For Photographers: Bridal Guide

As you have probably read many times already, I attended a career-changing workshop back in December with Katelyn James in Richmond. One of the many things Katelyn shared with us was her Bridal Guide that she gives to her brides. I had heard of other photographers providing these helpful guides for their brides, but never saw one in person. I immediately fell in love with Katelyn’s guide. As a photographer, you can actually purchase a template of Katelyn’s from her website, but I ended up designing and making my own.

I had never opened InDesign before creating my magazine, so for those of you who think you can’t do it, you definitely can. While something like Photoshop CC is something I STILL am learning and working to understand, InDesign was something I picked up in less than a few hours. It’s actually really easy once you get working in it! I made my entire magazine in the course of a weekend and had a blast putting it together.

I’m proud of my pictures, but this magazine is something I was really proud of. Mainly because I had never made or created anything like this before, so I was thrilled with as awesome as it turned out. When I finished, I exported it into a high-resolution PDF. I had it printed with MagCloud. Each page is $0.20, so it adds up quickly in price if you have a 40, 60, or even 80 page magazine; but I feel like this magazine is an amazing guide for my brides that really help them and add value to their experience with me.

Things to think about when designing your own magazine:

1) Make sure it fits your brand and your business
It doesn’t make sense for you to include things in the magazine that don’t reflect your brand. What are some of the things I’m talking about? Colors, pictures, fonts. You need your logo somewhere in the magazine. While the brides have already booked you, I love having a “welcome page” that allows the girls to learn a little more about me on a personal level.

2) Consistency throughout the magazine
You want to make sure that you use no more that two-three fonts throughout the magazine and keep them consistent. Colors are the same. If you look at mine, you can see the three different fonts I used and the three different colors I used: blue, grey, and white. Use the same ones you have on your website if possible. Throughout the magazine you can see my brand through my fonts, colors, and style of the magazine. Mix up fonts in the titles and use different colors as well. I actually looked at some real bridal magazines to help myself with ideas on how it should look for page layouts and consistent flow.

3) Include pictures from your business
You want to include pictures that reflect you and your business. You want to make sure you include pictures that you want your brides to see. Remember that wedding you did last year that didn’t fit your style? Don’t include it! Remember that super awesome shot you got, but it was overdone on Pinterest last year? Don’t include it unless you want to continue to take that same shot over and over! This magazine, like your website, is a great chance for a bride to see the type of work you share. If they see a specific pose you have shared, they might ask for it. This helps them get ideas and also see more of a snapshot of what their day can look like.

4) Provide helpful information for your brides
Some of the key things that I include in the magazine are my business philosophy, engagement tips and tricks, a sample timeline for the wedding day, parts of the ceremony (including programs, music, lighting, etc), First Look information, and other things the bride should consider for the wedding day. Figure out what you want to educate your bride on and include it in the magazine. What questions do you get a lot? What things do you think are most helpful that you share with your brides throughout the process?

Remember, brides only get married once. You’re an expert in this and have tons of experience. They don’t know that the legitimately can’t get all of their pictures done of their 20 person wedding party, giant extended family, and still get pictures of themselves at a 5:30 ceremony without a First Look. It’s your job to explain this and to educate them. Having a magazine can provide a chance for them to read all of this before you have to talk to them about it!

I’ll show you some of my magazine. I’m not going to show all 40 pages of my magazine, but you can definitely check out some of the ones I have! I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse of my bridal guide!

Oh I love how professional it looks with other magazines! I have a legit magazine for my brides!I loved Katelyn’s outline for her table of contents, so it looks similar. Other than that, I made my own templates for the pages.
I love this section! All of my wedding packages include engagement sessions. It gives us a chance to get to know each other better and gives them a chance to get to know me as a photographer and I get to know them in front of the camera. This section helps them prepare for their engagement session with me. On another note, see the grey and white chevron? In included this a little throughout the magazine since it goes with my brand and style. I don’t have a chevron, but I do have a similar pattern in my office rug.

This section just talks about Ben and me capturing the day for the bride and her groom. I love pairing a tall page with info next to a vertical picture. I have a section on First Looks and why I love my clients doing First Looks. I personally did a First Look for my wedding and to this day am so happy that I did. I set the information up as a Q and A like you would see in magazines. I even have a testimonial from one of my couples who did a First Look at their wedding.

I have a featured wedding that Ben and I did last fall. Billy and Elyse’s wedding at Little River Farms gives a great snap shot of what their wedding would look like through the eyes of their photographers. I love getting to share this featured wedding in my magazine.

On these pages, I include a story of how the day went and also include actual quotes from Elyse about her wedding experience with Ben and me and how happy she as with her pictures from the day.
Last page from the featured wedding. You can also see a quote on the bottom with the chevron. I included “love” quotes throughout the magazine! Back page of the magazine!

Good luck in creating your own! If this seems like too much work or overwhelming for you, I do design one-of-a-kind magazines for photographers to give to their clients. Contact me about designing your own for your clients. You won’t be sorry! They will love it!