How to Book Your First Wedding as a Photographer

Martin Castein Wedding Photography Tutorials is dedicated to teaching wedding photography on youtube.
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[@hackinghifi]

Awesome info! The other thing I would recommend is Facebook groups. There can be a lot of people with cameras offering their services, but local wedding groups are a great way to find opportunities. You can differentiate yourself by showing the quality of your work. They may not be great weddings but they’ll get you practice. I also found it pretty easy to get friends and family members to want free photos of them as couples or families. I’m not a super social guy but don’t find it hard to build a portfolio even with acquaintances once you’re know to be a person who takes pictures. We volunteer our time to take pictures at a local dog park. We’ve met a lot of people that way interested in getting something or other done once they got to know us. I guess my point is once people know you as a photographer more opportunities will pop up.

[@photom3]

Important points. Becoming legitimate or trustworthy to your clients is essential for success. Of the big names that come to mind they became that by focusing on their craft and achieving small victories. Doing the small jobs and freebies led to bigger things. One fellow who has reached the top of his field said “when I was starting out I did anything that I was asked to do”

[@alistairlambert3275]

I did my first weddng for a family member for free. You advice is spot on as my next wedding was paid it it felt a lot less challenging as I knew what to expect.

[@stevenmccormick3659]

Martin, again, bang on. So right that you have to do the work and keep on pushing and being consistent and persistent. The analogy with the bakers shop resonated well especially the piece about ohh I'll only bake on one day and then not bother for x days. Great message, simple, direct and clear. Nicely done!

[@BjornHallSE]

Love this! I'm right at this point basically! Have my first free wedding in the bank (got lucky, no couples done before hand). Now what? Start hunting for couples and continue to build portfolio. "Second shoot" for free if I find another photographer in business? My "plan": Start hunting for couples to build portfolio and experience (this was a great idea), spread the word that I'm up for hire right now, looking for weddings (half the price since I'm building portfolio or still free?). Got an elopement (for free) coming up first weekend in March. Keep the videos coming, really enjoy them, easy to listen to and I feel I can trust what you are saying! 👍

[@dmytrohryshyn]

Wow Martin you just described my situation. I was hoping to see this kind of video. Really good advice. I am so grateful that you share your experience in such unique way.

[@Amanda-rd8fl]

This is great information to start any type of photography. Such great information. I am really loving this new channel.

[@martincasteinweddings]

Hey I am glad you like it!

[@robertlayne8180]

Excellent advice Martin.

[@bibowj]

Martin sir, you have to know that Ive been posting this question on many forums and blogs and to friends and never really got an actionable answer...till now. This is actually amazingly valuable. Plus I re own a 5D and D700 because of you:)

[@martincasteinweddings]

I’m really pleased this was useful for you!

[@andrewdenby8239]

Martin, the content you put out is first class, i watched a video on KZbin this week of a guy reviewing a £60 coffee machine and nearly fell over when I saw that his channel has 2.2 million followers! Let's see if we can't get your channels over 100k followers this year , I'm furiously sharing as we speak... 😉

[@martincasteinweddings]

hahahaha thank you for sharing so furiosly its much appreciated. funny you mention that as i have set it as a goal for the year but if i hit it or not is something else. im going for it though and thank you for sharing! i appreciate it!

[@chbrownie18]

Solid actionable advice. Really well done.

[@Pixelpeeps-69]

Excellent video as this relates to my situation! I always take my camera to family’s and friends wedding to grab a few photos for my portfolio and I’ve always gone to a company called the trained eye to build my portfolio from professional couples posing and yes your spot on the 1st year or more you got to do a lot of unpaid work

[@martincasteinweddings]

See it more as portfolio building and once you have a portfolio you should be getting to paid work as soon as possible it’s easy to dwell in portfolio building for too long as well. All the best.

[@jovis3084]

Thank you so much for this. I am finding myself in exact that situation. Looking to become a wedding photographer, i believe my photography is good enough for someone to trust my work, but i just had not much of an idea how to get to my first wedding. Thank you so much Martin, your advice is worth it in gold once again.

[@martincasteinweddings]

You can do it!

[@MattInWA]

Martin at the beginning you say something like "you wouldn't be watching this if you aren't trying to be a wedding photographer." I am not, but i watched anyways because I like your content and you always have something useful to say. 😂 This video can be applied to anyone that wants to work for themselves. It can be a scary thing to do, and it's not for everyone and most will not walk away from the relative safety of a paycheck. But for those that do, this video tells you how to be successful.

[@martincasteinweddings]

hahaha thank you, yes i am glad people that arent interested in weddings are watching it too, im sure it will be useful for some people too. its very basic advice really but hopefully starts people that are creatively minded to start thinking about business as something that is partly creative too and find it more interesting.

[@digitaldevigner4080]

I have a slightly different situation. Shot a lot of wedding videos many years ago through the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Occasionally did a few weddings here and there after for people I knew and former clients. Shot hundreds of weddings but no longer really have any modern material to show. I have been considering getting back into it but I live in a new state and nothing really to show in the past decade. I like the suggestion of doing a free shoot for someone. I do have the experience just no longer have a website or examples. Hopefully my background and decades of experience can help. I have moved into photography a lot since my daughter was born seven years ago as well and would even consider taking on either video or photography.

[@martincasteinweddings]

oh i think you will be fine, and you know what, I would just actually explain that to people, its the truth after all. Id still do one for free to update your portfolio as I know things change a lot and you should make sure you are up to date with what is expected these days. Overshoot the whole thing and you shouldnt go wrong and make sure you know your camera inside out. If I were you id build some picture collections of what each part of the day looks like now just so you are really up to date and your experience should come flooding back after that. And the difference if you are shooting on a relatively modern camera will be interesting for you haha.

[@mikebreeze6291]

Can you make a video on how to acquire the skills to become a wedding photographer?

[@martincasteinweddings]

yes will do

[@targetmarketphotography5998]

OK, Great! Just did a wedding ceremony for a colleague’s daughter. I got the assignment because my client had seen some photos of a Toastmasters’ conference that I had shot. The ceremony went well with only one technical issue that we fixed. My client and the wedding couple are very pleased. Hey, maybe I should be looking at weddings and portraits? I’m starting a commercial photography business doing product oriented food and drink work for local craft and ethic producers. Should I separate the 2 activities-commercial and consumer-with different websites, social media accounts and business names? And there is some overlap-lifestyle products shoots look a lot like weddings and portraits. I’m also doing some community events for marketing and building relationships because local craft-based businesses are closely tied to the community.

[@martincasteinweddings]

You must keep commercial separate from everything else. If you want to make money if that’s your priority as it sounds like it might n be and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s a good thing. I’d go with commercial and weddings. Otherwise you can dilute yourself too much but add portraits when the other two have momentum IF you want to. Weddings are great as you can book up nearly two years in advance and know when you are getting paid and that that money is coming and once you have done a few it’s really easy money in many ways.

[@targetmarketphotography5998]

@@martincasteinweddings Great, thank you! I'll proceed by adapting some of your ideas to my commercial endeavor. Meanwhile, I'll setup my wedding activity separately. The wedding was at a small Russian Orthodox Church. There was a good rapport with the family and the priest. I felt moved by the ceremony and the opportunity to photograph a wedding within a strong and historic religious community. I'm expecting some referrals.

[@karlbrodowsky7744]

From a clients perspective: I wanted portraits of myself and got the recommendation to go to the nephew of somebody I knew. Impressive studio, I assume that the gear was good also, though I didn't care too much, sharp.. But crap, boring.... Money for the bin. Then I looked for a good photographer (with a good website) and voila, I found a lady who did an excellent job, a million times better. I would always want to go for the second option... Concerning "shooting weddings for free": If you are a bit into photography and get invited to weddings, you can alwaya offer to take photos... Usually they will be happy to agree, only its not happening very often. I don't know if that counts... It's not the same, you are primarily guest and shooting is always secondary, while on an assignment it is hard work the whole day plus postprocessing and preparation.

[@BjornHallSE]

This is what I did, got lucky and got invited to a wedding and I offered to shoot. But since I was a guest also we ended the photography when the dinner/party started. And yes, it was hard work to be guest and photographer at the same time.... But worth it. If anyone got the chance to do this, I would say GO FOR IT.

[@karlbrodowsky7744]

@@BjornHallSE It's hard work, but also fun. I'll do it again.