The first time we had a face to face consultation with a new wedding client, it was kind of terrifying. The couple asked to meet us at Starbucks. They sat down and the bride pulled out a steno notebook with The Knot's most recent addition of “30 questions to ask your photographer.” The bride peppered us with questions, scribbling notes on her pad. The groom said next to nothing, looking bored and fought back a yawn on several occasions. We spent the next hour feeling as if we were sitting underneath the hot yellow lights of an interrogation room. I remember being thankful I was wearing layers . . . and deodorant. Once they had all their questions answered, they said thank you, got up and left. We never heard from them again. Go figure.

At the beginning of our business, meeting new clients felt like a really uncomfortable job interview. There was pretty much a 50/50 chance that someone would give us the job of capturing one of the most important day of their lives. Over the last 6 years of shooting weddings together, we've developed a system that allows these first time meetings to feel A LOT more comfortable-even a lot of fun! The first impression you make when meeting with a couple can not only be the difference between booking and not booking a wedding, it can be the foundation of a lasting relationship. After years of practice, our booking rate is much higher than 50/50. In fact, we rarely meet with a couple that doesn't choose to hire us for their wedding.

Whether meeting with clients is new for you or something you've done a million times before, we'll sharing some of our secrets to help you make the experience the best it can be. The how, where, what and most importantly the WHY! Here's what we have in store for the next few weeks:

Winning at Client Consultations

Part I: Standing Out from the Crowd – How to Overcome the “Job Interview”

Part II: Establishing Trust – Laying the Ground Work

Part III: Closing Time – Helping Clients Choose You

If you have any specific questions for us, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. You just might get an answer in one of the future posts!

Ryan and Denise Gotcher

Internationally published wedding photographers Ryan & Denise have been running a successful photography business side by side since 2006. We're a couple of high school sweethearts who fell in love with photography just after our own wedding and have been capturing other couples in love ever since. We live in Phoenix, Arizona where we spend our down time snuggling with our two puppies, watching lots of movies and quoting "Friends" whenever possible.