Marketing Your Wedding Business & How to Avoid Being a Spammer

Kat

June 12, 2012

It's difficult this self-promotion thing. On one hand you want to scream and shout about your latest venture, and on the other you're slightly paranoid and embarrassed about the whole ordeal (how frightfully British!) It's a fine line between forging a successful marketing campaign and coming across as an annoying spammer, and so today, dear reader, I thought I'd compile a few tips that I've picked up over the past few years. Of course this isn't a finite list, it is merely a collection of musings I've gathered together after being at the receiving end of one too many terrible marketing campaigns.

Why Video is the Future for the Wedding Industry: A Guest Post by Victoria Grech

Kat

June 8, 2012

In January last year I made a somewhat controversial decision for a stills photographer – to venture over to the 'dark side'. Yes, I wanted to see what film was all about and how I could use it to improve my wedding photography business. I had heard a lot of hype about DSLR cameras being able to record HD video and that had piqued my interest. With the two technologies being used side by side, was I missing a trick by not learning how to use film alongside stills?

The Inspirations: Chris Guillebeau & The Art of Non-Conformity

Kat

June 6, 2012

While in New York last month, I was lucky enough to meet author and entrepreneur Chris Guillebeau through our mutual friend Megan. From our brief encounter I was enthralled by his story of traveling the world, writing books and - without wanting to sound like a big cliché- living the dream! Then, when I got home, I had an email from Chris saying how lovely it was so meet me and how great he thought my business was! Holy cow...

Copying, Copyright and the Creation of Trends within the Wedding Industry

Kat

June 5, 2012

This week I was all set to write an article about copying, copyright in design and what to do when you percieve your work to be ripped off. And then, when researching the topic, I came across this TED talk by Johanna Blakely, entitled 'Lessons from Fashion's Free Culture'. Johanna questioned my ideas and flipped the whole subject on it's head in my mind. I urge you to take 15 minutes out and watch this...

The Importance of Communication: A Guest Post by Brett Harkness

Kat

June 1, 2012

If you read through a bridal magazine, you will notice that there will be plenty of ‘How-to’ articles and ‘What questions to ask’ advice pieces. There’s a reason behind this of course. For the most part, planning a wedding will be a very new experience for those about to embark on married life and guidance will be really important. Because of this, it isn’t uncommon for the happy couple to be full to the brim with questions, no matter what you are offering them: a venue, the food, photography. They will want to know about sizes, options and prices, and how you can help them to create their special day.

The Inspirations: Elsie Larson of A Beautiful Mess/Red Velvet

Kat

May 30, 2012

Following on from chatting to one of my favourite bloggers last week, I thought I'd follow suit with this edition of The Inspirations and speak to another incredibly inspiring blogger. Although calling Elsie Larson mearly a 'blogger' is doing her a huge disservice and is an understatement of epic proportions! She is a multifaceted business woman with mad skills. A master of multi-tasking she, alongside her sister and business partner Emma, runs a hugely successful blog (which current gets over 170,000 views a day!), owns a vintage clothing boutique, an online shop (where they sell their own line of dresses!)..oh she's also currently writing her first book! Way to make us feel lazy superwoman.

Wedding Photography Workshops 2012

Kat

May 29, 2012

I'm not ashamed to admit that I love a photography workshop. No, I know, I'm not a professional photographer but I find them so inspiring! I've also been lucky enough to be involved with organising, speaking at and generally sharing the love for so many of them. So, today I thought I'd put together a comprehensive list of some of the ones that are coming up soon. There is a workshop out there for you, the hardest part is picking the right one!

Brand New Date for the School of Rock Workshop: West Midlands!

Kat

May 28, 2012

It's that time again...time to announce a brand new School of Rock date and venue! The next event will be taking place on Thursday 28th June 2012 at Curradine Barns in Shrawley, Worcestershire (about 50 minutes drive from Birmingham). The 4 hour workshop will be from 1.30pm-5.30pm (no early mornings thank you very much!) and afterwards you're all invited to have food, drinks and more blogging chats with Gareth & I over a complementary meal being put on by the Curradine Barns team!

Why You Should Offer an Album

Lisa Devlin

May 25, 2012

As a wedding photographer, are you including an album with every package that you offer clients? I didn’t used to but I have recently changed this so that I do. It's been a huge few years for wedding photography. The arrival of affordable digital SLRs have of course impacted massively on how many people now offer their services as wedding photographers. It feels like a buyers market a lot of the time as anyone looking to book a wedding photographer in the UK has a huge amount of us to choose from. Potential clients are often putting their demands in at the initial enquiry stage instead of waiting to see what you offer. As an extreme example, I had this in my inbox a while back...

The Inspirations: Naomi Davis of Love Taza

Kat

May 23, 2012

I discovered Naomi's blog, The Rockstar Diaries, in early 2009, when she published her wedding photographs. I immediately fell in love with her and her husband Josh's effortless style and achingly cool attitude. I loved the way they shared cute little stories about their life as newlyweds - getting married, setting up home, moving from New York to DC, getting their dog Kingsley, having their first child... It was all very unpretentious and honest and I felt connected with them instantly. So therefore I thought Naomi would be the perfect person to interview today. If you have a blog and you worry about what to share about yourself, then Naomi and her family are the perfect role models to inspire you.

Doing Things for Yourself & The Benefit of Unpublished Work

Kat

May 22, 2012

I was struggling this week with what to talk about. I sat starting at a blank page for what felt like hours begging for the inspiration to come. I started to look through my draft articles hoping that a past explored idea might jump out at me and evoke a new article of genius...and then it hit me. I've written a lot of articles that I've never published. For various reasons really, but when I looked at them all as a collective group I realised something striking - that in every single instance the unpublished works are ones that have been written more for myself than the benefit of others. There isn't really an overall message or lesson within them, but I find writing writing very cathartic, and the time I've spent writing these articles has actually been time spent working through certain ideas or problems in my mind.

If You Love Her, Let Her Grow

Gareth

Made U Look

May 18, 2012

Almost exclusively the Green Room centres on the successful businesses, the people who run them and the strategies they employ to get, and stay, where they are. These are all super-important and you should be learning something from every article but we have absolutely neglected something equally critical from these pages. Something it took me too long and too much effort to realise on my own.

Ask me Anything…#1

Kat

May 16, 2012

I'm not calling today's interview an Inspirations interview because just the thought of me doing that make me die a little inside (!) However on returning from The States on Monday I realised I didn't have an interview lined up this week (whoops!) and on such a short lead time the only person I could turn to to get the answers back to me on time was...well...me. Thank you to everyone on twitter & facebook who helped this be a less cringe-worthy experience by submitting questions. If you have a burning question that I haven't covered then leave it in the comments and if I get enough I'll do another round of them soon!

Knowing When to Quit

Kat

May 15, 2012

I started smoking for the stupidest and most predictable of reasons, the reason I would assume most teenage girls do in fact...in order to look cool. All the anti-smoking adverts and scary warnings about blackened lungs and throat cancer didn't deter me from lighting up alongside my school friends as we walked through the park to school. My addiction raged for 13 years but 20 days ago I decided enough was enough and I quit. Just like that. No patches, no nicotine replacements. Screw the softly softly approach I thought...I went cold turkey and just stopped.

Speeding up Workflow by Outsourcing Editing

Lisa Devlin

May 11, 2012

The Inspirations: Bran Cook of Motherbrown PR

Kat

May 9, 2012

This week I chat to Bran Cook of Motherbrown PR, all about her fabulous life and career (and she is fabulous!) She also was kind enough to share some invaluable PR tips with us too, I know you're gonna love this..

How to Advertise with Wedding Blogs Successfully

Kat

May 8, 2012

I'm often asked by advertisers what they can do to improve the results for their sponsorship and often its the same mistakes people make over and over. These are not hard and fast rules by any stretch, but here are a few tips and ideas I've picked up over the past few years... Find the right fit It's vital that you pick the right wedding blog(s) to advertise on. You need to pick ones that promote the style of wedding that you want to work with as well as ones that reflects your own business ethos.

Pinterest for Photographers

Lisa Devlin

May 4, 2012

Are you pinning? I hope so but if you are thinking, what is she on about now then you need to check out Pinterest. Simply put, it’s an online pinboard for images found around the internet. You can start a board for just about anything but Pinterest has some suggested themes to get you started like Home Decor and DIY & Crafts. Lots of people and businesses are getting on board with Pinterest and it’s not surprising. It may be one of the newest social networking kids on the block but it was the fastest site ever to reach 10 million unique views in one week.

The Inspirations: Miranda Eason, Editor of You & Your Wedding Magazine

Kat

May 2, 2012

This week I'm honoured to be speaking to Miranda Eason, editor at You & Your Wedding. Despite being a wedding blogger, I'm still (and probably always will be!) a huge fan of magazines and so it was really exciting for me that Miranda was able to fit our chat into her extremely busy schedule! If you've been wanting to get into writing or working for a magazine, or thinking about getting your wedding business featured in a wedding magazine then read on...

Zero

Gareth

May 1, 2012

Rock n Roll Bride, a little haven of kick ass weddingness in a cookie-cutter, pastel and often puke-worthy wedding world. You’ve likely all seen this mantra, it sits proudly on the front page of this website and quickly sums up what this place is about, with articles ranging from rainbow petticoats to New York steampunk.