‘m often asked how I book the majority of my clients. This is a great question and I actually keep a very detailed graph in Pixifi to track my referral base. Not only can I see who is sending potential clients to me, but what percentage of those clients are booking. My business would not be where it is if I didn’t have other people–be it past brides, their families, other vendors, etc.–believe in me enough to recommend that someone should trust me with their wedding day.

Over the years, I’ve collaborated with many different vendors in many different venues and many of those relationships have turned into friendships and, as a bonus, more referrals. While the best way to reciprocate the love is to refer clients back to these vendors (and I do), I have also started gifting select vendors with albums showcasing their work at mutual weddings.

I know what you’re thinking, “Are they paying you for the album?” No. The album is a surprise, a gift. It’s a way of saying, “Thanks for being a pleasure to work with, for your hard work!” I give these album gifts to venues and wedding coordinators for a few reasons, but primarily because they are always so kind to send clients my way. They are also the ones who typically benefit the most from the album to show future clients what they can do or what can be done with the venue.

Yes, this is an expense straight from my pocket, but it’s worth it. (I share the digital images with all of the vendors–the florist gets all the floral shots, the DJ all of the uplighting and dancing shots, the cake artist all of the cake shots–so those who are not getting an album are still getting professional shots of their work to use for marketing purposes.)

This album is probably the most fun to design because, since I’m paying for it, no one but me has to proof it or determine how many pages or images are inside. I use my favorite images from the day as well as images that help show the best parts of the venue. I do all of my design work in Adobe InDesign CS6 and, for these vendor albums, I print them in an easy-to-transport 7×7 hardcover. I know some vendors have their albums displayed on their coffee table at their client meetings and some take them to client meetings at Starbucks. Keeping the size manageable means it’s more likely they’ll be useful to the vendor.

While my name is listed inside the book as the photographer, it’s really important to me that these vendors can show clients what they can do. Think about it…a photographer has one of the easiest marketing tools: the photos. Our world is so visual that without an example, we often can’t imagine what something would look like. It breaks my heart when cake artists have spent hours and hours creating stunning works of art and then have only a cell phone photo of the finished product! It gets even trickier for an event coordinator or planner who has a hand in everything at the wedding, but doesn’t necessarily have one single tangible item to photograph. Having a summation of the entire day in photos is a great way to show their work.

After I design the clients’ wedding album, I get to work designing the vendor album. The amount of pages varies from wedding to wedding and I never keep track as I design. Since this album is smaller in size, I try to keep it to 2-3 images per spread. There’s no need to crowd images and it would be useless if they were too small to really see! I then order the album through Blurb, getting as many copies as I need, and package them up with a handwritten note thanking the vendor.

I have every piece of this from the design to the ordering to the packaging and mailing as part of my standard wedding workflow. Just like I can’t skip editing the images, I can’t skip over these steps. It’s definitely behind-the-scenes as it’s not a client-direct product or service, but it’s just as important to me as every other step in my post-wedding workflow.

You definitely do not need to go to this extent to spoil your fellow vendors! A lot of vendors are so excited simply to receive images of their work! (You’d be amazed how many photographers don’t do this!) But even if it’s not an album, even if it’s simply a handwritten note or a Starbucks gift card, be sure to thank the people who make you look good! It’s the combination of everyone’s hard work that makes every weekend feel different, run smoothly, and look beautiful!