As soon as your husband-to-be places that ring on the finger, you have one huge obligation after you say yes that must be met within a few weeks otherwise it will be the bane of your newly engaged existance – setting the date!!! I can’t begin to guess how many times I was asked this after we got engaged – even from the first night! It is simply amazing how many times this will be asked and often it takes some time to set a date. Sometimes it is based on when you want to be a bride, when your schedules will allow it, when work has a break in the vacation schedule or when your church isn’t booked. For myself, we picked the date based on the week the rental home we wanted was available (mid-August… summer so that our nieces and nephews could attend) and then I chose Wednesday because that would give me a few days before to prepare since I had a destination wedding and would still have some running to do and a few days after to RELAX! It also gave me a buffer in the dreaded case of a hurricane. Everyone is different for the reasoning behind their dates and each one will have special meaning for the rest of your lives together so it can’t be chosen lightly!
We met with you two months ago, that means my date is still available right? While I would love to offer the service of holding the date once we meet in person to discuss your wedding, on a business standpoint I simply cannot do this. If I held dates for all of my inquries and meetings I would virtually almost always be booked and it’d be hard to book any dates from new inquries.
Will you warn us before someone books our date? I do make an attempt to let people know but I cannot guarantee it as often a client will call me and book me on the spot via the phone with a credit card deposit.
How do we reserve our date then? I book on a first-come-first-served basis. Meaning that whomever sends in the contract with their deposit books me first.
How far out do you book? There will always be exceptions but currently I am booking about a year an advance.
Why don’t you hold dates? I know that most times I am not the only photographer that you are looking at and that you are doing your homework and shopping around. Many times once someone books with someone else, they don’t return calls or emails to let me know that they’ve decided to go with someone else – they just drop off the face of the planet. However sometimes they are legitimately still deciding and are not sure yet. It is impossible for me to know which you may fall into and that I am still in the game. Typically if I do not hear back from a client within a week or so I figure they found someone else that fit better. If I held this date for you, within those weeks that I haven’t heard back there may have been someone that would have booked your date that I missed because I was holding out for someone who was not going to book.
Are all photographers like this? I can’t speak for everyone but most photographers operate on the same ideas, they may just vary on if they even tell you there are other inquiries or not. Some do, some don’t. However MOST (not all) photographers do not hold dates without some sort of retainer for the date/wedding.
- The Christy House Wedding with Ashley and Stephon - March 11, 2024
- Peninsula Wedding with Colleen and Eric - March 10, 2024
- Winter Inn Walden Wedding with Julia and Walter - February 29, 2024
Hi Corey Ann!! I told you I’d stop by! 🙂 Just dropping in to say hello and check out your blog! Can’t wait to see Celeste & Marcus’ photos! It was SO nice to meet you this past weekend! And now you have a new potential blog to stalk! 😉
~Arianna Holtwick
Save the Date Wedding Coordination
[…] I want to refer everyone back to Saving the Date in case we do meet up. I wish I could ‘hold’ dates for everyone but that’s simply […]