If you are taking time out of your busy schedule to come in and meet with me to talk about wedding or lifestyle photography I appreciate it. We all have crazy hectic lives these days full of appointments, responsibilities, commitments and hopefully some of our own personal fun things too. Technically I guess you could say that coming in for a consultation is an appointment but I really hope it is more fun then those pesky dentist appointments.
Once you've contacted me and we have emailed back and forth or spoken on the phone and scheduled a time to meet at my studio hopefully we both already have a good feeling that I'm going to be a good fit for you. I try to put a lot of information out there about me and my style so that by the time we have gotten to the in person appointment we already have a pretty good idea that this is going to be fun :) If you are coming in to meet with me you already know where my pricing starts, you already know that I'm open and available for your date and you know that my talkative, happy, slightly nutty self seems to be a personality that you are going to like.
I am defiantly not the hard sell type of person. To be honest I think I would be terrible at any sales job and yet here I am owning a business where being able to pay my bills requires me to sell myself as someone you want to hire for your wedding/lifestyle photography. I think the reason this works for me is because I love what I do. I'm not going to make you sit in my studio and listen to me list off thirty reasons you should hire me based on my skills, my awards, my wonderful products. Hopefully by the time you are here sitting on my couch you know that you like my work and you have a pretty good idea that you are going to click with me. The best part of that is that because hopefully all that has already been established we get to have fun!
When you arrive you walk into my studio and sit on my couch, we drink a glass of bubbly (or cup of coffee, or glass of red wine or even a beer). As long as the cupcakery across the hall is open and you have a sweet tooth like me we'll eat some seriously delicious cupcakes. We'll talk about anything and everything you want. Eventually we'll prob talk about your wedding but to be honest I'm just as happy to talk about how you guys met, what you do for fun and offer you some ideas on fun ways to spend the rest of your time in the valley.
Once we do get around to talking about your wedding (sometimes after an hour or two) you can look through all the printed info I have ready for you. I'll have a few pages of "tips and tricks" on how to get the best wedding photos- which includes ideas on planning your timeline, trusting your photographer etc. I'll also have a detailed price guide, a FAQ page and a list of my personal favorite vendors. We can go over all the items in my contract line by line to be sure you don't have any questions. My goal for this meeting is to spend a little time together, make sure we click and answer any and every question you have. My goal is for you to walk out of a consultation feeling like 1. You just found yourself a new friend. 2. you feel comfortable and confident in hiring me as your wedding photographer. 3. You are even more excited about your wedding then you were when you walked in the door.
If you are ready to book- we can put together all the package and contract info and have you sign on the dotted line (side bar- when did people stop using a dotted line for signature lines? aren't they almost always solid lines now? hmmm maybe i'll stage a comeback for the dotted line). If you want to go home and talk over the options and think through what you'd like in your package there is no added pressure to sign a contract while you are here. Hopefully you'll be so excited you will want to book on the spot :)
Hopefully this post has given you some insight on what to expect when you come in for a consultation. If you have any questions or are so excited for cupcakes and wine now that you want to schedule a consultation please shoot me an email anytime! I'm always up for any excuse to give in to my sweet tooth cravings.
XOXO Spring
I had a great time with all my Newbies and am looking forward to following up with each of them soon to check in on their goals list and make sure they are taking their new ideas and putting them to use. These guys really helped me bring one of my biggest goals and dreams to life last weekend and I want to thank them for that. Here are a few of the attendee's shots that they were so nice as to let me share:
