How to Prepare for Engagement Season

As engagement season approaches, I had a chat with a wedding vendor friend who, after tuning into my Boundaries episode (episode 7), is re-evaluating her approach to ideal clients and wedding bookings. It got me thinking—this season, when everyone is getting engaged around Christmas and New Year's, is the perfect time to reassess our boundaries and set goals for the upcoming year. In this episode, I share insights on what weddings I want to shoot, pricing considerations, and the importance of self-care and reflection.

As photographers and wedding creatives, we need to be ready for enquiries during engagement season. I've already gone through my calendar for the 2024/2025 season, marking weekends with my family, acknowledging public holidays, and leaving space for last-minute opportunities. I delve into the significance of self-care, recounting my better season with more time for family and personal well-being. It's about being proactive, setting clear boundaries, and saying 'no' when necessary. 

I wrap up with a challenge to fellow photographers: set outrageously big goals—those that make you a bit squeamish yet giddy with excitement. Join me on this journey of preparation, self-discovery, and reaching for the stars as we gear up for engagement season.

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Transcript

I was just having this little conversation with my friend and we were talking about boundaries and how she listened to the Boundaries episode and really was reconsidering what her ideal client is and the wedding she would like to book. And it made me think, yes, as we come into engagement season around Christmas and New Year's, this is when everyone gets engaged, no matter where you are around the world. And so this is a really good time to think about your boundaries and your goals for the following year. What type of weddings are you wanting to shoot? What are your prices looking like? Are they sitting at where you want to be shooting? Are you happy with those prices if someone books you in a year's time? Think about those things and how you want your year to look. Because over the engagement season, people will be inquiring and you need to be able to say to them, I am available, I'm not available. So I've gone ahead in my calendar for the following year and 2024, 25, gone through and allocated weekends that I want with my family. I've also allocated when the public holidays are. If someone would like to book a public holiday, that is fine, potentially will be for a premium price. Or do I want to take my family away and we go on holidays over that time rather than me shooting a wedding. I also make sure that I look at my boundaries of I only want three weddings a month, potentially only two weddings a month, especially if I'm traveling interstate or internationally. So reconsidering the goals, writing down your goals is a really good time right now before we're inundated with inquiries to think about where your business is heading. Map out your schedules and think about What did you love about this season? What did you love about this season that you gave to yourself? Did you think about your self-care? Were you healthy and eating well and resting? How sustainable were you in your business this year in terms of health? Could you continue every season like that going forward or do you need to change things up? For me, I had a much better season. I was shooting 60 weddings compared to 36 weddings. I don't know how I did that. Now that I've done 16, I'm right now. I'm like, Oh, but it was really good. I felt more rested. I've been able to have time with my family. I can do drop offs and pickups for daycare and kinder for my kids. And you know what? That is luxury in my eyes right now, having time with my family. It's that. Yeah, really is. I don't know why I'm getting emotional, but I know that I want to continue that into next year. I also really tried hard to be healthy this year and exercise more, but I would like to get better at it next season. I can start today. I am starting today. I booked into Pilates class at 4:00. Starting today and moving to next season, I want to exercise at least 30 minutes every day. Even if that's me. Just going for a walk doesn't have to be polite. It's a yoga. So making those little goals and declarations within my business will mean that next year I will plan out my year better because it really, as I've said in my boundaries episode, you have to think about it now because we have to be proactive when it comes to inquiries. Inquiries come in. That's when I sort of figure out, okay, what's my year going to look like, depending on what inquiries come in. But if I've already set out a little pattern for myself, okay, these are the weekends that I want off here, the public holidays. It makes it so much easier to say yes or no to certain inquiries. Also being certain about what sort of inquiries do I want to be accepting? I'm I am quite strong in saying, no, I'm not available and I will. That's where I referred to my other photographers who I know will do an amazing job because I am making sure that myself I am sustainable in my business and accepting weddings that will lock me up. I will get there and go, Oh my gosh, I would do this for free. This is so amazing. And then also leaving space for some last minute inquiries. So really considering what my next year holds for me and being proactive when it comes to that. So I will leave you with one last thing is that when you're writing your goals, write a really, really outrageously big goal that you think is so unattainable. That it makes you squeamish a little bit, but also giddy with excitement. I always try to include what of those in my 90 day plan, as well as my five year and ten year plan of like, oh, my God, what if this became a reality? Because those things is what really drives your business, setting up those big goals for you to try to reach. Because if you don't reach them, that is still okay. Reach for the stars and touch the moon. I think it works. Try it. So I hope that helped to give you a little bit of a revamp into how you're going to approach your inquiries coming in this engagement season.