How To Book More Destination Weddings – A Photographer’s Guide

If you’re anything like me, you love to travel and experience new places, right? New scenery, from an unfamiliar hike to a newly discovered beach, always feels like such a rush, and getting to go shoot in these places feels like a dream come true.

Since I live in Iowa, but I shoot so many destination weddings, I get asked ALL THE TIME about how to start breaking into the destination market. I wanted to share how to get into shooting destination weddings so YOU can start shooting adventure weddings no matter where you live, too!

Call me lucky, but one of my first “real” weddings was for my cousin’s cousin in the Dominican Republic. I was still in college when she booked with me, and I had no real plans to start a business back then, but the bride offered me a free trip and stay in exchange for their wedding photography, and I said HECK YES!

A year later when the wedding rolled around, I was living in California and definitely more interested in shooting weddings, but still not to the point where I thought it could be my full time job. But… when my husband and I booked our flights, went to the Dominican Republic, and shot the wedding, something really clicked. Even though I barely had a clue what I was doing at the time, I realized that I really loved the experience of shooting this wedding in this gorgeous place, and thought that it would be really cool to be able to do this as a full-time photographer.

I decided it was worth a shot, so I kept booking weddings. I eventually ended up embracing my new title of “Midwest-based destination wedding photographer,” and now I’m traveling the world, shooting beautiful weddings in breathtaking places like California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Iceland, Mexico, Ireland, France, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and more!

Okay so, you’re wondering HOW did I do it, right!? Let me tell you three things you absolutely NEED to be doing if you want to start booking and shooting more destination weddings in epic destination locations!

1). You NEED to be talking about shooting destination weddings.

You need to make sure your people know that you want to hop on the destination wedding train! You never know if they just might want to have a destination wedding and hire you, too! Your audience and social media following are not going to know that you want to shoot in places like Joshua Tree, California or Oahu, Hawaii until you tell them, so basically, scream it from the rooftops and make sure everyone knows that you want to be shooting in locations that are just a quick flight away from you.

For locations where I wanted to shoot but didn’t have content yet when I was starting out, I used to pull inspiration from Pinterest or re-share other photographers’ work on my socials and let my following know that I’d love to shoot in that location too, or in spots that are similar. I’ve also shared lists of “bucket list locations” to give wedding planning inspiration and even offered discounts if a couple were to book me in a specific location.

2). You need to Start building your destination wedding and adventure session portfolio.

If you think about it, the couple who is eloping in Colorado isn’t going to hire someone who has never been hiking before. So what can you do? Take a couple, maybe some friends of yours, along with you on a hike and take photos of them!

“But Grace, I don’t live in Colorado!”

I hear you! If you aren’t close to the mountains in Colorado, start small and take a quick roadtrip to a more adventurous location nearby. If you’re in the Midwest like me, start shooting in places that aren’t your typical Midwest scenery, something more adventurous than rolling plains and forests. Some fun local spots around Des Moines are Ledges State Park and Lake Red Rock.

You can also collaborate with other wedding vendors like florists and makeup artists to put together styled shoots in the areas where you want to shot weddings, and drive/fly there and make it happen! When you have content from a specific location, you’ll most likely get more inquiries for that location since you’ve been there already and have some knowledge of the area.

If you don’t have the time or resources to put together a whole styled shoot, you can also purchase a ticket to another photographer’s content day or educational retreat, where you typically get anywhere from 2-6 styled shoots in a day or two, and boom, you have a ton of new content from your favorite destinations to start sharing with your following!

Join me for the NEXT Reclaim Retreat in August 2024 if you’re looking for a content day in a tropical paradise like Hawaii!

3). You need to Create all inclusive packages for destination weddings.

When a couple inquires with you wanting a quote for destination wedding photography in another state, you need to present all-inclusive pricing to prevent sticker shock. A common mistake photographers make is presenting their local prices, and then starting to add on fees for things they need like a plane ticket, hotel, rental car, etc.

When your couples see all these little fees starting to add up, they might get overwhelmed with everything that goes into planning a destination wedding. But you can take that stress entirely off their plate by creating packages that have all of those fees wrapped up into ONE simple destination wedding price.

If you incorporate these practices into your business, it will help you book the destination wedding of your dreams! And if you love it and keep posting about how much you love it, you can claim the title of “destination wedding photographer” too!

Are you ready to start booking destination weddings?! I hope so! Comment below and let me know if this post was helpful for you!

Love, Grace