Imagine this: On the day of your bride’s wedding, you arrive with everything packed up and ready, with no idea of what’s happening aside from a rough schedule provided by the coordinator which oftentimes doesn’t help out either.
That’s all.
With only that little information to go on, we would be anxious!
Therefore, a Wedding Day Questionnaire is the best tool you can have to send to your clients before their wedding.
We will get into why this resource can literally make you the best photographer you ever were on a couples big day!
This is the first step in finding out what you client wants for their wedding day.
We don’t read minds. Photography is what we do.
However, some brides and grooms think we have the ability to read their minds. The truth is, if they don’t tell us certain things, we will miss the boat on offering a gallery that meets their needs. Because we failed to get this important information, we are responsible.
So, make sure you don’t come across as that photographer who underdelivers. It’s important to provide them with everything they want, so make sure you ask them about it in the questionnaire you send them about a month before their wedding and go over every detail about their wedding. Especially those family photo combinations! It is soooo much easier on the big day when you have a list of all combinations. Avoiding chaotic family photo sessions is another big reason why you NEED a questionnaire as a wedding photog.
When to send it?
Don’t send it a week before. Your brides and grooms have a lot on the plate already! Either send it right after an inquiry, your first meeting or about one month before the wedding. Our questionaire comes prefilled with many questions no matter when you want to send it. If you send it right away, leave all questions in. If you want to send it later, remove some of the general questions and leave in the specific ones!
Make sure to ask everything that you need
That is why you are sending a questionnaire in the first place! It of course can vary with each photog (which is why our questionnaire is fully editable) depending on your shooting style and vision.
You are in charge of your business, so you know what you need to succeed and your questions should reflect your identity as a photographer.
Example: If you prefer to shoot weddings in a documentary style, make sure you know what details they would like documented without prompting.
Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that you need to gather all the information you can.
Be sure you ask about mundane things like addresses and timelines, but also tough questions, such as if there is anything sensitive you need to know (divorces, drama, etc.).
It’s SUPER important to ask about all of that stuff before the big day so you are prepared! An awkward situation would become even more awkward if you were ignorant of what was happening!
What now?
You may be reading this for the first time, or you don’t even know where to begin when it comes to creating a questionnaire, but we’ve got something prepared for you!
We have a pre filled questionnaire with over 40 important questions you need to ask! We created this based on years of experience and made sure to include as many relevant questions as possible.
And here is the best thing: You don’t need an expensive honeybook subscription or any other third party software, you don’t need to set up anything, you don’t even need a website to set this up!
You can simply edit it how you want it and send it out via mail or as a link. Your clients fill out the questionnaire using drop downs and answer fields and you’ll gather all their information in no time!
Sure, you can also try to create a questionnaire, but that might take at least 10-15 hours without knowing if you have every question in it that you need to ask. At least for us, it took a TON of time until we had every question in it that we want to ask because there were some you initially wouldn’t think about until you realise on the wedding day you probably should’ve asked that before.
So if you want to save some time and stress while leveling up your communication and being as prepared as you can, feel free to check out our wedding photography client questionnaire.
