We’re in the last leg of our rebranding process. The website is almost complete, our stationary and business cards are ready to go to print, our logo has been refined, and the countdown to release day will begin soon! During this process, and working with a professional branding company, we’ve learned a lot about branding. One of the steps our branding expert took with us at the start of this process, was to define who our “ideal client” is. This term is thrown around all the time in the wedding industry. There’s always a seminar about “finding your ideal client” at the numerous workshops for photographers/creatives that happen so often. This part of our branding process had us feeling a little uneasy though. We’ve never really liked the term “ideal client”. First off, we don’t really like to use the term “client” when we describe the couples we work with. They become more than just “clients” and that term sounds so cold and stark. We tend to adopt our couples, connecting with them on a personal level, and so we stopped calling them “clients” a long time ago. Instead, our couples have become “our couples”! Secondly, what does “ideal” really mean? Is anyone or anything ever really ideal? Is anything perfect? Gosh we hope not! We find beauty in the imperfect, and treasure the realness of a wedding day. We want to work with real couples, not ideal ones. We expressed this point of view to Katie, our amazing branding expert, and she was so receptive to it. So we adjusted the way we were looking at this “ideal client” factor and moved forward.
The typical “ideal client” mock up in the wedding industry is of a Bride. A young woman, between the ages of 21 and 29, planning her dream wedding, who loves the color pink, loves Starbucks, and has a wedding budget ranging between $40 and $70 thousand dollars. She lives in a high rise condo in whatever major metropolitan city is nearest to your area, shops at Banana Republic and enjoys weekends at her family’s beach house.
This is not our ideal client. For the record though, we’d like to point out we too, love all shades of pink and blush. We shop at Banana Republic from time to time. We go nuts for a Pumpkin Spice Latte like everyone else, and we spend a week at the beach house every year. Nothing about this “ideal client” mock up is wrong. It’s only missing the important stuff, at least the stuff that’s important to us.
Our ideal client is not just a Bride, there are two people getting married and both should be considered. Our ideal client is not defined by the type of home they live in, or their favorite brands. And our ideal client is not put into a category based on their wedding budget. Our ideal client is far more than that.
Our ideal client, is a couple, and not always a Bride and Groom. They are two people who have a story to tell. A story about how they met, and how they fell in love. They’ve decided to take vows, to promise to live and create a life together, even when it gets really tough. They are planning a wedding yes, and they might really love peonies or love their venue, but the true importance of their wedding day isn’t lost on them. Our ideal client understands that they are creating a legacy, and they choose to create their legacy out of love. To our ideal clients, their wedding day is a celebration, a joining of families, and the continuation of their love story.
Our ideal client hosts their weddings in vineyards, on city rooftops, in grand ballrooms, in historic barns, or in a backyard. Their budgets are minimal, or their budgets hit 6 figures. Their wedding celebrations look very different from one another, but they are always the same. They are the start of their marriage, and that is what we love to photograph most. Moments, real emotions, exchanges between loved ones, laughter among friends, tears of joy, and everything in between. To find couples who see weddings like we do can be a challenge, but when we find them, it’s a perfect match, and the entire experience is amazing.
So, getting back to our branding project. When we needed to design a mock up of our ideal client we couldn’t choose just one. There is no real “ideal client” mock up for Birds of a Feather. Instead, we came up with these examples of couples we would love to work with…
Our ideal clients met in class at Georgetown, took two years to finally go on an official date, stayed together through graduation and decided they didn’t want to wait any longer to get married. They’ve known since that first college class together freshmen year, this was the one. They’re just out of college and starting a life together.
Our ideal clients met through mutual friends at a bar in Northwest DC, both just weeks away from their 30th birthdays. Their busy work schedules and travel kept them apart for almost a year after their first meeting, but finally they decided to have dinner together. Ever since, they’ve never been apart. Now, they travel together for adventures and spend a lot less time at work.
Our ideal clients met backstage in a theatre. Both working on different shows, their teams were scheduled to work along side one another when two different bands went on tour together. Their love of music, cuisine, and french bulldogs have made them inseparable ever since that first concert. They found each other when they weren’t looking, and they’ll never look back.
Our ideal clients met in college, one a science major the other an art major. They are polar opposites, and each is everything the other needs. They’re a perfect balance, and ever since their first date, they’ve stopped looking for “the one”. They’re lucky in love, and can’t wait to be married.
Our ideal clients are high school sweethearts, and they’ve been together for 12 years. They never really felt the need to have a wedding, so last year they eloped! Now, they want to throw a big party to celebrate with their family and friends!
None of our couples are the same. No wedding is ever perfect. We look for couples, couples, who want to preserve the fleeting moments of their wedding day because they understand that theirs is a love story for the ages, and it deserves to be told for generations to come.
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