I see all these cool weddings in Sicily, Bahamas, Ireland, Flint MI, and I would like to start serving this arena too! Any ideas on how to at least get one wedding under my belt to see if it's for me? Any pitfalls to destination weddings? Any tips, suggestions, locales etc? Anyone need a lowly second shooter, say in, Tuscany (would settle for The Azores though)?



Thanks world travellers!!

Geneve

Hey,

Email all of your past clients and let them know that you are interested. That is how I have gotten a lot of my destination weddings.
They simply don't think of you that way until you ask them to.

Tips:
Don't EVER let your clients make travel arrangements for you. Trust me on that one.
Quote them a price for what you want to make + your expenses. Don't break it down for them - just give them one number.

if you go to the azores, take me with you, you'll need someone who speaks portuguese lol

i've started a separate site targeting weddings in portugal; because i'm fluent in the language, know my way around, and have family there, it felt like a natural thing to do. whether anyone likes my stuff enough to pay +$2000 for my travel is another story!! i did have an inquiry recently from a european couple getting married in lisbon, but it looks like that fell through when i said i'd need to be comp'd for travel

Flint, MI?

+1 on that! Made that mistake once and will NEVER trust someone else to book a room for me.

It's not all it's cracked up to be!

+1

Details ladies!!!

I love them. BUT...I always build in enough time to have a fun vacation and sight see and include that in the package price.

If you are simply going down to work - then you need to really charge for it - a LOT more than you normally would.

Also - you are really behind when you get home - so you need to be sure you are prepared for that.

you beat me to it.

Some Detroiters are scared of Flint! LOL

hehehehe... i used to have a ton of family in flint - i've been there lots of times, but back in the days when it was somwhat tame. my grandparents lived in montrose.

It's much harder photographing in a strange country & location where you don't know the language, the customs or the local area. Also, the whole thing about "working" in another country can be an issue. It's very expensive & you really need to make sure you have all those extra expenses covered - even things like phone calls to your clients whilst you're out there or having to eat out or taxi/hire car. Traveling with a lot of kit is also tiring especially as you need to make sure you have enough back-up as it's highly unlikely that you'll know where to go to find replacement equipment if something goes wrong. Also, making sure that it's all safe whilst you're in the hotel you're staying at - normally hotels have the smallest of safes (if they have them at all). You also need to take a laptop (extra stuff to carry) to make sure you download, burn the images in case anything happens to the cards. If you're there for just the wedding you don't really get to see or do much and traveling time also takes a chunk out of your working week. That's all I can think of right now!!

Yup, I can agree with all of those issues/suggestions. DWs are not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. I travel with 3 bodies, a ridiculous amount of lenses/flashes, laptop, and other items. It's a serious PITA at times, to be honest.

I had my first in Jamaica this year and it wasn't too bad. I don't see it being a huge growth market, just something fun to fill out the calendar. But I did buy Shaneonaplane.com ... so, you never know.

http://www.shanesnider.com/slideshows/jamaica