Featured on Wedding Wire & Some Advice on Submissions

yesterday was a great day. melissa and chad’s wedding and jq photo were featured on wedding wire’s blog! when i receive the emails from the editors, it’s always my squeal moment. but i can’t share it publicly until their features go public. then i can squeal some more. so excited about this one.

creating submissions for publication is quite the ordeal. it takes me almost a full day to pull together a wedding submission and decide who to submit it to. i’ll let you in on a little secret- i’m scared to do it sometimes. it’s just like submitting applications for jobs. they must be perfect and sometimes you get rejected. i haven’t done it as much as i should. at all. but i’ve recently become a member of two bright lights and let me tell you, it’s the bees knees. it’s an online publicity platform for wedding industry professionals designed specifically as a tool to make the submission process a heckuvalot easier. more and more blogs are looking for submissions through this site and it’s much more of a convenience on both ends. it’s well worth the $14.95 per month if you plan on submitting often. and you should. i’ve read recently that wedding photographers who submit weddings book twice the number of weddings per year than photographers who don’t. whether that’s set-in-stone true or not, it can’t hurt you at all. each time i’ve submitted a wedding, it’s paid off big. first style me pretty and now wedding wire, two of my “bucket list blogs” as a wedding photographer.

my advice to photographers as we are constantly trying to get the word out about our brand and our work- submit, submit, submit. submit until you’re blue in the face and then do it again. peruse some blogs. write down a list of wedding blogs you’d love to see your work on and if your style complements theirs, familiarize yourself with the kind of shots they feature and shoot for the stars!  :)

i watched a workshop through creative live (an incredible resource & online classroom for creatives) with jasmine star about shooting an editorial wedding. she stressed the fact that when you’re shooting a wedding, keep you client in mind first, but also shoot for the editors. shoot for that blog or print publication you want to submit to, and go home and make it happen. at first, i was overwhelmed. it’s a lot to keep that all in mind when you’re shooting, as if there isn’t enough going on. but when a big blog features your work, traffic will start flowing to your site.

style me pretty has 1.4 million unique visitors per month. it is the number one spot brides go first after they get engaged for inspiration and PINNING! it’s following by the knot and wedding wire. globally, wedding wire has 30 million viewers per month. you can see why when us wedding photographers are featured here, we freak. it’s such an honor for us in the industry. not only that, but the best eyes in the industry have viewed your work and shared it as part of their brand. it’s such a cool thing and something to be so thankful for when it happens.

and there are dozens of amazing wedding blogs out there to submit to. many have a niche market that you can use to your advantage if you’ve worked with a client who had a very unique wedding. like i said, do your research, make a list and get to know them. shoot for the editor second after your bride. read the submission requirements before creating one. each blog may be different in what they require. create submissions with care and class. submit them respectfully and don’t forget to include all the vendors you worked with so they can be featured too! and cross your fingers. good things will come if you do the work and treat others well. that and may be the odds be evah in your favah…