5 Ways To Help Brides Overcome Their Fear of Spending and Charge What You Are Worth

In this tough economy, most of us have met with couples who just can not justify spending more of their hard earned wedding budget on our services! Many couples feel guilty about spending such a large amount of money on themselves and some are just not able to spend as much as they'd like to.

With wedding spending down by 10.2% in 2009 (as reported by The Wedding Report)  we've all thought about lowering our prices.  In fact most wedding professionals think that the easiest way to book more business in a tight economy is to lower their price. What most people don't think about is the effect this will have on their business once the economy recovers - as well as what charging rock bottom rates will do to their self esteem!

So before you rush and do something drastic - read on.  The good news is that there are many easy ways to justify your price and the necessity of your services:

1. Create a payment (or prepayment) plan and make it easy for brides to do business with you.  Consider breaking down your fee into 3 payments: one due when the contract is signed, one 2 weeks before the wedding and the final payment on the day of the wedding. If you are a photographer or videographer you could even break your payment down into 4 payments with the final payment due when they collect their finished program.
2. Consider reducing the initial deposit.  Take a tip from you local car dealership as they do this all the time. Offers like "just $999 due at signing" make it easy for car buyers to walk off the lot with a brand new car with a small down payment and monthly payments. Remember that marketing and business strategies can easily be borrowed from other industries.
3. Stress the quality of your services. Have you won any awards? Have you worked with any high profile clients?  Have you received any local media attention? Positive publicity of any kind will only help solidify your worth and justify your price.
4. Although all brides understand that their wedding is a once in a lifetime event, it never hurts to mention it again. If you offer photo or video services, remind the couple that they'll have these memories for years to come and they'll be treasured by their children, grandparents as well as relatives and friends who were unable to attend the wedding.
5.  Find out what elements of your services or products are most important to the couple. Create a custom "no frills" package which offers exactly what they want and leave out all the extra's. Remember - every car dealer offers a standard model without any extra's. 

Implement a few of our strategies and you'll be able to charge what your services are really worth while keeping the wedding couple smiling!

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