Today, I’m revealing my wedding workflow chart to you all! I remember after seeing my business grow into something more than I dreamt of … in reality, I needed HELP. To manage all of my clients and couples was overwhelming. This is a GOOD thing to feel overwhelmed. I needed a process. A process that would make my business at ease. A process where my clients are up to date on information. A process to know that I didn’t leave any of my loving couples behind. This has changed the way I run my business and it also allows me to reach out to my couples if I still needed to check something off the chart, which in return makes them feel special and important.
My first year of starting my business, I created a workflow chart that hung on my wall. At that point, I loved it but then I realized after a year that I wasn’t using it as much as I should have. Many photographers use this, but this process didn’t work for me. That’s exactly what owning a business is all about! Finding out what works and what doesn’t work. I am not every other photographer. I needed something that was more hands on. Something that I could carry around and easily flip open to figure out my schedule, my tasks and my calendar. I created my own planner from scratch and decided to implement my wedding workflow chart as well as my portrait workflow chart in the planner as well. My planner is divided per month, so each month has a copy of the chart. It’s easy for me to pull over the August 2014 tab to see if all of my couples for that month have had their engagement session or still need to book a date. SUPER easy and love how hands on it is to easily flip open the page to reveal what needs to happen next.
Here are some photos of the chart in my handy homemade planner. 🙂
This is my chart for April and as you can see that some things still need to be checked off because they either still need to complete their engagement session or have their final meeting with me. Because of a late spring, we have scheduled their engagement session to happen closer to their wedding date. So these things have been scheduled, but I cannot check off that I completed them until they are done.
I take the same chart for every month and customize it with my couples names and their wedding date in order … unless I receive a last second inquiry.
You may start to notice that I have everything broken up into sections. This first page of the chart is broken up to “Initial Welcome”, “Pre Wedding” and “Notes”.
The second page is broken up to “Wedding”, “Editing” and “Post Wedding”.
Let me reiterate that because it works for me does not mean it works for all photographers. After being in a full time business for close to 2 years, I’ve realized that these steps are crucial for me to make sure I’m on time. That’s the last thing I want to do is get behind on my work and procrastinate.
Here is the break down of my chart so you can also take something away from this post. 🙂
Initial Wedding
Client Profile Received
Create/Send Contract
Meeting
File Contract/Received Deposit
Initial Gift Sent
Thank
Bank
Pre Wedding
Engagement Session Date
Shoot
**I have a portrait workflow for each month where I check off the steps for editing that I do not include twice in the wedding workflow**
Mailed
2 Month Gift Sent
Schedule Meeting
Meeting
Received Final Balance
Thank
Bank
Notes
Here, I can write anything down as a reminder for the couple
Wedding
1 Week Confirmation/Received Final Questionnaire
Clean/Recharge Equipment
Review Questionnaire/Details
Shoot
Thank
Backup 1
Backup 2
Editing
**I break up my editing into sections to feel more accomplished when editing thousands of photos. This strategy has REALLY changed the way I edit and really helps me get through it actually faster so I can turn around their wedding in 1-2 weeks.**
Prepping Details
Prepping
First Look
Ceremony
Family Formals
Wedding Party
Portraits
Reception Details
Reception
Post Wedding
External Back Up
Blog
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
Package
Mail
Web Backup
**Due to my lack of internet I have to make a time to run out to the library to backup online … otherwise, I would backup online with the original external backup right away**
Vendors
Publish
This has helped me change my business and it is SO easy for me to have it in my planner for every month. I hope this helps any photographer out there who is in need of a wedding workflow system! 🙂
+ COMMENTS
add a comment