To most of us wedding vendors, the term styled shoot is a commonly spoken phrase among our circles, but I recently realized that most of our brides are probably thinking- what the heck is a styled shoot?- when we share what we're up to.

Well to put it simply, styled shoots are an opportunity for us wedding vendors to spread our creative wings, have some fun, and collaborate with other vendors who have a similar style or that we’ve always wanted to work with!

Typically a group of vendors gets together, discusses the details and style we’re looking for and everyone works together to complete the vision. Sometimes the models are a real couple and sometimes not, and the scope of the shoot determines how many vendors are involved. The particular shoot I'm sharing in this post was organized by the wedding planners and photographer and they brought together all the other vendors.

Usually one of the main goals of a styled shoot is to create awesome photos or video that can then be submitted for publication to magazines or blogs and used for our own marketing. Publications can help all the vendors reach more brides!

But isn’t that expensive? Why heck yes it is, especially for us florists and bakers who have a perishable product that can't be reused. Typically, all of the vendors are paying for their products or time directly out of their pockets for the shoot. For me, it’s still absolutely worth it despite the high cost in most cases. I’ve found that the investment usually pays for itself with the advertising that’s received from getting published, the connections that are made with new vendors giving us referrals and by booking brides who were drawn to us because of a particular photo or shoot.

Thanks to Kristen Winkler Photography for the behind the scenes shots!

For my wedding vendor friends, I want to give you a few of my reasons on why to do a styled shoot:

To Get Photos for Your Portfolio

One of the biggest reasons I started doing shoots about 2 years ago was that I knew I was going to be rebranding my business and moving to a new location in 2016. I wanted to be able to get photos to feature on my new website that really portrayed the work that I wanted my brides to book us for. Our brides are usually very sweet in sharing the photos from their weddings that we do, but to be able to get just the photos you need, in the style you want, is invaluable.

To Get Published

I mentioned that getting published is usually the goal for a styled shoot. That is not always the case though. Sometimes you do it just to get the photos for your site or just to use the shoot as a creative outlet to try something new. Generally, getting published on a wedding blog or magazine is a way for brides to find you and your work and it’s always a bonus of the shoot for me! The photos from the shoot in this blog post were featured on Cake and Lace recently and will be featured on Borrowed and Blue soon. I still have my bucket list of blogs and magazines I would like to get in!

To Connect With Other Vendors

I've made some of my best vendor friends through doing shoots and it's one of my favorite parts of the process. You learn a lot about people when working together as a team and I think it's the best way to get your name out there among other wedding vendors.

Now if you feel like you have all the images and connections you need in your business and you’re just fine with the number or type of weddings you have, then styled shoots may not be worth the investment of time or money for you. That is definitely reasonable for some. For myself, I'll continue to do shoots as long as I've got new ideas to try out!

Thanks to the awesome vendors from this shoot!

What's a Styled Shoot?

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