Ask Anything :: How many weddings do you shoot a year?

Very often we’re asked “how many weddings do you do a year?” and we think it’s a great question to ask! Clients want to know for a few reasons, but mostly we think hearing this number assures them that 1. we’re real photographers who do this for an actual living and 2. we are smart about time management and don’t bite off more than we can chew. Other photographers ask us this question quite a bit as well, just out of curiosity. We’re always happy to answer!

We learned early on in our career that finding the right balance is key, and so we decided to stick to a nice round number of weddings booked within a calendar year. A maximum number of weddings that wouldn’t overwhelm us, giving us the ability to give each couple that year the most amazing experience we can provide. This number also serves as a goal, or a way for us to keep track of how well we’re doing, and gauge our financial success (ability to pay for food and mortgages).

That magic number for us? 30. Yep, we do about 30 weddings each year. That’s the goal and the cut off, wrapped nicely into a pretty round number. This number of weddings each year allows us to be full time photographers, meaning this is our only job. However, we’re never overwhelmed. Yes, we get busy and we’re not afraid to use the word busy. We like being busy, it means we’re lucky enough to have a lot of amazing work to do and we enjoy doing it. We enjoy the late night editing sessions because we get to be wedding photographers. Stretched too thin? Struggling to deliver photos on time? No. Absolutely not. We don’t let that happen. Anyone who knows us understands our feelings on photo delivery time, and they know we speak of it  in terms of days, not weeks or even months. Our number keeps us right in the middle, working full time but not being overwhelmed. 30 is our happy place!

Are we sometimes rule breakers? Yep. Have we ever shot 29 weddings instead? Yep, and in that year Maggie had a baby so you know… priorities. Have we ever shot 34 instead? Yep. A few of those weddings were small, brunch weddings and one was an elopement. Easy peasy, no worries! We handled 4 extra weddings like boss ladies. In 2016 we’re right on the money, with 30 weddings on the calendar, and we look forward to every single one.