The Belief That’s Secretly Sabotaging Your Wedding Bookings

In this episode we’ll cover:

• Why a confusing or incomplete wedding inquiry process turns couples away
• The hidden belief that makes it harder for people to hire you
• How your inquiry process compares to The Knot and WeddingWire experience
• What information couples actually need before they’re ready for a call
• Why your website needs pricing context to pre-qualify leads
• How to use your follow-up emails to build trust and sell for you
• Simple ways to personalize your communication without more meetings
• How to avoid ghosting by giving couples what they need up fron

The Belief That’s Secretly Sabotaging Your Wedding Bookings

00:00 – Heidi Thompson
There is one sneaky belief that’s quietly holding you back from the bookings you want. Most wedding pros don’t even realize they have it, but I promise you’ve heard it or felt it. It sounds like this If I just do more more posts, show up on more platforms, hustle more, do more stuff, I’ll finally see results. I’ll finally get the bookings I need. In today’s episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on why that belief is doing more harm than good, and I’ll show you what to focus on instead.

00:40 – Intro
If you’re ready to book the kinds of clients you actually want to work with. This is the Evolve your Wedding Business Podcast. Here is your host, Heidi Thompson.

01:17 – Heidi Thompson
Hey there, my friend, welcome to the podcast. I am your host, Heidi Thompson, and I am all about helping wedding professionals, just like you, make their marketing easier so they can book more weddings with the couples that they really want to work with, and I have found that so many wedding pros are in this constant cycle. It’s like a hamster wheel. You’re doing all the things you’re showing up on Instagram, you’re writing blog posts, you’re updating your website for SEO, you’re updating your listing on the Knot or WeddingWire, maybe you’re even dipping your toe into ads, and yet, despite doing all the things showing up everywhere, the inquiries are not rolling in, or you’re getting inquiries in their low quality, or they just ghost.

I’ve worked with so many wedding pros in that spot. They have spent hours, weeks of their lives building visibility, investing time, money and energy, only to feel like they’re spinning their wheels and they’re not getting anything out of it. And you know what? It’s not because they’re not good enough. It’s because their messaging isn’t doing the heavy lifting that it needs to be, and no one ever taught them how to fix that. Let’s be real Marketing in 2025 is not about being everywhere. It’s about being clear and specific, and I know that sounds very simple, but I’ve seen this play out over and over and over again inside my membership, the Wedding Business Collective, and during my summits. The wedding pros who start booking consistently aren’t the ones that are churning out daily reels or jumping on every trend. They’re the ones who stop trying to be everywhere and stop trying to do everything and instead focus on clarifying what they say and who they’re saying it to.

I had one photographer inside the Wedding Business Collective who hadn’t gotten a solid inquiry that didn’t immediately ghost in months, despite doing all the right things, being on the content hamster wheel. Once she shifted how she talked about her services and infused her messaging with more personality and specifics, she booked two dream clients in a week. Nothing else changed. She didn’t do more. She just changed the ingredients of what she was talking about. This happens because couples aren’t just choosing the loudest voice anymore. They’re choosing the one that really feels like gets them. So no, you don’t need to burn out creating more content. You don’t need to dance in reels and TikTok videos.

04:38 Heidi Thompson
This belief isn’t just about posting more on social media. It’s also making sure your message actually lands with couples, vendors and venues alike. Because even if you’re everywhere, even if you’re showing up all over the place, if vendors and venues cannot explain to their couples why you’re the perfect, obvious choice for them, you’re still going to get ghosted. You’re going to get those hot referrals and you’re going to get ghosted. If you want more referrals, that actually book.

05:15 Heidi Thompson
Getting clearer on your messaging will serve you there, too. You need messaging that connects with your potential client, that builds trust and that shows the right couples that you are the person they have been searching for. So I want to give you a couple tips on how you can do this. The first is to clarify what makes you different. Okay, these couples are in a sea of choices. They don’t need another vendor. They want the right vendor. So help them understand why you’re right for them.

06:01 Heidi Thompson
This starts with ditching the phrases we lean on in this industry, like oh, we love love and we’ll make sure you have your perfect wedding, and it’ll be, you know, just this perfect love story. Instead of doing that, you need to show them how you are going to help them feel the way they want to feel, taking care of the way they want to be taken care of. I want you to make every word on your website and on social media count, because I see a lot of fluff in my day-to-day. Instead of creating more content because remember more is not the goal here, remember more is not the goal here Make sure the content you already have is clear, is specific and is aligned with what your ideal clients care about. So take this example If you had a cleaning company and your message instead of hey, we’re a cleaning company, we can clean which is really the message that many wedding businesses have hey, I’m a photographer, hey, I’m a planner, I can plan your wedding If your cleaning company had a message that said we clean your home like your mother-in-law is coming over without you lifting a finger, you would immediately know the vibe.

07:33 Heidi Thompson
That line does not just sell cleaning. It sells relief, readiness, peace of mind and understanding that your mother-in-law is maybe the worst. That’s the power of clear, emotional messaging, and I see it missing from so many wedding businesses. So instead of things like we offer full service planning for modern couples, you could use their language and say we help busy couples plan weddings that feel effortless and truly them. Or we help busy couples plan weddings that feel like a wedding that their guests have never experienced before, if that’s the thing that they want, because it has to align, and we are just guessing most of the time.

08:31 Heidi Thompson
When your message makes couples feel like you really understand what they want, that you have the solution to their problem, that you know how they want to feel, you don’t need to shout, you just need to be clear. You’ve probably had this experience yourself. Maybe you’ve had a migraine and you go to the pharmacy to get something because your head is killing you and you have this gigantic wall of painkillers in front of you and this one says Motrin, and this one says Tylenol, and this one like there’s a million options, but then you see one that says migraine formula. Which one are you going to buy? You’re going to buy the one that has the solution to the problem that you have. Whether or not it actually works better is irrelevant. You’re going to make the purchase that is aligned with the problem that you have, and we need to do this in your marketing.

09:40 Heidi Thompson
Another thing I want you to really think about are trends. Stop chasing trends it takes up so much of your time chasing trends. It takes up so much of your time and build a system that works for you. You do not have to post every day. You do not have to spend multiple days of your month creating videos. Pick a couple marketing channels that fit your specific ideal client and then focus on showing up with clarity and consistency. Inside my membership, the Wedding Business Collective, when members go through the course designed to give them the marketing plan that’s going to fit for them, it tells them to focus on no more than three, because you really don’t need to chase every trend and be everywhere and do everything. You just need to pick a few places that make sense for your audience and focus there, and it’s also what we’re going to be breaking down during the Book More Wedding Summit.

10:48 Heidi Thompson
So if you haven’t gotten your free ticket yet to the Book More Wedding Summit, you definitely need to do that.

10:56 Heidi Thompson
Registration is open now. It is totally free to attend. It’s happening August 18th through the 22nd, and you will hear from more than 45 experts on what is actually working right now in this super weird year to attract and book clients. Not just get views on social media, not just get likes, and if you’ve ever felt like marketing your business is a completely separate full-time job that you weren’t even trained for. This summit is going to feel like a breath of fresh air because you don’t need to do more.

You need to know what actually works. So go to bookmoreweddingssummit.com to grab your free ticket and, if this episode has really got the gears turning for you, if something has clicked, send me a DM that says message. I’ll make sure you get the link to grab your free ticket and I can point you to a few summit sessions that’ll help you go deeper with exactly what I talked about today. You have got what it takes. You just need to let your message work as hard as you do. I’ll see you next time.

Links & Resources:

The Wedding Business Collective
Book More Weddings Summit (get your free ticket!)
Get your Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard
Marketing Strategy for Wedding Planners: Get More Clients in Less Time
Why You’re Still Not Booking Weddings Even Though You’re Doing Everything Right

Want more? To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below and be sure to leave a review:

Click Here to Subscribe via Apple Podcasts

Click Here to Subscribe via Spotify

And please take 2 minutes to leave me an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here. It will help the show and its ranking immensely! Thank you – I appreciate it!