How far do you book weddings on average

[Silas Barker]

My average booking for weddings is about 2-4 months before the wedding, although I get bookings all over the board depending on the time of year and how available I am.
My packages are $900-$2500 range.

Just wanted to know what other's average booking time is before a wedding and what your package range is.

Thanks!

[Kelly Langerak]

1-2k for this year. They go up 30% for next year. I just booked one for Nov. 20th and in talks with another couple for April 2011 once they have an exact date. I have 25 weddings so far for this year.

I took your advice and I'm being more selective.

My anxiety is starting to kick in.

[Silas Barker]

Yes, it seems like it goes all over the board, but it seems like maybe maybe the further in advance they are booked the better the wedding and better the pay (package).

I have not even booked 25 weddings yet (I do corporate too), so well done Kelly!

This year seems a bit slow but I am hoping that it will pick up this month and next month with short notice bookings hopefully.

[Don Bloom]

I have booked as far as 15 months out to 2 weeks out. So many variables. This year, by the 15th of February I had my limit for the year booked. That's 40. I have a few booked for 2011 and have fielded inquiries for 2012 which I have declined to accept since I'm about 99% sure 2011 will be my last year doing weddings. Last year 2009, wasn't booked out until May. The economy hit hard last year.

[Travis Cossel]

We have a limit of 15 bookings a year and for 2010 we had 8 of those booked by the fall of 2009. The year before we only had 3 booked by that point. To be honest, the booking times really seem to vary for us by the year.

[Susanto Widjaja]

Travis: I would love to hear why you are only doing 15 weddings per year. would you mind to share the reasons with us?

I'm just doing some research about what to do with our business model development.. i.e. how many weddings we wanna do per year, charges, branding etc. I have studied businesses that do 200 weddings per year to 35 weddings per year, but not so much of 15 weddings per year.. so.. would be interesting :P

thanks :)

Santo

[Travis Cossel]

Susanto, the primary reasons for limiting our bookings to just 15 weddings a year is so that we can stay fresh and creative and also so we can really connect with each of our couples and focus on their big days. To be honest, we would never want to shoot 60 or 70 or 200 weddings a year .. have multiple weddings in a weekend .. etc. It's just so easy to get burned out doing that. Obviously some people have made careers out of doing it that way, and I mean no disrespect to them at all. It's just not for us.

Did that answer your question? d;-)

[Jawad Mir]

I am with Travis on this one. We have limited ourselves to 20 weddings a year and no double bookings. The reasons are pretty much as Travis. More time to spend with the couple and focus more on fewer weddings then just doing everything.

The trap that I feel I will get into is doing same things over and over again and as a creative person you don't want to. Plus as much as I love filming and editing weddings, for my personal reasons, I spend lot of time doing everything else but weddings so it gives me time as well to do other stuff that I like doing too.

[Susanto Widjaja]

i understand.. although i still think that 15-20 is a little bit too little.

I would say 35ish is the way to go. we'd need to charge quiet a bit to stay convenient in that number though.

I agree that shooting hundreds of weddings is just too stressful and not worth it. thats my opinion anyway..

[Noel Lising]

The lead time for booking is hard to predict, I have brides that book a year in advance, 2 months in advance. Just got a call 2 days ago for a March 20 wedding which is 2 weeks from now.

I assume the 15 bookings cap by Travis is Video/Photography? My target for this year is 40 weddings, I have 20 so far.

[Steve Shovlar]

I took a booking last night for 3rd April. Only 4 weeks away. Last week I took a booking for June 2012. If they are still together then I will film it. If one of them has been caught with their pants down I am £150 better off! ( deposit)

I have a target of 40 weddings for this year but it's going to be touch and go whether I get there. The next few weeks will tell. Being based in the country near a small town there's not a lot of chimney pots and therefore brides.

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Noel Lising

I assume the 15 bookings cap by Travis is Video/Photography? My target for this year is 40 weddings, I have 20 so far.

Not quite sure what you mean, but to clarify ... we limit our bookings to 15 weddings for cinematography and 15 weddings for photography. We generally provide both services for the majority of our couples, but sometimes do book the services separately.

[Noel Lising]

Travis, your last post basically covered my assumption. Thanks.

[Travis Cossel]

No problem. I should probably also clarify that we have a full-time cinematographer (me) and a full-time photographer (my wife) and freelance assistants for each medium. So for me personally, the most weddings I'll be at in a given year is 15. It's not like I might film 15 weddings and then shoot photography at 10 more. d;-)

[Jeff Kellam]

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

We have a limit of 15 bookings a year and for 2010 we had 8 of those booked by the fall of 2009. The year before we only had 3 booked by that point. To be honest, the booking times really seem to vary for us by the year.

I am on your business model Travis.

I would rather shoot 15 weddings at $3,000 than 30 at $1,500. This year I have been very selective and only taken the best weddings. Mainly those that are referrals, very close to home or some other special factor. In 2009 I was rushed, had a very difficult bride and shot some really poor venues. Everyone deserves a wedding video, but I wont be the one to produce it.

Im shooting a maximum of 12 weddings per year from here on out.