has anyone seen this? I ran across a craigslist ad a new division of David's Bridal, Timeless Images
is recruiting shooters for both who must supply their own gear. Wonder what they might be paying?

Depends upon how serious they are and how long they want this venture to last. If they pay peanuts their name will be tarnished with the brides that use their other services. To me, 30% of the final markup would be an amount that might be used as they do have a large draw for new clients. So if the charges $2,000 the video provider would get $1,400.

Marketing and client services is a lot of work for Weddings. I wonder how they will handle the "I don't like it" situations.

It quite possible that the video isn't owned or operated by Davids. A friend of mine has an office in 2 of the House of Brides stores here and everything is handled by him (well his company). Contract, pricing, shooting, editing etc. It's his companies name on the door, so basically all he's doing is renting space from HoB. He gets a mailing list from them every month and many of the reps there bring their clients over to his space so the person in the office can spend a few minutes with them to at least give them a brochure. It ain't cheap to rent the space but it's nice to get the big lists and have some face time with the brides to be. It has given him some additional outlets to procure clients. David's might be doing the same thing.

This sounds suspicious to me. I'd be surprised if a company like David's Bridal would use a sub-company and then advertise via Craigslist.

Ran into it in a David's Bridal a few years ago when out scouting the local (relatively rural) area - don't know if it's the same program, but at the time we inquired there was a substantial "up front" fee to become "their" provider (seemed like they only wanted to work with one... strange), a monthly "advertising" fee, and a "cut of the action" that was fairly substantial. So basically, no thanks...

Of course a lot may have changed, but IIRC this was run through their main office (or at least regional offices), and was a lousy deal (for the photog/videog, not so much for DB) except for providing "traffic" at what lloked to me to be a very high cost (mind you this was pre-recession).

IMO, you're better off to develop mutually beneficial "connections" with other wedding vendors who reccomend each other, and also can "cover" and help each other out along the way. I don't liek the "corporate" mentality of "pay us, we'll help you, and if not we'll just help the next guy/sucker".

I'd rather determine their rates, discount my services (or upgrade my services over their offerings), and promote with low/no cost options with other vendors. There are options, and for a lot of brides on a budget, the final $$ figure will win their business over "convenience".

Plus let's just be blunt, they are "putting out the hook" out on CRAIGSLIST, modern home of the cheap/scam/amateur - I'm betting they figure to 'reel a few in" with promises of all the leads they will provide, make a few bucks and there's always another "sucker" out there. It tells me that the enterprising serious business person isn't walking into their stores and jumping at the "opportunity" for the association... and I think we all can figure out the sort of quality they will be "subcontracting" from CL.

FWIW, you're far better to develop your OWN customer contacts than to be either paying for someone to send 'em to you, or worse yet paying you peanuts to do the shoot and/or edit while they charge the bride 5-10x what they "pay".

Every 'offer" I've seen and evaluatied was only slightly better than not working at all, and I've been in business (of all sorts) for too long to hand anyone else the "lions share" of the profits for basically sitting around doing next to nothing other than having a shiny brochure or web presence - I'm sure their business models look great "on paper", with the assumption they can hire "talent" for peanuts, jack up the rates to the client, and party on the difference, but these schemes tend to disappear after a while, as does anything built upon the premise of "exploitation" (yeah, that's a harsh term, but that's the mentality of all too many of these "opportunists" - I'm al for free enterprise, but...). Methinks they see the "big $$" charged by a professional and figure they can step in and take a big cut, without realizing what goes into EARNING those $$... and it certainly doesn't get spent on "advertising".