How I hit $10k+ weddings without being "luxury"

Summary
In this episode, Christa shares her journey of getting past $10K weddings as a photographer. She emphasizes the importance of valuing all clients, regardless of their budget, and building relationships with them. Christa discusses five key points for stepping into the high-end wedding space, including realizing that luxury doesn't necessarily mean high prices, increasing rates, becoming product-focused, being open to shifting your business, and valuing relationships with clients. She also highlights the potential of adding portrait sessions to increase income and serve clients better.

Takeaways

• Value all clients and build relationships with them, regardless of their budget.
• Realize that luxury doesn't always mean high prices.
• Increase rates to reflect the value you provide and avoid burnout.
• Become product-focused within weddings to add value and increase income.
• Be open to shifting your business and reevaluating your goals.
• Consider adding portrait sessions to increase income and serve clients better.

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Transcript

christa (00:00.424)
So in this episode, I am going to be sharing a little bit about my journey into getting past 10K weddings and just what that looked like from a photographer who wouldn't be considered in the luxury space, who wasn't this industry leader by any means. And that's actually what I thought you had to be to get there. There was a time where I thought that's not possible. You have to be a certain type of photographer and look a certain way and act a certain way.

to be able to get those weddings and only do basically really certain types of weddings. And the more I dug into this and built my business, I found that that didn't need to be true. So I want to break this down, but I want to start towards the beginning of my wedding photo journey because we all start somewhere. And when I think back to my journey and getting going with photography, I really have a hard time when photographers put down like certain weddings of certain calibers, right?

that just doesn't align with me because I would have never gotten to a $3 ,000 wedding if that first couple hadn't spent 300 with me. I would have never gotten to a $9 ,000 wedding without that couple that spent 900 on me. And I'm so grateful for that and for those couples who invested in me when I didn't have this big grand portfolio or a ton of experience, but they were eager to work with me and they are the reason that I got to get to where I got to.

And so I just have such a special place in my heart for all of my couples throughout every stage of the journey because I always did intentionally really get to know my couples. And so as I was growing and building, I thought weddings were where it was at. I thought that was where the money was, where like you had to head if you were going to do something with photography and that was what you needed to do. So in my mind, like I did want to be that big, like luxury photographer and you know,

be all around, go all around, do all these big weddings, be a husband and wife team, even though my husband was not wanting to shoot weddings with me. I just had this dream that I idolized so much. And once I started offering products and saw what was so possible with that, I realized I can get to those numbers without being this huge industry name and having tens of thousands of followers and all these things. And instead,

christa (02:22.664)
I can just serve clients really, really well and offer products through the process and additional ways to serve them. And they don't have to be like insanely luxury. They just have to value photos. And I did that and I had that. And what I'll even say is I remember that there was a time, a summer, I had a wedding on one Saturday, a wedding the next Saturday. One wedding, they paid basically the same amount with maybe within a thousand dollar difference, but one wedding was at a very well -known venue in Charleston.

that would be considered very high end. The wedding the next week was at one of the most inexpensive places you can possibly get married in my area, okay? But I'm not gonna sit there and complain about that client because if you look at the numbers and the percentage of what they invested, this second client, I would say valued photos more than the first. That was a more expensive investment than anything else on their wedding.

maybe even multiple other things combined. Whereas this other wedding, it was more of a drop in the bucket compared to the other things that they had invested in like venue flowers, like all those other things, okay? And because of that, I never want to speak down about a wedding because it just shows me if maybe it's not as on track as what I thought it would be or the venue or the flowers, like it just shows that they use so much of their budget towards me because they value photos. And that's what's important.

Now it does help as you can build that you do get to a clientele that has more expendable income where financial decisions aren't as huge of a decision, right? Like those are the clients that can grow with you probably a little bit further, but I started making those changes with the clients that I had. So I wanna break down just five very simple points of stepping into that space.

and getting past those 10K weddings. And the first one is I realized and decided I didn't need to be in the quote unquote luxury space. There's so many, y 'all, there's so many different definitions of what this looks like, whether it's what they spend per guest count or what they spent overall on their wedding. And it's actually much higher than you would think. Being in the luxury space is not putting luxury on your Instagram profile or using a film preset or doing some cool style shoots and adding those to your portfolio.

christa (04:37.256)
Okay, there's a lot more that goes into it. And if you're wanting further education on that, there's a lot of great resources to help you build there. So I have colleagues that have really worked on building towards that space. And that's what their business is focused on because it is very much a very big thing to build towards. So I have a colleague who averages in the 15 to 20K range per wedding, right? Like she's worked incredibly hard and done very intentional decisions to be able to get there.

For myself, I did think at a time that was what I wanted to get to and just realized for myself with where I was at, that just didn't align. But even though I realized that, I still was able to get past those 10K weddings. Maybe it's 8K, like whatever that looks like, I was still able to be at this high caliber of wedding without it be considered a luxury wedding, okay? So the next thing I did number two is I increased my rates because as I was building portraits, being product focused, so.

Guys, just a little bit of a backstory. When I stepped into the wedding space, I had been told, you can't really show anything else you're doing. It has to be weddings or people won't want to invest with you. And I listened to that. So I, at that time, decided to add portraits back in and have them be product focused. And I started having these really big portrait session sales. And when I saw that, I remember I had a sale that was as much as what I was charging for a wedding from a portrait session.

And in my mind, I was like, this isn't fair, first of all, to like, I feel like the client because I'm spending months, like several months, maybe even over six months serving this wedding client versus this portrait session where yes, I got to serve them with these incredible products, but I didn't have to spend as much time with them. And it's not really fair to me, right? Because I loved what I was doing in the portrait space and felt like that was so worth it. So then to be charging that same amount to serve a couple for that amount of time, time -wise, I was like, this just is not aligning. So,

By charging what I needed to in the portrait space and seeing sales there, it actually gave me the confidence to up my wedding rates and to increase them knowing like I'm worth this. There's a ton of time that you spend on weddings guys beforehand and after, right? And I don't want to head to a wedding frustrated or already burnt out because it was self -inflicted, because I didn't charge enough, right? It's not the client's fault. It would be on my fault. It'd be my problem at that point if I was going to a wedding feeling like I hadn't charged enough for what I was bringing to the table.

christa (07:03.912)
That's not on our clients, that's on us. So it gave me the permission. So I was able to up my wedding rates and really take it with, hey, if people book this, that's great, I know it's worth it. If not, that's okay, I have my portrait line that's doing really well. But clients still booked it. And it just showed that, hey, when you are confident in what you're doing and what you're charging and offering and experience here, people will pay for that. So I even remember on a Saturday,

I just stacked a few sessions together and I was like, wow, you know, I averaged doing a few sessions that morning as much as a wedding. Like I would rather do that than give up a Saturday to make that same amount and then whole Saturday and all of that time with the clients. And so this again allowed me to be able to really show up fully to weddings to really serve my clients well, to leave it all out there. And there was a few shifts I made in my wedding business to like reach that next height of rates and connections I made.

ways I serve my clients, I started doing custom proposals. But number three, the biggest way I got there is I became product focused within weddings. Now let's talk about that. So I have had one client, I've had multiple clients spend over 10 grand. I believe I only have had one client book at above 10 grand. So how was I able to get there? How was I able to shoot past that 10K mark?

if clients are coming in six, seven, $8 ,000, right? Or to get to 8 ,000 when they come in at six or even get to 5 ,000 for weddings that came in at 3 ,000 something. It was because I added in products through the weddings process. So how I did this is first of all, I shared about the value of products from their wedding from the get -go, from that first initial touch point, which for me is a phone call. I shared about how I want to make sure these don't just get forgotten about on the cloud, but you have something tangible.

to remember this time that you have your engagement portraits on the wall, that you have a tangible heirloom album of your wedding day, because this is what you'll have to flip through for the years to come. We don't want all of your friends coming over and you pull up your wedding photos on your desktop, or your laptop and scroll through it, or obviously I know your iPhone too, where it's this really small screen. Instead, you're gonna have this big, beautiful album that one day you'll flip through if you decide to have children with your kids and will be passed down, right?

christa (09:23.624)
We went bigger picture from the start of here's what's possible and I'm your girl. I'm gonna do all of that for you. It's not, I'll take your wedding photos. You can try to find somewhere to get printed, maybe put a favorite on the wall or where I love bridal portraits are a really big thing or to get your bridal portrait framed. Y 'all are gonna figure that out. I'll take the good photos, but that's on you that note. It was come to me. It's this full experience where I take care of all of these different pieces for you. If mom wants an album, if your mother -in -law wants an album, like,

I will help you with that as well. Okay. So right from the get -go, I shared the value and explained it. So I treated portrait sessions within weddings, like as my full service studio business. And I shared that at the start and I gave them credits and incentives where I basically like include those sessions in for free. Some clients can take me up on it. I also served some destination. There's a town a few hours away from me that I would serve. And because of that, it's a destination place. So maybe they couldn't make it like before the wedding, but.

that session and that incentive was there, but they had the option to purchase more at that session. And I would have clients buy their favorite for the wall of their engagement session, which like how amazing is that to look back on or a beautiful guest sign in booked so their guests could see all of their photos. And they had like this guest sign in book album and engagement album in one with their favorite images from their session or for the bridal portrait. Like really you're doing bridal portraits. So in the South, it's where the bride puts on her wedding dress and we do a shoot actually before the wedding of just her.

And it's really done to frame one and display it at the wedding. So I could take care of that for them. And they have this heirloom bridal portrait piece to hang on their wall afterward, right? So I was able to really serve them through this process. And then with the wedding day, I was able to take care of their wedding album for them. So much so that in the last few years of really when I focused on weddings, every single package had some type of wedding album in it. And you might say, well, Krista, it's more cost for you. OK, well,

First of all, it gave me the opportunity to say, hey, you have this album, but if you want to add more to it, we can make it as big and grand as you want, right? You can keep this bass one in there with the beautiful overview of the day, or if we want more in it, we can. So you can include something smaller in it. And if BrideStick with that, worse comes to worse. For me, they have a beautiful overview album of their day. Like they still have a tangible product.

christa (11:45.864)
to take with them that I know they're able to enjoy their wedding photos at that next level. So some Bryce chose to stick with that, but others were like, my goodness, Krista, you blew me away. I want all of these photos in my album. I want the biggest and best album you have. I want like the best leather, the best engraving, all of those things. And you're able to have those options for the client so that you can have a $2 ,000 wedding album sale after the wedding is done. And that's how I've coached multiple students.

who are able to raise their wedding average exponentially, easily adding $1 ,000 just through product upsells through the wedding process. So this also aligned if we wanted to work together in the future, because I am a full service studio. I focus on products with my portrait sessions. So if they came back, it wasn't like, wait, what? Like for our wedding, we just got XYZ and now it's product focused. Like it just makes sense all around. Like the business just aligns.

from step to step to step. And I coach so many photographers in the wedding space who either want to grow their average there or are burnt out and want to add in a portrait line or both. They just want to grow their wedding average in their portrait line. There's a student I'm helping right now do that who I think quadrupled her portrait average. It was about 300. Now it's over $1 ,000 and then easily adds in $1 ,000 at least.

to couples who come and I've helped her up her wedding rates and then she upsells at least $1 ,000 within her wedding package. Like what would that mean for you to look at your calendar and know all of these couples have the option to buy incredible products where you can serve them better and you're gonna have at least a thousand more on average come in per wedding. Like it's incredible. It makes such a big difference. And then when they come back, you're still product focused and you get to continue their journey. So.

What we don't want is this incredibly high end, and it goes both ways. There's a student I coached who is in the 10 to 20K range for weddings, and she was at that when we started coaching together. And so we helped her make her portrait line full service so that it aligned, so that it wasn't this incredible spectacular journey with weddings, and then it's like $600, I'm going to throw a gallery at you for portraits with low touch point. No.

christa (14:00.232)
It's great if both of those things can align. And I say that because I ran the portrait side of my business and I ran the wedding side in tandem. I 100 % believe it can be done. I don't believe that you have to pick one or the other to be successful. I did both. I ended up making more with portraits. So at the height of my career, I did over six figures with weddings, but actually multiple six figures from portrait sessions. And obviously there is more flexibility with portraits, but I was able to serve my clientele really well with weddings. And I was able to find this way that just made sense for me.

if I wanted to keep taking weddings to be able to do that. Prior, I actually had tried doing like an associate team that just didn't align with my goals and to manage that is a lot of work, right? Like if something, whatever, goes wrong on either end, the photographer's end or the client's end, you're the one really taking the brunt of that. And that was just really hard for me to do. And instead I saw, instead of taking these weddings for a little bit less and paying an associate, if I focus on just serving my clients and my couples now really well, I can get to that next level.

and I don't have to like have this big team and do all of these weddings. Okay, so the last thing I wanted to look at is just being open to shift your business. This was something really challenging for me. As I told you, I had really been working towards wanting to build this incredibly big wedding business and I didn't realize how much of my identity was tied up in it until I really just had to take a step back and assess.

Is this moving me towards my goals? Is this what I want to do? Am I feeling like this aligns with where I want to be? And that was really hard for me because again, like I had just been, I'm very much like a visionary. I picture it, I chase after it full force. And I just had pictured where I was taking my business to and what that next level was. And when I saw that starting to shift and saw maybe it's more portraits than weddings at this point. Maybe I...

don't want to be this really big, well -known wedding photographer. I'm fine doing some weddings, you know, X amount, but I don't think that's really my be -all end -all anymore. That was hard. That's really hard as photographers, how much of our identity gets wrapped up in that. And I really battled with that because I had worked probably five years, I think, up to that point on this main goal that now was shifting. And everything that I thought I had been working towards, I was seeing.

christa (16:24.936)
I think I might want to shift this and I just want to encourage you to be open to that. Give yourself permission to make those shifts in business. You don't like it and want to go back? You can, you know how to build the business, right? But being open to that and checking in with yourself on if this is the direction that you want to head and if it's starting to change, that's okay. Whether you just have a passion for another area of your business, whether you have kids and that's changing your focus a bit.

and you're realizing I don't want to give up all of these weekends for that amount, or no matter the amount, I don't want to give up all those weekends. And being open -handed to that and really just making sure as photographers we don't tie too much of our identity into what we have been working towards. I've made really big pivots in my business, and I just want to tell you every single one has led to a lot of emotions. Shifting from weddings to thinking, I think...

I really am liking portraits. Is that okay? I mean, I was building up to be this wedding photographer and being open -handed to that, that escalated my business like the furthest, being open -minded to that and letting portraits just take off and loving it and leaning into that and still doing weddings. I didn't cut off weddings the moment I thought I'll take more portrait sessions. I did both for a bit, right? Until I eventually did close my wedding calendar and then shifting into education and even taking less photo work. I still do photo work because I really enjoy it.

But even shifting there, that was a big decision. It doesn't need to be like, I'm done shooting forever. No, but it can be open -handed of like, this is the next step. I think this is gonna work. Even though I hadn't really anticipated myself ever being an educator. So wherever you're at in your journey, I just wanna encourage you to be open -handed. I get how big and how scary it is. And I'm just so excited to be here with you. And I wanna end with this. If you're a photographer,

And I want to speak to a few things, but I'm going to speak to where I was at. Let's say you're in the wedding industry and you're kind of feeling, I don't know if this is for me anymore, but I've done a great job. My clients are happy. They're thrilled. The photos are great. I know I'm really good at it. I have found it's really hard to take a step back from something that you're really good at, right? But I want to encourage you just because you're really good at it doesn't mean you have to do it. So if that's you and maybe you're thinking maybe with the wedding industry fluctuating, you're like, I think that there's something else for me. That's okay.

christa (18:43.304)
If that looks like I think I'd be fine taking a couple portrait sessions a month and having that add in a lot more income and being able to serve those clients really well and have those deep relationships that I love from weddings carry over into portraits and have my work end up meaningful on their walls or in albums of this time with their family, I would love to chat with you because I teach exactly how because what I found is I can take a session on a Tuesday morning.

on a Thursday afternoon. I really am shooting portrait sessions on Saturdays. A lot because I couldn't because I had weddings, but I loved that it could just be through the week on my time and I could have a multi -four figure average. I could serve clients better. I could offer products in a wonderful way. I could keep that experience where my clients just, I just shot a session yesterday for a client I had shot two years prior for a family. They'd had another baby and when she had the baby, she reached out to me last year saying,

We're gonna do photos this year when the baby's a little older, but I already can't wait to have you because we love you, we loved our experience with you, we loved that you got them on the wall for us. So I don't wanna go to anyone else, right? Like having those relationships with your clients is huge and that's so possible for you, so much so I am gonna just shoot straight here. I think it's much easier to build income through portraits than with weddings when portrait sessions are set up the right way.

So if you know your work is great, your clients are happy, you don't even have to have a lot on your calendar with portraits. For me, I was so focused on weddings, I had taken a big step back from portrait sessions that I had to rebuild portrait sessions and I was with this new product focused method, right? But I can help you with that. I share how I easily was able to do over 100 portraits a year even after coming from that.

where even last year I did over six figures with my photo business doing very, very, very little marketing because of the marketing systems I had put in place prior, not with Facebook ads or Google ads, but I can teach you exactly how you can set this up to be a lot more profitable. And if you still want to do weddings, how we can go ahead and monetize those further by serving your clients better within your weddings. If that's you, DM me the word coach on Instagram. My Instagram is at Christa with a C -H -

christa (20:53.8)
underscore Renee R -E -N -E and I would love, love, love to chat with you. I'll send you a 10 minute video where we can see if this container where I teach you how to add in portraits in a way that is aligned, that's product focused, that can lead to an average of over four figures and multi four figures. I would absolutely love to chat with you. Shoot me a DM.