Finding and Defining a Niche in the Wedding Industry

Each week I'll cover strategies, tips, tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Let's dive in. Hello everybody and welcome to episode 20. Today we're going to be talking about finding and defining a niche in the wedding industry.

We're going to get into what a niche is, what kinds of niches you can do, and when to niche down, and also how to know what niche to pick. I was just curious when I was looking into this podcast, is it pronounced niche or is it niche? Because I've heard it both ways. And according to the dictionary on Google it's niche so that's what I'm going be saying and hopefully that's correct. But that's the way I have always said it.

What is a wedding niche anyway? Well it's a specialized market so it's being extremely specialized in one type of thing. For example, in the wedding industry you could niche down to doing luxury weddings, beach weddings, elopements, micro weddings, LGBTQ weddings. You could be niched down to the types of editing that you do in your photography. So I've seen a lot of photographers niche down based on their style of photography and their style of editing.

So some of those styles are photo journalistic, editorial, fine art, and even aerial photography. You could niche down with the editing style. So a lot of couples have requested from me being a wedding planner. They've asked do I know any wedding photographers that do cps style editing? It's not my favorite but some people are really good at it and seems to be trending right now.

There's also bright and airy light natural light type of editing or shooting, and like a bold contrast vibrant style of photography. So all of those different styles could be your niche. It's the thing that you are specializing in. A niche for an officiant could be the style of ceremonies that you do. I know that I have different officiants for different types of weddings.

I have non denominational officiants, religious officiants, Hawaiian style ceremonies Hawaiian officiants ones that blow the conch shell and do Hawaiian blessings and chants and that's just because I'm in Hawaii but there are all different types of niches for wedding officiants. For videography there's the style of editing, the style of shooting. There's aerial videography. And then for hair and makeup, this one's really cool because some of the hair and makeup artists nowadays specialize in a very specific type of bride. There's, of course, regular like glam, natural, but then there's the other types of hair makeup artists that are really niched down like the Asian bride.

A lot of Asian brides and grooms come to me and they want that very specific Korean style hair makeup that is very light and sort of bright, very light on the eyeshadow with darker lining. They want a hair and makeup artist that is really good with Asian features That really has that Asian style down. A lot of Asian brides specifically ask for this. I have two specific hair and makeup artists that specialize in this, that get all of my business. That way, niching down is awesome.

I also have some darker skinned brides who want a hair and makeup artist who is specialized in working with dark skin. That could be a way to niche down if you're in the hair and makeup industry. Let's talk about why a specific niche, why niching down can be powerful, it can be helpful. Because, I mean, you would think that a niche narrows down the options. It's limiting.

Right? It means less brides, less options, less opportunities for you to book more weddings because you're narrowing down the people. But here's the thing, brides are going to choose someone who they feel is the best. They're specifically looking for the best of the best in this very one thing that they identify with the most. For example, a luxury bride is going to want the best luxury planner.

They want someone who's experienced with luxury weddings, someone who has luxury vendor connections so they know the best photographers, the best florists, ones that specialize in a more luxurious look. They are going to want connections with luxurious linens and a planner that specializes in luxury weddings will have all of those connections. They're going to want to know how to execute a full week of luxurious events, and a luxury planner will know how to do that. They're going to want to connect with a makeup artist who works specifically with, you know, luxury brides. It's different than working with a budget bride.

A luxury planner will know all these people, so of course they're going to pick a very specific niched down planner who is experienced with luxury events. That would make sense. They would more likely get the booking. When you're really confident and you're really good at one specific thing you become automatically really appealing, really magnetic to that specific type of bride who identifies with that thing. You become magnetic to those types of weddings, which means you book more of those weddings and you can charge more money because they're willing to pay more money for you because you're the best.

When you're the best, you can charge more. Right? But here's the thing, and one part that I think a lot of people forget when they're thinking that they need to niche down is that in the beginning, when you're first getting, you know, started in weddings, when you're first building your business, when you're first getting experience, you shouldn't niche down yet. Here's why. Here's why I think you shouldn't niche down until you have at least 20 practice weddings under your belt.

It's because you don't have enough experience to turn down weddings yet. In the very beginning, when you're first getting established, you're first building up your business, you're still learning. You should be focusing on just getting as many weddings as you can under your belt, getting reviews and testimonials, getting experience. Use these weddings to get connections, to build connections with other vendors. You want to test out the different types of weddings, different types of brides and grooms, and see which ones appeal to you most, which ones you're most drawn to.

And that will come with time, you'll automatically kind of feel drawn to more of one type of wedding than another. But unless you're making a significant amount of income and you've got a fully booked calendar, I wouldn't suggest niching down right away because you just need to build the experience. You need to build up your portfolio, build up your testimonials, and once you've done all that, you've got a solid income coming in, then you can niche down. Okay, so now you've got some wedding experience and you're feeling drawn to niche down. How do you even choose a niche and when do you choose it?

Here are some thoughts that you should consider. What are your natural strengths? What are you naturally good at? What can you do better than other photographers? What can you do better than other planners, etcetera? What can you do better than other makeup artists? What makes you special? What can you do differently? What kinds of weddings do you feel the most connected to? What types of brides and grooms do you just love the most?

After you've done like 20 weddings, you'll start to feel connected to certain types of brides and grooms. You'll feel like, I love these kinds of weddings, I don't love these kinds of weddings. Just notice that. What kinds of weddings do you feel are your people? Would you just love to do more of?

Then I want you to think, how can I make more money doing these kinds of weddings? What do I do differently than other people that do these kinds of weddings? What are other people what are other vendors doing around these types of weddings? What does the market look like in these areas? If I was going to be a hair and makeup artist for Asian brides, I would want to do some research on who else is marketing specifically towards Asian brides?

What is missing from the market right now? I know hair and makeup artists for Asian brides here in Hawaii, They are lacking some serious websites, some nice quality websites and a professional online presence. They just want us to get in touch with them by Instagram, which is fine just because that's the only options I have right now, but if there was one that had a solid website with solid reviews and before and after pictures and a price sheet and it was all in English, and I could just send that to my brides and grooms, it would be a lot easier for me to promote them. So, that's missing from the market right now. You know what I mean?

You've got to look at what other people are doing in that specific niche that you'd like to get into and how you can do it better. So when I was choosing a niche, and just to give you some background, like, I didn't actually niche down until, jeez, like at least eight years after I started my wedding business because I was scared and because I didn't have the confidence to fully go all in on it because I wasn't sure that I could make enough money. And, at the time, I also had a partner, which this wasn't what she wanted to do. As soon as she and I broke off, I niched down immediately. When I thought about those questions I asked earlier, I always felt drawn to smaller, more intimate weddings.

I never loved huge weddings. I've done 500 person weddings. They're not my favorite. But I loved little ones, the ones with 10 guests, five guests, 20 guests, elopements of just the bride and groom. Those are so special.

I love those. I love working with more laid back brides who want a simpler wedding experience, but they still want luxurious and easy, but they just aren't looking for like a thousand details. They aren't super picky. I don't love those high ticket, super picky, detail detail oriented, hard to please brides. Some people do but I don't.

I love destination couples who are just so happy to be in Hawaii. I love sharing Hawaii with them, and I love doing it on a smaller scale. So what I did was I niched down to doing all inclusive oceanfront destination wedding ceremonies in Hawaii. That is very niche, very small, but I became the one of the best, I think the best, at doing that type of wedding. Once I gained confidence in that, I got rid of all the other stuff all the other full plannings, day ofs, months ofs, partial plannings and I only focused in on that.

That was scary. That was hard because you're essentially starting turn weddings away. I had to decide I'm going all in on this type of wedding. I'm doing these smaller destination like luxurious ceremony elopements and getting rid of all of the local weddings, getting rid of all of the big full service planning because this is where my energy is better spent. Because this is what I'm best at.

Because this is what I love to do most. If I focus all my attention here, how can I make more money here? How can I make as much money as I was before with all these other weddings now doing only the type of weddings I love? I had to think about this for a while and come up with some ideas and I did. I was able to take these smaller weddings, which are so much easier, so much more fun for me, and then make them feel luxurious and market them in a way that would appeal to destination couples.

Once I got into that market and became really good at communicating why brides and grooms needed to work with me and nobody else, why I was the best at this. I started booking consistently and grew significantly and was able to make the same amount doing only the types of weddings I love and turning down all the other types that I didn't love. Now, I'm at a place where it's not a big deal for me to turn down a big wedding. I don't care if they have a $100,000 budget. I just turn them down because they're not my people and I know I can make just as much money with the types of couples that I love.

Putting all of my energy and all of my effort into only those types of weddings has allowed me the capacity to make those specific types of weddings the best. So I've I've made the packages set up in a way that they really get this amazing, awesome, luxurious, beautiful experience because I put so much time and energy into these packages. I know exactly what my bride wants, I know exactly how to make them happy, I know exactly how to exceed their expectations, and I've done all of that in my packages. It took some time to figure that out, but one of the biggest things that held me back for so long was holding on to all of these other weddings that wasn't my niche. It wasn't the thing that I loved doing.

It wasn't the thing that I knew I was supposed to be doing. I didn't feel called to those bigger weddings, whether or not they were easy or not, whether or not I could do it or not. Putting my energy half in with those other kinds of weddings that weren't in my niche was actually holding me back from making more money with my weddings that I love, my niche down intimate destination weddings. So, it's partly just letting go of that and trusting that whichever niche you choose to go all in on, you can be the best at it. The best at that specific thing and that you'll be able to make money doing that.

You'll just need to take some time to figure it out and you will figure it out. The other part to think about is a niche statement. An easy way to think about that, and this is one of the first things that you're going see on your website, so when brides and grooms see it, when they look for your company online, it will show up on Google. It'll be something like, I help whatever kind of couple plan or photograph or design this specific type of wedding that creates this specific result. Here's some examples.

For me, I do all inclusive destination weddings for couples who value simplicity and ease. Here's another one. We help LGBTQ plus couples through thoughtful and inclusive event planning. Here's another one for photography. We are a New York City Editorial Wedding Photographer capturing magnificent wedding moments with subtlety and elegance.

You need to be able to clearly state what you do, who you work best with, and why they should hire you. What makes you different? What is it? What transformation do you give them? What result do they get if they decide to book you?

Now, let's talk about when you know you're ready to niche down. If you're already feeling the nudge to kind of do it, you're already thinking about it, that probably means that you're just about ready. If you're in the beginning stages of still building your website and your business and you're not sure, but you've heard that you're supposed to niche down. You don't yet have 20 weddings or under your belt. You haven't been doing this very long.

You don't really you're not fully all in on your business yet, maybe you're just doing it as a side hustle, that's not the time to niche down. I think you need to get a little more experience under your belt. But if you have that experience and you're feeling like, I kind of like don't want to be doing all of this. How can I just do these types of weddings? You're going to start feeling drawn to one specific type of wedding, one specific style, one type of couple naturally.

You'll start thinking about it all the time. I knew it was the only thing I thought about for a long time, for many years actually. An easy way to kind of test out a niche to see if this will work for you is to create a special package around it. If you're a wedding planner and you want to niche down into smaller weddings, you could have a micro elopement package or you could have a beach wedding package that is just the beach ceremonies or the a specific elopement ceremony package instead of doing the big ones, but still have the big ones on there in the beginning until you get enough of those under your belt where you're like, Okay, I'm starting to get good at this. What else can I do within this niche to make it more profitable?

Right? Because you can't let go of all the other things until you are confident that you can make the niche that you love more profitable. You got to start thinking about how can I make more money doing this smaller thing that I love doing? How can I add on extras? How can I make it more profitable?

And that is going to be different for every single wedding business because every business is different, but it can be done through add ons, you can raise your prices because you're becoming the best at one specific thing. Your marketing is gonna get better because now you know exactly who you're talking to instead of talking to everybody. You're talking to one specific bride, and that is going to resonate with her so much more because now she's feeling more connected to you. Once she actually feels more connected to you, then she's gonna wanna book you, then you're gonna make more money, and you could charge higher prices, and you'll get more increase. Right?

All of that kind of comes naturally once you decide to niche down. And so that's why having a niche is amazing. It's more money. It's more fun because it's more of the types of weddings that you love doing, and it's more it feels like more you. And the more you you bring into your business, the more your business kind of explodes.

The more it grows, the more it naturally evolves and it becomes a bigger evolution of you. That's what's really, really cool about niching down. That was a lot of information about niche in a very short little twenty minute podcast, but I hope you found it helpful. I would love to help you with this. If you're not sure if it's time to niche down, you're like I think I should niche down in this specific way, but I'm scared because I don't know if it's the right time.

I don't know if I can make enough money. I don't know if I'll have enough brides. It doesn't seem safe. Just know that that is totally natural to feel that way. That's the part that you'll need to overcome and you'll need to prove to yourself that you can make it happen.

You can be the best at this one thing. Sometimes you just need some coaching around that. Just to get really grounded in that belief, knowing that this new venture is going to be the best thing ever. It is going to be the way that you evolve as a business. It is what is gonna make your business super successful and lucrative and profitable and so much more fun for you, so much more you.

It's gonna make it feel you. Once your business starts feeling more you, that's when it really takes off, or at least it did for me. And I wish for that for all of you too. So if you'd love some coaching around that, please reach out. You can email me, nicolewinningproacademy dot com and I will see you guys next week. Everybody have a wonderful weekend. It's Friday. Have a great weekend guys. Bye!