The 10 Essentials for an Elopement Photographer
Tools for Your Business
Apart from great camera gear, creativity, and a good couple experience, these 10 business tools will help you with your elopement photography business! I’ve used all of these products and services myself and they help me immensely! I wouldn’t be able to help my couples as well without them. Read on to see what you need for your own growing business.
Editing Tools
Lightroom and Photoshop
This might be obvious, but having a solid editing system is key for delivering your couple’s galleries on time. Add some presets (you can make your own or buy some!) and you can really speed up your editing process.
Sign up for Adobe here!
An Editor
A good editor can also help you with delivering couple’s galleries! AI is all the rage nowadays, and AI Editors are getting better and better. I’ve enjoyed using Imagen AI to get my base preset on all my photos. You can also try out their AI culling.
Client Experience Tools
A Good CRM
A CRM, or customer relationship management, is a program that help you stay on top of your client workflow. This is super important to learn to use and optimize for your couples!
I personally love Dubsado for its ease of use, automated workflows, and design. It keeps all my emails in one spot so I don’t have to worry that I’ll miss something from a couple. You can make your contract form, contracts, and any resources you want to send your couple in Dubsado.
Get 20% off your first year by signing up here or use the code haliewestphoto.
Online Gallery Delivery
Getting your clients in a fast, secure way is super important! I love Pic-Time for its easy to use interface, the way it integrates with Lightroom, and how you can sell prints from the galleries. Get a free month by using the code 8U4ALA
Website Tools
Kadence for WordPress
IF you opt to make your website with WordPress, Kadence is a great theme and theme builder. Kadence blocks are next level – I enjoyed Elementor before but found Kadence to be way more user friendly. You can opt to start with a free theme or upgrade to a pro theme to start your website. From there you can build it out the way you like with Kadence Blocks.
Tiny JPG
Using a program like Tiny JPG is vital for better SEO and website performance. I run all my photos through this system before uploading them to WordPress. You can opt to do 20 photos at a time for free or get a yearly subscription for just $39/year to upload as much as you like!
Accounting Software Tools
Quickbooks Self Employed
Quickbooks Self Employed is necessary for reporting your income and costs for business. Along with keeping your receipts, it’s helpful to have this software to keep track of all your deductions! It will keep you on track to pay quarterly taxes and even provides estimates for what you owe,
Other Necessary Tools
Canva
Canva can help you create well made Pinterest posts, allow you to share your travel schedule in a fun way, and can even be a good resource for creating client guides without the knowledge of using Indesign. I use Canva for a lot of my Pinterest pins and it really helps me streamline the whole process when I batch post to share my blogs!
A Solid Vendor Feature
Wandering Weddings is by far one of the better websites a potential couple can find your site. You can submit features, be shared on Instagram, and be a part of their blog resources. It is also a great backlink that will help your website!
The Leave No Trace Photographer Course
If you are going to be doing outdoor or adventure elopements, I highly recommend taking this course. Respecting nature and the locations you visit is important which is why it’s essential to learn Leave No Trace. You can even pass on the info you learn to your couples so we can all become better stewards of the outdoors.
Photography Tools Discount and Coupon List:
Adobe: Get Lightroom and Photoshop here!
AI Editor: Download 1,500 free edits here!
Dubsado: Sign up here or use the code haliewestphoto for 20% off!
Pic-Time: Use the code 8U4ALA
Remember, you got this! Keep dreaming and follow your passions!
