sample album from GraphiStudio(using my photos) and didn't have a problem with them. Their customer service was good, particularly for communicating with Italy. And their US reps are very easy to talk too. And I love the album! Clients enjoy it too.<br>

I've also heard good things about WHCC(white house custom color) and their coffee table books. I'll probably order a sample album for them next.</p>

<p>The holiday season was very quiet, but now the inquiries have started up and we're booking dates. It isn't crazy busy, but we're doing OK. Our last wedding was November and we don't have another until March. But I lind of like the downtime to network, market, etc etc.</p>

<p>I just did one of these this week. The album is an 8 x 8 from Neil Enterprises, and for what it is, I thought it came out pretty neat looking. I designed the pages in FotoFusion, then printed all the pages, trimmed and put it together. As a less expensive alternative, I thought it was pretty good. I haven't used any others, and I'm trying to price them conservatively to see if there's interest.</p>

<p>Look over at the Weddings forum, lots of resources and categories on the right hand side of the page for you o check out.</p>

<p>I looked at Asuka the other day and I thought they would only take layouts done is Photoshop or Aperture, but maybe I'm remembering it wrong. I use FotoFusion too, love it's ease of use.</p>

<p>I use Itoya portfolios to present my work to clients. The 11 x 14 size works well for me, and I do a mixture of 4 x 6s and other sizes, and then usually an 8 x 10 on a separate page. 3 pages per wedding, to give them a highlights view. I also have a couple of sample albums, one with GraphiStudio, with several weddings in it. And another from Black River Imaging that just has one wedding in it. This is only our third season, so we're building slowly. But for what you're looking to do, the Itoya would work well. Even available at Amazon for a reasonable price.</p>

<p>As long as they pay me on or before the wedding day, I'm good.</p>

<p>I have been investigating thesame things for the last year or so. And here's what I found:<br>

For albums: GraphiStudio - beautiful! or Black River Imaging for less expensive but still nice quality. Pictobooks also looked interesting at a trade show that I went to. White House Custom Color for thinner coffee table books, their hinged books are very cool.<br>

Prints: we have a local lab, Artcraft Camera that does lovely prints. WHCC also does really beautiful prints, and the test prints from them are free..<br>

I saw the book you mentioned at B&N and looked it over, but it didn't seem to me to be anything that I couldn't find on the web.<br>

If you haven't been there yet, I'm going to suggest a couple of blogs that may help you out. Anne Ruthmann has a great blog, PhotoLoveCat I think. She often posts on this forum.<br>

And David Ziser at DigitalProTalk is also something that I read alot.<br>

Good luck with your transition. I started out just wanting to shoot, edit and burn. But have really jumped into being much more of a full service company.</p>