Hows the wedding industry going
 

Hey guys

I am sure we have all been effected buy the economy turn a rounds not just in America but here in Australia Sydney on average videographers, photographers etc have noticed a 30% drop in bookings

Internet inquiries are down 26% for myself thank god for referrals.

How is it going for everyone else have you noticed any falls

Rob.

Well if by "economy turn around" you mean I have 0 future bookings at this point in time, then yes, things dried up and blew away. I am actually in the middle of a last ditch effort to get clients. Purchasing ads in traditional places that I have never tried (preferring to instead remain with an online ad campaign till this point). I'll know in about 3 weeks if my marketing efforts mean I get to stay fully self employed, or if I need to jump back into the soul stealing tech industry working for someone else.

So is it a bad idea to be trying to start out right now? I figured that weddings will ALWAYS happen, as people always want to get hitched. The wedding industry, much like hospitals and morgues, should always be in business.

Things are still chugging along here. Canada won't be as affected as the U.S., and Alberta even less even though it's based on oil. All the planners I've talked to haven't seen a drop off at all, and I'm booking up steadily.

T

The wedding industry is always going to exist (I think) but it is highly subject to fads. Chocolate fountains may be in, then out. Dove releases may be in, then out. Fancy cinematic videos may be in, then out. Just my opinion of course.

You are correct that there will always be weddings, but budgets can easily go up or down. Photography is pretty much a "must have" for any couple, so I doubt most photographers will see a huge impact when the economy dips. They may book lower packages, but they will still book a photographer.

Videography is in another world, though. Around here, the average couple doesn't even look for a videographer when they are planning, so with a tighter budget you can bet that most of them won't end up springing for a videographer. Then you have that small percentage of couples that DO look for a videographer, but the vast majority of them are looking for something really cheap, so again a tighter budget might mean a videography cut.

I might sound all "doom and gloom", but I'm not. I still plan on doing well this year, but that's largely based on faith at the moment. It's still a bit early to say how the market is doing here, since most brides here start planning with 6 months or less to go. Ask me again in another two months and I'll be able to tell you how things are going.

In Cincinnati, I'm booking up. June is close to full for me including Fridays. I am also filling up for October My February-April is not so good, but that is because I quit advertising on the Knot.

Hurray for South Louisiana's oil driven economy. We're not feeling much down this way since that industry is still chugging right along.

It has been a slow 2008 for me, I only have 3 bookings for next year ( 1 wedding & 2 Birthdays), normally I should have 10 by now.

Perhaps it is because of how diverse our market it, and perhaps it is related to the specific demographic that we generally work with, but things on our end seem to be going up. We did notice however, things like after sales in photo and last minute upgrades seem to be more restrained.

I think Travis' initial post really holds the key. Some things in weddings are must haves and others certainly may be skimped on or skipped. The challenge then is to forget about the paradigm related to the value of wedding videos (we must forget that first of all if we want brides to as well) and make a product that is a 'must have'.

P.

Still Motion
 

...... and part of my slow period could be attributed to being on the same page with Still Motion at one of my web advertisement j/k

Make sure you touch base in 3 weeks time to lets us know that your still fully self employed Jason

I don't understand your phrase please explain I'm from down under

Noel do you advertise at all i really think you need to spend money on magazines, wedding internet directories, etc.

Do you have a full time job?

Patrick do you mostly get couples booking you for both video/photo (package Deal) or do you get couples wanting one or the other.