We have turned the corner from photographing 2012 weddings to booking 2013 couples and photographing their engagement sessions. That means number crunching. We are already are 1/3 booked and have multiple meetings in the coming weeks, but each year we like to see the how, when, why, and who of things. It helps us answer the question we get asked all the time: how far in advance do I book my wedding photographer? The short answer: as soon as you have booked your wedding venue. Because just like your venue can likely only accommodate one wedding per day, we can only photograph one wedding a day. We combined our numbers from 2012-2013 to give an up-to-date assessment. On average, our brides book us 9 months in advance. Some booked 14 months out while others 6 months in advance. We have one throwing our curve with booking just 3 months ahead. When we separate the numbers out, for 2012 we booked 8 months out while 2013 is 11.5 months. If photography is important to you, then finding and booking your wedding photographer should be a high priority as well.
For us, we photograph 69% of our weddings in eastern Washington, 25% in western Washington, and 6% out of state. We live in eastern Washington, which means that 31% of the time we are driving 3 hours or more to our couples’ weddings. The farthest we’ve ever traveled for a wedding is Alaska (with next week’s wedding in Michigan coming in at a close 2nd). Most photographers travel. With us, you don’t pay for travel within Washington State. So, don’t be discouraged if you find someone you love who doesn’t live close to your venue. Most photographers love new places to photograph!
So if you are engaged and photography is important to you, book your photographer now!
