A Perfect Website Doesn't Book You Weddings

Each week I'll cover strategies, tips and tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Let's dive in! Hello everyone! Welcome to episode 32.

Today we will be talking about wedding websites and why the perfect wedding website doesn't book you weddings. So having a perfect wedding website isn't going to be the thing that makes you a successful wedding business. There is a subconscious belief that could be holding you back or blocking your wedding business from seeing success. It's preventing you from getting sales, making bookings, booking brides and grooms and it's essentially keeping you stuck. And it's the idea that in order to be successful as a wedding business you need an aesthetically perfect website.

You might think, I can't book weddings until my website is perfect! I want you to think about how much time, how much energy, how much of your thoughts are put into your website, your logo, your branding, how much energy you've spent on that. I know a lot of us in the wedding industry specifically have spent hundreds of hours thinking about our website. I know I did and it makes sense, right? In the world of wedding businesses there is this industry norm which is your website is your storefront.

In the wedding world there's this long standing belief that your website is the main hub that determines whether brides and grooms will book you whether they trust you or not. And it's been drilled into us through courses, through this style shoot culture, through brand designers, through web designers that once your website is done, it needs to be aesthetically perfect. Only then will brides and grooms book us. I feel this deeply because I've been caught in this place myself. Of course, I would be because my background, if you didn't know, is in graphic design.

I got a Bachelor's of Science in graphic design at an art school, so I am somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to branding and design. A lot of us in the wedding industry have this type of need to make things perfect because we're photographers, because we're artists, because we're in a creative field, we're florists and we want everything to look and feel perfect. I know that for me personally, I spent years on my website needing it to be absolutely perfect and I've seen so many new wedding businesses do the same. But, you're missing the point. Your website isn't the end all deciding factor on whether couples book you or not.

And it's actually many factors. And in fact, I created a whole module on this, the foundational elements needed to build trust with couples. And website is just one of the pillars. It's not the only one. But back when I was first building my business, I thought it was the only factor.

I thought it was the main thing, the most important thing. And I'm talking about this today because nearly every new wedding business owner that I meet or see is still struggling with this, you know, inside need to make their wedding perfect and I have a feeling that a lot of you guys are struggling with this same thing and it's blocking you from putting your energy into other things that really matter. Your website is the spot where couples decide to book you or not book you. Is that true? Well, I'm telling you from experience after doing weddings, working in the wedding industry for over a decade, probably like fifteen years now, that it's not true.

So, how do we know that it's not true? Well, if you take some time to look at other wedding businesses, you will see there are a lot of wedding businesses with crappy websites that are thriving. I know where I live there are a bunch of florists that have crap websites. They are thriving, they're doing excellent. So, why is this?

Why did I fall into the trap of needing to have perfection with my website in order to even get started, in order to book weddings. Like, why did I get stuck here and why do wedding pros obsess over their websites? So, that's what we're going be talking about today. And, I'm going to tell you why. It's a mix of societal pressures, wedding industry norms, and this emotional safety, a need for emotional safety.

So, the first reason wedding pros obsess over their website is that it's somewhat of a wedding industry norm. We wedding businesses that work with brides and grooms, we have this belief that your wedding website is your storefront and it needs to be perfect. And it comes from this idea or belief that in the wedding world everything needs to be beautiful. Weddings are beautiful, they're elegant, they're rich, they need to be perfect. That is somewhat true.

Wedding days are beautiful, elegant, rich, they need to be perfect. And we think that our websites need to reflect this perfection. All of the top tier wedding vendors have beautiful websites that's why they're booked out and so successful. That's what we think or what we are led to believe. We think brides only book wedding vendors with stunning perfect websites.

But in reality, today's couples find you on Instagram and TikTok and then they visit your site to confirm that you're legit. So your website validates, it doesn't generate the bookings. We think brides will only book us if our website is beautiful. We think it's our website that sells the business, but this isn't true. Your website is only one part of it.

You need to generate trust with the couples through many different facets and your website, it is important, but it's not the only facet. It's not the only factor. And it isn't enough alone on its own to build trust with new couples. Your website alone won't book new weddings, so you shouldn't be spending ALL of your time and effort on your website. The second reason wedding pros get stuck obsessing over their website is emotional safety.

When you're working on your wedding website, it feels productive. It feels like you're doing something. It feels like you're working hard, but it's also risk free. Building or tweaking a website feels like you're working on your business but it's behind the scenes. There's no rejection.

There's no visibility. There's no vulnerability. Designing a home page is easier than pitching yourself on video. Picking out fonts and colors is way less scary than posting a reel with your face that flops. Redoing your services page for the twentieth time is safer than cold pitching yourself to hotel venues.

Spending your time on getting that logo perfect, working with a designer or just redoing it over and over in Canva, it's easier than approaching other real vendors at the wedding association in real life and meeting them and asking them to coffee to build authentic connections and relationships. Spending time or money on getting a photoshoot done for yourself for the website so that you look professional and pretty and all of that. That's easier than putting yourself out there on craigslist and just doing real weddings for cheap or free to build actual experience and real connections with other vendors. So, it's like you're creating this emotional safety by working on the website. It feels like you're productive, but really it's just busy work disguised as business growth.

Website work is safe. It's work, but it's safe work. And our ego self, it doesn't want to put ourselves out there in a real way because it's scary, because it might result in shame, embarrassment, disappointment, uncomfortable feelings, right? But we need to remember that those are just feelings. We can handle hard feelings and getting good at putting yourself out there in a real way, even if you're going to have some crappy feelings as a result, is one of the biggest growth points for any entrepreneur.

And you've got to get really, really good at experiencing these uncomfortable disappointment, failure, not good enough feelings if you want to make it as a wedding business, as any business. This is how successful entrepreneurs become successful. They are choosing the uncomfortable, hard thing over and over and over again. That's how they make it. So, want you to ask yourself, am I choosing the uncomfortable hard thing that is actually going to move my business forward or am I working behind the scenes on safe busy work and telling myself that I'm working on my business, that this is what's going to book me weddings?

Because that could be the thing, very likely is the thing that's keeping you stuck. The third reason wedding pros get stuck obsessing over their wedding website is societal pressure. So, it's this idea that looking professional equals being successful. There's like a deep cultural pressure to look successful before you are successful, especially in visual industry, a visual industry like weddings. Because weddings are supposed to be beautiful, look beautiful, all that thing, we think that our presence online needs to look professional and beautiful before couples will book us.

And we will put meaning on how good our website looks over the actual experience of doing weddings. So, people will do things like spend $1,000 on a logo before they actually book a client. They will obsess over brand colors instead of obsessing over messaging. They will feel like they need the perfect website to feel worthy of charging money. I've coached too many wedding pros who have this tunnel vision about their website.

They get so stuck in creating this perfection in their website. They have this idea in their head of what the perfect website looks like and they obsess over getting it. And it's often based off of what they see in other wedding professional websites. They put all this pressure on themselves thinking if they could just make their website more beautiful, more perfect, then maybe they will take some of those clients, the brides and grooms, that the other vendors have. And this takes me to the fourth reason why wedding pros get stuck obsessing over their website, thus not being able to see all the other valuable facets that draw couples to them.

And this is a comparison culture. What happens is we look at other seasoned wedding pros, and they're very polished perfect websites, and we think, I need to match that level before I can show up. But, here's the problem. You are comparing your day one to someone else's year 10. So, me being in the wedding industry for over a decade, like, my wedding website is going to be way better than yours if you're just starting building your wedding website.

Like, I just have more experience, I've put more into it, I've redone it a thousand times, you know, I know what works and what doesn't. You don't know that yet. So, we're not on the same level and we shouldn't be. We think that the photographer with the polished website that is in the number one spot of Google is where we need to be. We think we're competing with them.

But here's a news flash, this is exactly what's keeping you stuck. You are not competing with them. You don't even need to be concerned with them. Their couples are their couples, and your couples are your couples. There are plenty of weddings for everyone.

I know I keep saying this, but I want to drill it into you because it's very, very true. We're not competing. No wedding business is competing with another wedding business. The couples that are my couples are not going to be the same couples that are your couples. There are plenty for all of us.

What my wedding website has nothing to do with the potential of your wedding business. Absolutely nothing. A beautiful website, it's important, yes. But, it's only one of the foundational pillars and it's not the only important factor. Today, couples will find you on social media.

They will look at your testimonials. They will hear about you from other vendors. They'll see you on a vendor list. It's word-of-mouth from their friends. They might see your business online over and over, so it's a listing.

It's a combination of many things that will validate your business, which will create or build trust. Your website validates this trust. It's just one of the things that validates the trust. It doesn't generate business, book weddings, or it's not the only thing. Trust is generated from many different things.

It's more than just your website. So, if you're not seeing this bigger picture, which I'm trying to explain to you and like show you why you could be doing this, which makes absolute sense. Of course you're doing it, all of us did it. What it's doing though, focusing all of your attention on your wedding website, it's keeping you Here's what happens. You spend all your time, and I know you're spending a lot of time, I know you're putting a lot of effort into your website.

You're spending all your time on your logo, your branding. But, because you're doing this, you are now not spending time and energy on the other foundational parts that are necessary to building trust with couples. You don't put yourself out there because you're scared. You don't connect with couples because you're scared. You aren't doing the things that feel unsafe.

You aren't building your emotional capacity to get really good at failure and uncomfortableness because you're not putting yourself out there and putting yourself in spots that could be unsafe and uncomfortable. And thus, you aren't building that entrepreneurial backbone that you're going to need to be successful. You're spending all your time in a very safe bubble working on your website, and because of this you aren't even aware that there are other foundational elements, like testimonials, online presence, etc. And because you don't work on any of the other things, you don't get really good at being unbreakable at an entrepreneur. You don't get good at failure.

You don't get good at the uncomfortable feelings that you're going to get used to feeling if you put yourself out there. You're not willing to do scared and uncomfortable things or whatever it takes to make this happen. Thus, you're not getting traction in your business because your website alone is not enough to build the trust that couples need to pay you money. So, though you're doing work, you are doing hard work, you're putting in the hours, but you're only working on the safe things, not the scary things or not enough of the foundational things that actually create traction and growth. So, happens then is that couples don't see you, they don't book you, they don't trust you.

Even after you've put in a ton of time and energy on your website, you still feel stuck because you aren't seeing actual momentum from booking weddings. That's the progress that you need and want in order to start feeling good about yourself and to stop feeling like a failure. Because when you get in that stuck place, then you get this belief that I don't know what I'm doing, I'm such a failure, which demotivates you and makes you even more stuck. Does this resonate with you? I know this was like a place that I was stuck in for a while and it sucked, so that's why I'm talking about it.

I'm hoping that you don't get stuck here too. So, what actually matters? Things that do, you know, move the needle make a difference is like clear messaging, getting really clear about who you help and what transformation you provide. What is the experience that brides and grooms get with you? How can you clearly market this message in your marketing on your website, your Instagram posts?

Are you putting yourself out there? Are you connecting with real vendors? Are you putting yourself in front of real brides and offering to help them? Are you doing actual weddings even if they're for discounted rates? That experience is everything and so so important.

A few strong client results or testimonials or stories are going to look better than you just making shit up on your website. So that might even be styled shoots, working with other vendors on styled shoots. Getting actual experiences in real life working with other real vendors, putting yourself out there in a real way so that you can share that on your website, on your socials? Are you showing up where your ideal client or bride and groom scrolls? So, is that Instagram or TikTok or wherever?

And, are you building actual connection? Are you connecting to them through your messaging? Do you understand messaging? Do you spend time learning messaging? Because that's something I spend a lot of time teaching in my master class.

That's super important. You need to know how to talk to your bride and groom and if you can't do that, you aren't going to book them. Right? You need to be able to address their fears, their worries, their concerns by directly offering solutions. That's what's going to make you stand out from other wedding vendors.

There are four specific pillars that we focus on in my wedding business masterclass that go over the foundation needed to build trust with couples so that they'll book you and pay you money. And a professional website is just one of those pillars. But there are several more and couples today, they aren't just looking for a pretty website. They need proof that you're the right fit for them. They need to feel connected to you.

They need to trust you before they're ever going to reach out to you. They need to see your business over and over and over again and be reminded of you because they're busy, they're distracted, they're excited, they're like doing I just got engaged! Pinterest stuff. And you can't just be in front of them once, you have to get in front of them over and over and over again. They need to connect with you, they need to see you, they to trust you.

So, it's so much more than just your website. It was when I first started my business over a decade ago, and it still works like this today. So, to recap, the perfect website, it doesn't create wedding bookings. It's not the thing that is going to make your wedding business successful. It's not the most important thing.

A beautiful professional website will validate your business, but it's not going to generate business. So if you're spending all of your time on your website, it might be time to make a shift and focus on putting yourself out there more, getting real life experience, making real vendor connections, getting actual wedding experience under your belt, and real testimonials. These are the things that are important. They're important experiences that are absolutely necessary to creating momentum with your wedding business. Working only on your wedding website, it might feel productive, but it's risk free.

It's the safe option and it's the thing that makes you feel successful or important. Like, you have this cool wedding website. You can point people to it. People might be like, oh, you've made it. But you're still feeling crappy because you're not actually successful and you're not making money.

So you need to shift your view on this and start doing the scarier things. I'm gonna call you out on it. If you got this far into this podcast and you're resonating with this, you probably aren't doing the scary things. So I need you to start refocusing your energy on the other facets of business growth to to to actually get traction in your wedding business. And I could go on and on about all the things you should be focusing on, but this is a thirty minute podcast and it's actually a course that you would need to get more details on exactly what to do, but to give you a starting point, just put yourself out there.

Get out of your computer room, meet more people, do more actual weddings, get real testimonials. Don't spend all your time and energy on your website. If you want to learn more about the exact foundational elements that are needed to book more weddings, make more money in your wedding business, you can definitely check out weddingproacademy.com. I have a whole course on this that will help you generate traction in your wedding business and make more money in your wedding business quickly by implementing some foundational growth, foundational elements that are necessary to build trust with couples. And the wedding website is one of them, but not the only thing.

And you definitely wanna get on my list, my news list for weekly tips and advice on how to avoid the most common blind spots made by struggling wedding businesses and what to do or focus on instead, like this one. Spending too much time on your wedding website? They're short and sweet, and they go out biweekly, so you can find that also at weddingproacademy.com. I hope you guys found this interesting. I know this was eye opening for me, It was something I wasted tons tons of hours, days, weeks, months, years on, and I'm hoping that you don't get stuck in this same place.

So, start thinking about what other things you can be doing to build exposure with your wedding business and to build some actual traction to get more weddings. Okay, that's all I have for you today. I will see you guys next week. Have a great weekend. Bye!