How realistic is postponing the wedding to a weekday?
Photo by Cameron Clark
I’ve been fortunate to have worked with wedding pros from 94 countries over my career and I’ve heard from a ton of them this past month – all with similar questions, stories of lost business, uncertainties of what to say to clients who are completely stressed.
We’re all in this together. If you have questions on Coronavirus and your wedding business, feel free to email me at hello@thinksplendid.com. I’ll be sharing my answers here on the Think Splendid blog so that everyone can benefit. I’ll also keep your name anonymous.
Remember the Splendid mantra for this: Don’t panic, but do overprepare.
Splendid Progress Worth Celebrating
We're an industry that makes our living by celebrating life's milestones, so I'm going to start each of these update posts with a few positive COVID-19 things we can all smile about:
TOTAL GLOBAL RECOVERIES
The number of recoveries is now more than 79,000 people, up from 78,000 yesterday.
NO CARB LEFT BEHIND
Stress baking as self-care: If you prefer to channel your stress into making baked goods or want to do something hands-on with your kids to maintain a sense of normalcy and calm, photographer Donna Von Bruening and celebrity cake designer Minette Rushing are posting new baking recipes every other day throughout the month of March. First up is Minette’s famous chocolate chip cookie recipe.
A SIMPLE #SAFEHANDS EXPERIMENT FOR KIDS
Splendid Q+A on Coronavirus and Your Wedding Business
THIS QUESTION COMES FROM A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER:
I am concerned that my couples will need to move their wedding to later this year and will choose dates I already have booked. I obviously don't want to lose that income and I don't want to lose them as clients. I am thinking of recommending they move their wedding to a weekday (Monday–Thursday) instead of a weekend (Friday–Sunday) so I can still shoot their wedding and not lose that money. What do you think?
ANSWER FROM LIENE:
My advice is to tread carefully here.
A weekday wedding may seem like a great idea to you because as a business owner, you and your team can be available on what is typically a non-prime date since this is likely your full-time job.
For many people with a “normal” Monday-Friday 9-5 job at a company they have no ownership in – including your engaged couples – weekends are typically when they have off work. What's more, weekends are typically when their guests have time off work.
By having to postpone, your clients are already dealing with deep disappointment and sadness connected to a life milestone that carries higher emotions than normal. Requesting they switch to a weekday because it's more convenient for you is a big ask. A really big ask.
The last thing you want to do is add to their stress by coming across as pushy or selfish.
While you are, of course, also stressed, it’s important that your clients see you as a source of calm that they can turn to for rational guidance on next steps. This is especially true if they did not hire a wedding planner and are trying to navigate these sudden changes without an expert overseeing the entire process.
In addition, the couple is also likely not the only ones who will be losing some money by moving their wedding date.
Remember that millennials (and now Gen Z) have more guests who travel to their weddings, even if not a destination wedding, than previous generations did. This is because more of them studied at universities away from home and then moved to a different city or country to attend graduate school and then took a job offer in yet another location. Many of the friends they made in each place did the same. They’ve stayed connected through WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat, Marco Polo and other apps that make the world smaller.
Their guests who made travel plans and cannot get refunds on their hotel and airline reservations may have to lay out that cash again for the new wedding date, if they are even in a financial position to spend the money twice. If not, that means the wedding may still go on at a later date, but some of the original guest list may not be able to attend. This is another emotional disappointment your clients may be dealing with.
Requesting that your brides and grooms ask their friends and family – the people they love more than anyone else in the world – to not only pay twice for flights and hotel rooms but to also now give up their paid vacation time to be able to attend their wedding on a weekday instead of over a weekend is another big ask.
You can certainly present the idea of a weekday wedding to your clients, and if they go for it and it works for them and they people they love most, great! Win-win all around.
If a weekday wedding doesn't work for them, and they have to go with a date you’re already booked, I would suggest doing your best to help them rebook with another amazing photographer. Have a list ready to go with names of a few colleagues and competitors you feel confident referring. Make sure the wedding pros on your list are on your level talent-wise and are people you trust to do just as good a job as you would do on the wedding, or better.
Yes, you will probably be out that income. No, it is not at all ideal. Hopefully, you have a tight-knit group of industry colleagues you can refer who are also willing to refer you their own clients who are postponing to new dates they are already booked for.
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As an alternative, if your contract allows you (or if your clients are on board with the idea) to subcontract another photographer to send in your place, so that you can be at your wedding and the subcontracted photographer at the rebooked wedding, it might be worth considering that option. While not as profitable, you would at least be retaining the revenue from that original wedding.
Remember that by law, copyright belongs to whomever clicks the camera shutter. It does not belong to you just because you are paying another photographer to do work for you or because you are letting them shoot with your camera gear.
For you to own the copyright on photos another photographer takes, you would need to hire them as an actual employee of your company or hire them as a subcontractor, but have them sign a legally sound “Work For Hire” agreement that clearly spells out they are relinquishing their copyright ownership to you.*
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These types of situations are where the concept of #CommunityOverCompetition really shines. Have a list of people who you can refer ready to go. See if any of your colleagues would be willing to work under your company umbrella for a postponement date you’re already booked for, but they have open, and be willing to do the same for them.
More questions?
When I say we’re all in this together, I mean we are all in this together. I am not a blogger, I am a business consultant and speaker. This blog is not sponsored nor ad supported and is not how I make my income. Since we are all in this together, I am not charging consulting fees to answer questions related to COVID-19.
I will continue answering Coronavirus-related wedding business questions from ANY wedding, event, or hospitality professional, located anywhere in the world, here on the blog over the next few weeks and possibly longer, so that anyone, anywhere in the world can access the information they may need for their business at any time.
I’ll be continuing to work through the questions sent in so far here on the blog so that we can all navigate this together as best we can. Please send any questions you have to hello@thinksplendid.com and remember there is no such thing as a dumb question.
I’ll be keeping the names anonymous so you don’t have to worry about being attached to a question in a Google search or in case you don’t want a colleague or competitor to know what’s on your mind.
*This is not legal advice and should not be construed as such. Remember that laws and regulations vary by city/county/state/province/country. Please check with your own attorney for legal advice on your specific situation.
Written by
LIENE STEVENS
Liene Stevens, the founder and CEO of Think Splendid, is an author, speaker, and award-winning business strategist. Armed with $2000, a healthy work ethic, and an undeserved dose of privilege, Liene bootstrapped Think Splendid from a scribble in a notebook to a successful wedding business consulting firm with a client list spanning 94 countries.
