Real Wedding Submissions That Editors Love: Tips to Get Featured with Jainé Kershner

In this episode we’ll cover:

• Why real wedding submissions are one of the most powerful wedding PR tools you can use to attract your ideal clients
• The biggest mistakes that cause editors to reject a wedding submission (and how to avoid them)
• What editors are really looking for when reviewing real weddings
• How to choose the right images and details to include so your submission stands out
• Tips to streamline your submission process so it doesn’t take hours of your time
• How getting published builds trust with couples and leads to more bookings

Real Wedding Submissions That Editors Love: Tips to Get Featured with Jainé Kershner

0:00:00 – Heidi Thompson
Want to know the secrets editors look for in real wedding submissions so you can get yours featured. You’re gonna love this episode.

0:00:09 – Intro
In a world where wedding professionals are struggling to market and grow their businesses, one podcast brings together top experts and actionable strategies to help you build the wedding business of your dreams. This is the Evolve your Wedding Business Podcast. Here is your host, Heidi Thompson.

0:00:40 – Heidi Thompson
Hey there, I am your host, Heidi Thompson. I am here really just nerding out and helping wedding professionals just like you build businesses that give them freedom and flexibility and make their marketing easier for them so they can book more weddings. And something that so many wedding pros lust after is the feature. Whether it is in a glossy magazine or a blog, getting featured is a pretty big deal. It gives you a lot of social proof. It’s something that I know a lot of wedding pros want. But it can feel daunting. It can feel confusing about what you’re supposed to do, how you’re supposed to do it.

So in today’s episode, I wanted to bring in Jainé Kirshner because she, as a photographer, has been doing this for herself forever, but she also started offering it as a service to curate and make sure you’re aligning the submission with the publication, doing everything you can to find the right fit publication, to stand out to the editor, to make sure that you are putting your best foot forward, because, quite frankly, a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot. So if you have ever wanted to be featured, whether it is in a magazine, maybe it’s in a local publication, maybe it’s an online publication like a wedding blog, it really doesn’t matter. The strategies that Jainé talks about really applies to all of them, and this episode is going to give you what you need to go ahead and start submitting submissions that are much more likely to get picked up. So let’s get in to the interview with Jainé today.

I’m joined by Jainé Kershner, who is a wedding photographer based out of New York City. She is also the host of Tea with Jainé, who you may have listened to. I’d really be surprised if nobody listening to this podcast has listened to that podcast. It’s a great podcast for wedding industry leaders to you know. Come on and share what’s working and how you can make it work for you. But Jainé is here today very specifically to talk about an area of expertise that she has developed and that is submitting your weddings, getting them published, and I know a lot of people want this. A lot of people want to be featured in these publications, but they don’t know where to start. So today we’re going to talk about how to submit your weddings and how to stand out and deal with and build relationships with editors, because they are the ones that control what gets published. So, Jainé, thank you for being here and welcome to the show I’m excited to dive in.

0:03:51 – Jainé Kershner
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited. This is one of my favorite topics to talk about.

0:03:57 – Heidi Thompson
I think it’s one of those things that, like, everybody wants, but they don’t really know how to get there. They don’t know what goes into it. So can you start by telling us a little bit about what does this look like? Because I think everybody has a dream that, like you know, they’ll get approached by Vogue or something and just magically featured. But what does it more normally look like when you want to put yourself forward? What should people be thinking about in looking for a publication that not just gives them that you know, that ego boost, that notoriety, but also aligns with them and their business?

0:04:43 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, no, it’s such a great way to jump in and get started. I think you know I can speak from personal experience. When I was first starting out as a wedding photographer and sort of getting all those T’s and I’s dotted and crossed out, one of them was definitely being featured and I really decided to make that happen for myself and then figured out how can I make that happen? And I think having a goal is really important and everyone should have a good goal. And you know for at the time it was being featured in Martha Stewart weddings and style me pretty. Um, today would be you know a lot of publications out there and, depending on who you are as a photographer, who your client is, your style of photography there is a publication for you. There are smaller blogs, smaller outlets that still print, and the best way to start, I think, is really aligning yourself with the right publication. And how do we do that right? Where do we get started?

I think your photography style is the biggest indicator of where you should go. So when you have a wedding and you photograph it and you’re like, okay, I think I want to try to get this featured, but where is it going to go, the first thing you should do is research the publications that are available. You know, going online, researching the most popular wedding blogs or wedding magazines and seeing where your photography style aligns the best with. Does that make sense? Like you want to make sure that they’re featuring similar work and similar styles to your own, because that’s already going to put you in a really good space to get noticed and for it to be a match with what they’re already showing.

So let’s say we look at a publication like the lane, they feature a ton of black and white images. At a publication like the lane, they feature a ton of black and white images. They want more moody, picturesque, um, modern sort of weddings. So if you have a wedding that, if your photography style is like that, that feels like a good alignment.

Or if you look at a blog like style me pretty, which has been around, I think, since I started started so like, say, 15 years their aesthetic really hasn’t changed much throughout their course of what they’ve been featuring since the beginning. So it’s light, airy photos, film aesthetic, you know, colorful, green and white weddings. So if your photography style aligns with that, you would best be aligned to submit to some place like Style Me Pretty. So I think that’s kind of the hardest part is figuring out where to go and who is going to like your work. But it really, once you kind of crack the code and make your list of publications, then it becomes figuring out what kind of weddings do they feature, what kind of pictures do they like, and then curating your submission around that that’s really helpful.

0:07:53 – Heidi Thompson
It’s daunting, right, there are so many publications, there are so many websites and print magazines and blogs that you could try to pitch yourself to or pitch a wedding to, but it really helps to, you know, pare it down to make sure that you’re only spending your time pitching to places that are the most likely to want to feature what you’re pitching them. And I’m curious, because you work with people in this area, do you primarily work with photographers, being one yourself, or do you find sometimes, are there planners, are there venues that are kind of leading the charge in trying to submit to these different publications?

0:08:42 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, I actually work with both. So I offer curation services one-on-one for wedding photographers and wedding planners, and usually just those two, because they need to have the permission from the client and also permission from the photographer to share the work, because the photographers own the copyright to their images. So you want to make sure you have that. But, yeah, it’s primarily those two vendor types that I work with and they’ll come to me and they’ll say I have this great wedding. I don’t know where it goes. Can you look it over and I’ll do a gallery review and can you tell me, like, where I should submit it to? And that’s kind of half the battle, right, people are like I don’t know what to do with this. I know it’s good, or I think it’s good and they just need help with that. Or I have other clients where they have a publication in mind and they send me the wedding and it could maybe not be a fit.

It’s hard to take yourself out of it, the equation, because you’re part of it, so it’s good to have another eye, another person be like, yeah, this looks great for brides, or say you know, maybe not this one, maybe we go someplace else because it’s not really what they’ve been featuring lately and I think having a pulse on what’s happening on the inside the industry is really helpful for myself, just being a photographer and working in New York City like what’s happening on the inside the industry is really helpful for myself, just being a photographer and working in New York City like what’s going on, where the trend’s going, what do editors want to see? And also I think it’s a really great tip is to follow the editors that you like on Instagram of the places you want to be published, because they’ll tell you what they’re looking for or they’ll share their recent weddings or they’ll share what they’re publishing and I think that is a really good way to know if your wedding is going to make them excited or not.

0:10:36 – Heidi Thompson
All of that is really good advice. I want to dig into curation because I know most photographers are going to have a ton of photos and, like you said, it’s hard to step back. It’s hard to remove yourself from that process and see what really should be submitted, versus okay, you just like these and that’s fine, but these aren’t the ones that should go into a submission. How do you approach curating for these different publications?

0:11:14 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, no, this is a great question. It’s always a puzzle. It’s always every time I open up a new gallery I feel like, okay, I have to solve this puzzle and put it together in such a way that it’s appealing to the editor, that it fits the publication, that it highlights the best photos of that wedding in my opinion. Of course, everything is in my own opinion. You know there’s a lot of people that do this and everybody has their own opinion. So you know, this is just mine. But I always look for the best sort of photo in each category, right, and I always start from the beginning of the day, which is sort of the details, getting the couple getting ready, and then working my way back down and I kind of go through two stages of this. So I’ll pick all of the favorites, all of the ones that I like, through the first call, right. So I do the first call and it can be sorting through. You know thousands of pictures and it’s hard. But I, what I tell my own clients is if you’re going to include a picture in your curation, you know you get a hundred pictures. Let’s say they only want to see about a hundred, 150. 100 pictures, let’s say they only want to see about 100, 150.

Each one of those images, I personally feel should be the best, the best work that you have, because you never know which picture the editor is going to fall in love with and put in the front of the feature, right? Like I always say, like, if you’re not proud of it, if you don’t want it seen blown up in Times Square, take it out Like, don’t even deliver it, get rid of it. It shouldn’t be in the curation. You have to do it with a fine tooth comb because you only have a limited amount of images to submit. So each one should really be the hero quote unquote of that section. So that means the couple together, the exit photos, the fun party photos, all of the detail shots. Like each one should be a hero shot, in my opinion.

So that whichever one they choose to feature or whichever ones they want to put on Instagram, you’re going to be proud of each and every single one of them and that’s going to represent your brand, right? So there’s also a little bit of that going in there, like the marketing of the submission, and that’s half of why you submit, right, you want to be featured, but you’re also marketing your brand, you’re marketing the vendors you’re working with or have worked with and want to continue working with. So everything has to come together in this way that when the editor opens up your either your gallery or your Dropbox link, or however they want it to receive it, a lot of them have their own publication, like portals. You know you want them to see the best work and it takes, it’s hard, it can be hard to do it.

You know I’ve been doing this a long time, so I feel like I can sift through and pick through a gallery and do my first call and then, once I’ve downloaded everything and looked it over, I can do the second call where, okay, now I’m weeding out everything that doesn’t really make the cut and then usually, when I’m done with that, I’ve got a good, a good selection of images that feel really harmonious and really well done and the color story is there and you can see the story and the and the love and the and the powerful moments of the wedding all together in this like 100, 150, you know curation and it’s really fun to do. It’s hard, Sometimes I get like overwhelmed with the amount I have to sort through, but once it all comes together I’m like this feels perfect and then we submit. So that’s the fun part.

0:15:01 – Heidi Thompson
How many images are you typically starting with for your clients?

0:15:06 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, and I they’ll send me galleries. I mean, some could be 3,000, some could be 1,500. Some people only will deliver 1,000. So it depends. So it’s really like 10% that I’ll choose from to do this first call and then I’ll whittle it down even more.

0:15:27 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and I get that is difficult to do when you’re the one that created these images and you’re like, no, this one, no this one, no this one. And, like you said, each one has to be the best representation of that point at the event to really showcase. Because how much would that suck if you got featured and they put, like the image you hate most out of that gallery on the front page.

0:15:55 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, and that’s the whole thing. It’s some photographers who are aware, you know, self-aware. They’ll hire me to do their wedding curation because they’re like I just can’t decide. I need somebody else to do it. You pick and I’m happy to do it. I’m happy to help them and you know it’s fun too. I get to see all these really beautiful weddings and help get them featured online and then see it published. So it’s very rewarding too and it’s exciting for everybody, you know, it’s exciting for the couple, it’s exciting for the photographer and all the vendors.

So, yeah, some people need help and I think it’s also when you get your wedding featured right, you’ve had a successful, you get it’s an acceptance. Learn from that wedding and take that with you to the next curation, right? So, like, what images did you include? You know, make a mental note like, okay, they liked this or they, I put in more of this one and they liked it.

I think it’s really helpful to sort of always be tweaking, like what you’re including, because the market has shifted, the photography is different, what’s getting featured is different, and being aware of that is important as a photographer, as a planner and, like I said in the beginning, aligning your style of photography with the right publication is really half the battle, because once you start getting accepted and getting featured, you’re going to build relationships with those editors and that’s really what you want, because you could become a source for them for an article. They can reach out to you because they’re looking for a picture for a slideshow. Or they might just say oh, I saw you posted this picture from a wedding. Can you send me that wedding? I want to see more of that. That might be a perfect fit for our site. And all of those relationships start to build from there and that all leads from your very first publication.

0:17:57 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, that’s a great point. Like it is very much a relational business and you have this opportunity to build relationships with the editors that you work with, because they’re constantly looking for stuff. They’re on like a perpetual hamster wheel of always having to find new stuff and put it out there, so we are a crucial part of that ecosystem. I think sometimes it’s like it can feel like, oh, I’m bothering them and I’m pitching myself. It’s like, yeah, but they need this, they need a wedding for this feature and they need you to put your wedding forward because it might be the right fit and if not, you know, not the biggest deal in the world, but at least you know you have put yourself out there. I’m sure a lot of people get hung up on that fear of like, what if? What if they hate me? What if they hate my work?

0:18:56 – Jainé Kershner
right, yeah, I think that’s like a big you know. I think that’s a mindset issue you have to tell yourself. You know, you can’t sit home in front of your computer and say, oh my God, I’ve never been featured on Brides. Well, it’s like when was the last time you submitted to them? Do the editors know who you are? Have they seen your work? And if the answer is no, well then you have your answer should be okay. Well, how am I going to submit to them? Or what am I going to do? Or what’s the process for them? Or even if they say no, it can be the opportunity for a yes later down the road, right?

So I always say aim high, start with your dream publication, right, who’s your top tier? And then work your way down. And then, if you get a lower publication and I mean lower in the sense of like, not maybe national, maybe it’s regional, maybe it’s a smaller blog with a smaller following, you know, all press is good press. So that one blog that maybe is local, you know, maybe they have a really good Pinterest platform and they’ve got a lot of followers on there. Or maybe they have a really active Instagram community, you know, maybe they have a sub stack. Maybe they have other ways where their community you know in their newsletters that maybe they do every week or month or day. So there’s always an opportunity to get your name out there in a really positive way. You just have to be open to it. You know, if you’re only want the top tier publications, I mean that’s a goal, that’s a wonderful goal. But if you’re just starting out and you’re getting your feet wet into submissions, you know, have your top tier and then work your way down and wherever you land, you know you your success, that’s amazing, it should be celebrated and that’s really how I look at things and that’s how I started.

When I was doing this in the beginning of my career, you know, I started off with smaller publications, regional publications, and then one day I was, you know, got accepted to be in print in the knot and I like literally almost died. And then when I got the magazine it was it was a single page and they had publications that were multi-pages. So it went from like three or four pages to two pages, to one page, and I was like, okay, my next goal is to get a multi-page wedding in here, right? So like that happened a few years later. So it’s always good to keep pushing yourself At least I think so Because it’s just helpful for you and your brand and I think it’s exciting. I mean, who doesn’t want to see their work?

0:21:32 – Heidi Thompson
in print, absolutely. And I think there’s a lot to be said for smaller publications, for regional publications. I think we automatically assume the bigger the publication is, the bigger the results I will get. Like I’m going to be booked out because I got featured in Brides. I mean maybe I’m going to be booked out because I got featured in Brides. I mean maybe probably not, but you know that’s a nationwide publication. It’s also getting in front of a lot of people who you can’t work with, whereas something regional everybody seeing that is in your area might be a more ideal client. And I’ve definitely found from my own PR, from seeing my clients get featured, it’s often quite surprising what really takes off, what really you know turns into more opportunities, turns into bookings and a lot of times it’s not the super high tier.

0:22:33 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, yeah. I think being open to any sort of press that is positive for your company, for your business and for yourself is always a win. You know, sometimes it might just be an image in a slideshow, it could be a quote in an interview hey, but that’s your name on the internet, right? That’s just one more place where someone can discover you and then go to your site, go to your Instagram and then all of a sudden become obsessed with you and decide, oh, I have to work with you, like, this is the person for me. And when the time is right, they reach out. And they’re already a fan, they already know your work, they’re already obsessed and it’s an automatic yes. So a lot of that can happen too.

I’ve had some stories where people find me from a publication from many, many years ago and they’ll say and I’ve been following you for five years and I’m finally engaged and you’re my photographer. I’m like, okay, so that can you know? That’s exciting too. So I think you just have to be open to sort of spreading your name in the right publications. Obviously, you want to be in alignment with your brand. I think that’s very key.

I’ve always been a proponent of aligning myself with publications, big or small, that I felt were a brand match. You know, and I think also a good tip and something I learned early on is that if you’re the photographer or if you’re the planner, you want to own the submission process. Don’t leave it up to the clients, because they might submit their wedding on their own without telling you the person who took the pictures or planned it, and they might get it accepted in a place that you don’t want to be featured in. And I had that happen one time and I was like, oh my gosh, well, I’m going to keep it there because the client’s happy and they’re very excited about it. But it wasn’t in the brand alignment for me at that time.

I still isn’t, but I just sucked it up. But what did I do? I updated my contract, I updated my processes and now it says submissions can only be done by the photographer. And I’ve never had that issue ever again. You have to go through things to realize what not to do. But I think the professionals who are listening to this, you want to be in the driver’s seat because you want to put your brand in the right alignment with who you are and their audience and their publications, because that, hopefully, is potentially your next client. You know they’re going to see you there and they’re going to be excited about you.

0:25:17 – Heidi Thompson
I’m really glad you shared that. Thank you. I feel like every line like that in a contract has a story behind it. Yeah, for sure there’s a reason why we had to add that, but it’s something I’m sure a lot of people don’t even think about because they’re like, yeah, I’ll be the one that does this, but if that’s never communicated in any sort of way, it’s really just an assumption.

0:25:39 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, and you don’t want that to happen. Learn from my mistake.

0:25:45 – Heidi Thompson
So aligning yourself with the right publication, the right publications, making like that wish list of places you want to be featured is super important. But let’s talk a little bit about the people behind that. Can you tell us a little bit about you? Know? I’m sure many people aren’t even really familiar with what our editors in this situation where they do. I know this is the person maybe that’s in charge of this, but how do I find maybe that specific editor to reach out to? What does working with them look like?

0:26:22 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. So I think the best way to go about this is that the editors hold the keys to the publication, right? So as much as we curate and we submit and we align, try to align ourselves and pick the right images, at the end of the day it’s up to the editor, right? So they have the final say and, depending if they like it or not, they can say yes or no, or it could be a hold. It could be like we’re going to hold onto this and maybe think about it a little bit more, or we’re going to talk about it with our team and get back to you. So you have to be aware of that. And sometimes things get denied just because they’ve already featured something like this or the colors, they’ve already done something in these colors, or the venue is featured too much. I had a client get denied from one place because they had featured the venue four times. You know. So, like there are things, you, that are out of your control but the editor is very aware of, right? So you just, if you get denied, it could not be because of the photography, it could be because of the venue, right? Or they just featured this. So you have to. You can always ask. I always like to ask the editors, you know, is there anything I could have done differently and is there a reason why I would say 95% won’t get back to you, but the 5% that do? It’s very helpful information, so don’t be afraid to ask.

Like, editors are people too. They’re very nice and also a good tip is to be nice to them, right? So they are people. They have feelings. If you are rude, they will not like that. So kill them with kindness. Follow up with kindness. Just check in here and there, and if they don’t get back, they don’t get back. But don’t ever cross the line of like hey, what’s going on here, are you interested or not? If they don’t get back, they don’t get back. But don’t ever cross the line of like hey, what’s going on here? Are you interested or not? Like, don’t, please don’t. Just, you know, move on. You know they have a time frame. Usually they will say so, ok.

So before I go into that, the editors, I would say go to the websites or the Instagram pages of the places you want to be featured and then find out who the editor is and how you can do that If you go to the website, they usually have like an about us or the editor’s page or contact us or even a submissions. You know everybody’s different, but usually they will list who the editors are and then you can do a little sleuthing and find them on Instagram. They’re usually all public and then you can start following them there and see what they’re doing in their maybe normal lives or everyday lives and then what they’re featuring and then, if you’re commenting on their pictures or stories, building that relationship organically and authentically, when the time comes for you to submit, you can write your correspondence. Know, you write your correspondence to the editor and talk about a little bit about them. And oh, it’s so fun following you on Instagram and I love that you just went away.

I have this great wedding and I think it might be a fit for your publication, and then here’s the link and all that stuff. So I think that’s how you find the editors going to the main website, looking at the masthead, if you have a printed magazine reading the masthead and finding out who’s who and then just following them, and then you know, building that authentic relationship is very helpful. And then also, depending where you are in the country, you know being in the places where they are. I live in New York City so I see a lot of them at industry events or even if you go to networking events or bigger wedding industry events like Engage or WPPI or anything like that, usually there’s an editor or two or a bunch that are there to speak. So you can even meet them in person and start that conversation in real life and then take it offline and maybe, you know, follow up with an email or a note. So I think that’s, I hope that’s helpful. Does that make sense?

0:30:25 – Heidi Thompson
It does, and I’m really glad you brought up that kind of priming of okay, I’m not just going to find them and then just start blasting them with stuff. I’m going to find them, I’m going to find out who they are. I’m going to find them on Instagram, I’m going to start following with them, I’m going to start authentically engaging, thoughtfully engaging, so they at least become aware of who I am, so that when my pitch does show up, when my submission does show up, they at least are like oh yeah, I’ve seen her commenting on my Instagram posts lately. I think it’s really easy to discount how important that is, and we do it in normal human interaction, but I think when we take it into business, we kind of forget how that works.

0:31:18 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, and they’re regular people, yeah, they are like you and me and yeah, they hold the keys to the publication and they’re just not going to take anything. They have standards. But if you start to get into their orbit because you’re like, okay, I really want to be on this publication, I really want to go for the anti-bride, right, or I really want to go on the wed, well, finding out who runs those you know publications or resources, is going to be helpful because you can just sort of see what they’re up to, see what they like, see if your work is going to be a fit for them and then, yeah, cultivate that relationship in a natural, nice, organic way and that and that will help you throughout your whole career. You know, I think that’s like kind of you know the way to do it is just be yourself, be kind, reach out and you know, if they say no, not you know they say not at this time, you know, submit later on.

You know you can reply back and ask them. You know, could you let me know if there’s something I could improve or you just didn’t think it was a fit and maybe, because they know you a little bit more, they might reply and give you like a sentence or two as to why it was denied, and that is really priceless. And I can’t. You know, I can remember a handful of times where people have written me back and it’s been so insightful and so helpful because I can give you all the tips from a photographer’s point of view. But I’m not an editor, you know. So I can’t, I can’t speak for them. I can only do my best to share what has worked for me, what has worked for my submission clients, and we just sort of. I’m always tweaking and pruning and updating my own processes for myself and my clients because I want everybody to be featured and have that little excitement, excitement.

0:33:13 – Heidi Thompson
What sort of seasonality should people be keeping in mind with this? Because I know you know every different publication is going to have a different lead time, but can you give us some general parameters around you know? Okay, if I’m really looking to get this super summery wedding featured, when should I be thinking about doing this? When should I be making the submission?

0:33:37 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. So I would let’s start with this If you have an event, you want to submit it within the 12 months 12 months to 18 months is its viability of when it is when it can be featured. So if you have a wedding in September and you, if you’re the photographer and you get the pictures done by October, mid-October, November, I would honestly start submitting it as soon as you can, because you only have a year to 18 months for it to be publishable, right? So the publications want current, fresh content and they want stuff to inspire their readers for the next wave of people getting married. So if you have a wedding that’s older than that, it could be, it could be an issue, right, it could be dated, quote unquote. It’s just, it’s just too old for them to want to feature it.

I’ve had some publications. Some of them don’t care. I should preface that some of them are non-exclusive. They don’t care when it was shot, as long as it’s beautiful or there’s a great story or the details are really intricate. They’re more into that. But if you’re looking to be like, let’s say, the Knot, right. So they still have publications in print. Well, they have very specific timeframes, so they they won’t take anything older than 18 months.

And then you also have to remember that, depending on the publication which is why it’s very important to do your research in the beginning, it all goes back to that. It’s what is their lead time, right? So let’s say, carrots and cake, they’re back up and running with publications and they have a six-week wait time to be featured, right? So that’s, from being accepted to being featured, is you’re gonna wait six weeks? Style Me Pretty? All of a sudden, now they have a wait of like four to six months, right? So if your wedding was shot, let’s just say January and then you submit it in March, well, it won’t be featured anywhere till you know. Let’s say October, right? Or like September. I’m doing fast math in my head. It’s probably wrong, but you get the point. So if you have a winter wedding and you want it to be featured next winter, your best bet is to submit it in the summer, because if it gets picked up within four to eight weeks, it could be featured that December. Does that make sense? Like it it does, yeah. Yeah, like the editorial calendar.

And I will say this I’ve had several clients who have, let’s say, like a themed wedding or a very one color wedding. I had a client where the wedding was red and pink, screaming red and pink, and she gave it to me to submit in January. It was a winter wedding and I said, okay, I think we could pull this off for Valentine’s day, right? So I reached out to an editor that I have a relationship with and I said I have this really beautiful wedding. It’s red and pink. What do you think if I sent her a few previews and she’s like I want it for Valentine’s day. Can you get it to me? So that print timeframe was really short to do this curation but we got it up, we got it in and she was featured on Valentine’s day.

So if you have stuff that is specific to like a holiday or a time of year, you really want to be on top of it to get it in on time. So if you have like a spring, maybe Easter or like I don’t know, there are some Halloween people out there. They have Halloween weddings. You know they have that sort of goth or something you know you want to be aware of that. So to get it, let’s say you have an October wedding, you want to get it featured for the next October. You would start submitting like February, like no later than that, because you want it to be on that editor’s calendar for that specific holiday or maybe it’s a holiday theme. So you would start submitting it in the summer so they could publish it by December. But I would not recommend waiting to December to submit your winter wedding.

0:37:40 – Heidi Thompson
I’m really glad you said that. I think a lot of people might err on the side of well, I’m not gonna submit this now. It’s not relevant now, right, but that’s not the timeline they’re working on.

0:37:50 – Jainé Kershner
Right, yeah, editors are like three, six, nine months in advance of where you are.

0:37:55 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and if Editors are like three, six, nine months in advance of where you are, yeah, and if you want to be like first in there getting in a winter wedding, and it’s, you know, may that might catch their eye that you were first you were in there. You were something that was a good fit.

0:38:11 – Jainé Kershner
They might snap that up exactly. Yeah, so you want to also be thinking kind of like an editor, right? So they have an editorial calendar. You might submit your wedding and say, hey, this was from the fall of you know, whatever the recent year that we’re in, and then you can say it might be great for your upcoming fall season. You know, I think it would be a super fit because of X, y and Z, it’s got the colors, it’s got the colors, it’s got the tartan, it has this blah, blah, blah and it has this amazing story from this couple. So you know, you kind of have to think like an editor again from the very beginning of this curation process, of curating your images like an editor, which all goes back to doing the research, of aligning your photography with the right brand, right.

0:38:59 – Heidi Thompson
I’m really glad you just laid that out, because it’s not like, hey, here’s this wedding, look at it, tell me if you like it. It’s here’s why I think this is a good fit. I think it would be perfect because X, y, z, like you are matchmaking yourself and the publication at that point, and I am certain that editors very much appreciate that yeah, yeah, because if all the editor gets a spring floral, pastel weddings, it’s like, well, that’s not the whole year.

0:39:30 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, you know, they want to see everything, and I think it’s also good to say that, with the shift in weddings that are being featured, don’t hold back on your reception photos, right? Don’t hold back on the reception dancing, on the emotions, on the wide hero shots of the locations and the drone shots, and they want to see all of that. So I think you know a tip for this year. You know, for anything going forward is like include all of that, because that’s what they want to see. I know even myself I was guilty for a long time, way back in the day, of like not including any reception photos or like only a couple. But now if you look at a lot of the weddings that are featured, it’s a lot of dancing, it’s a lot of partying, it’s a lot of the real, like emotional stuff. So don’t be afraid to like experiment a little and put more of that in there so that you catch their eye as well.

0:40:31 – Heidi Thompson
I like that you are in this forever process that we all really should be in business of observing and then adapting, and observing and adapting to make sure what you’re doing, whether it’s for yourself or for your clients, is going to be the best possible fit Because, like you said, their preferences change, what they want to focus on changes. I mean, we may or may not be privy to why that is, but you can pick it up observationally.

0:41:04 – Jainé Kershner
Right, exactly, yeah, I’m always looking at what’s going on, what’s being featured. I’m like, oh, they like that wedding. Okay, all right, well, that’s different. Or, oh my God, that wedding is so beautiful, like, I totally understand why they picked that. But again, it depends on who is the editor, right, what they’re inspired by, what they want their readers to be inspired by. So, again, I think it’s really important to do that research in the beginning.

I’m like a broken record, but it’s important to do that research in the beginning I’m like a broken record, but it’s good, we need to hear it.

You know, I just feel like everything is aligning yourself properly because you’re already going to put your best foot forward. You know I think I’ve said this a bunch of times but it’s like if you are a film photographer or dark and moody photographer, full flash, and you’re going to and you submit your work to a light, classic, timeless wedding blog, it’s going to be a no right, like it’s like it doesn’t work because they don’t feature that. But if you find your perfect match, that looks the weddings look like your work or your clients. You know who. If you’re the planner, well, you’re already going to have a good foot in because they might consider that more or might be an automatic yes or we’re going to put a pin on that and come back to it. So you never know. I’ve had weddings where they were in consideration for bigger publications and they had teams of editors who were looking at it and they would say yes or no. So you never know who else is in the making the decisions.

0:42:42 – Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and I’m sure you know they’re getting a lot of submissions and I’m really curious I mean, we’ve talked a little bit about this but I’m curious what steps you take in the submissions you do to try to make it stand out to the editors out of that like huge digital pile of submissions that they get.

0:43:02 – Jainé Kershner
Well, I think my biggest tip or maybe trick, I don’t know is that I like to do my curation, I’ll do my codes, I’ll put everything together in chronological order. I think that’s a really big tip. Don’t confuse the editor. They want to see it start to finish. But what I like to do is in the beginning I’ll take my three best pictures that I’m like obsessed with for my client or myself, and I put them in the front of the gallery. So when they open up the curation they see those three or four maybe even five would be the max best images to give them an overall vibe check of the wedding. And then it goes into the regular curation. I feel like that is one way that we stand out a little bit, where it’s not just paper. When they open up the photos, it’s like the couple you know there’s a confetti thing or the processional, or maybe it’s an incredible hero shot on a drone and just to get them excited about it. And then also, I think a really good thing is give them exactly what they ask for, right? So each publication is different, each publication has a certain criteria and I think you need to give them exactly what they ask for and make it easy for them. So the biggest tip is like if they want a Dropbox folder, give them a Dropbox folder. If they want a gallery, give them a gallery. But Also make sure that there’s no passwords. They don’t have to input anything, they can just open it up and it’s just easy for them.

The moment that you make it difficult, they move on right Because, like you said, they get hundreds, probably hundreds of submissions a day. So if they click on your link and it says, put your password in to view the photos, they’re already moved on. They’re not even going to look at it. So don’t do yourself, you know, don’t do yourself a disservice and make it more difficult. And if they want all the vendor information, make sure you have that.

Make sure you know you have a little blurb. If they want that about the couple, you know, highlight any of the main vendors that are big names, or maybe it’s a celebrity wedding. You know if I’ve had some clients where they’ve had some big influencers or celebrities and we definitely with that like this is so-and-so’s couple and they got married in this place in Italy and it was amazing, blah, blah, blah. So it’s just, you kind of just have to be aware of what you’re working with and then, and then hopefully, pull out the points of that that make it stand out and then make it exciting for the editor to look at.

0:45:47 – Heidi Thompson
I think that’s good advice for anyone. You want to do anything, make it easy, don’t make them work, yeah.

0:45:56 – Jainé Kershner
Don’t make them work harder, because they’re already doing a lot. Yeah, yeah absolutely.

0:46:02 – Heidi Thompson
Before we wrap, I’m curious about your follow-up strategy with your submissions.

0:46:09 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, that’s a good one. So it depends, like I said, every publication has a different workflow. So they will let you know on their inquiry form what their process is. So some people can say we’ll get back to you within 10 days with a yes or no. You’ll hear from us either way. Some people will say if you don’t hear from us in eight weeks, move on. Or some people will say we’ll get back to you four to six weeks. If you haven’t heard from us, feel free to reach out. So they’re pretty clear as to what their follow-up process is or what they want to happen.

Now I will caveat that with saying, because I’ve been doing this a long time, I have relationships with people where I will submit the wedding properly and then, if I don’t hear back within the six, four, eight week timeframe, I will send an email directly to my contact to be like hey, I just want to check in before I move on, want to make sure you have the opportunity to review this. If you think it’s a fit, great. If not, no worries Again, being kind, being courteous, a nice follow-up email. Usually they get back to me and they’ll say oh yeah, we didn’t have a chance to look at it or, oh yeah, we, you know it’s a no, but I think, because I have that relationship with certain people, I can do that.

But for the most part, you know, I follow the rules. I am a rule follower, that is definitely part of my personality. But again, with publications they’ll tell you. But I don’t think there’s any harm with following up at least once on your behalf because, look, no one’s going to fight harder for you than you. So if you want, if you feel that this is a fit and you want a reply, I would definitely send at least one follow-up directly to their hello account or whatever email they gave you and then take it from there. But again, being courteous is going to get you a lot further than being sour.

0:48:18 – Heidi Thompson
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more with you on that. Well, Jainé, where should people go if they want to connect with you? Maybe they want to work with you on submissions. What’s the best place for them to reach you?

0:48:33 – Jainé Kershner
Yeah, definitely. You can come and visit me at teawithjaine.com. That’s my blog. You’ll find our latest episodes. I have my own podcast there. You’ve been a guest twice, which is amazing and then you’ll find out more about our submission processes, how to work with me. There’s a whole page dedicated to that. I’ve got a speaking page if people want me to come on their podcast or come to the conferences and talk about submissions that way, and then you can see us on Instagram at Tea with Jainé way, and then you can see us on Instagram at @teawithjaine.

And if you want to see my photography, it’s just at jainekershner.com. You can find me there too. So they’re all kind of linked together and they’re all. They’re all pinged on each other, so if you get to one you can go the other. But yeah, I would. You can DM me if you want to find out more about working together for submissions and curations, and that’s really on a rolling calendar, so every week is different, every month is different and it’s like sort of first come, first serve. So if you want to work together, I’d love to hear from you and you can just shoot me an email or DM me.

0:49:38 – Heidi Thompson
Well, thank you so much. I think this has been really eye-opening for people and how you go about it and how seemingly straightforward it can be in an area that can feel very overwhelming. So thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

0:49:54 – Jainé Kershner
Thank you so much for having me. I hope it was helpful.

0:49:56 – Heidi Thompson
I feel like the way Jainé explained all of that and laid it out made it feel so much more doable. I know it did in my head, so I hope it did for you as well. Come let me know on Instagram, shoot me a DM. I am @evolveyourweddingbusiness over there and I would love to hear from you. Have you submitted weddings before? Are you planning on doing this in the future? Is this something you’re really interested in and you’re just like kind of dipping your toe in and trying to learn about it? Let me know, I’m really curious. I’m just generally a nosy person. I want to know these things, but I do want to hear from you what you took away from this. You can find the show notes for this episode over at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/328. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in, and I will speak to you again very soon.

About Jainé Kershner

Jainé Kershneris a wedding photographer, educator, and podcast host. In 2018, Jainé Kershner Photography launched Tea with Jainé to directly educate wedding photographers with honest answers, actionable steps, and tangible tips to successfully grow and create a profitable photography business.

Jainé Kershner is the host of “Tea with Jainé” podcast, where she chats with wedding industry insiders who share their knowledge, experience, and expertise directly with her audience. Jainé is a dedicated educator who offers submission curations services for wedding photographers, wedding planners.

Website: teawithjaine.com
Instagram: @teawithjaine

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Links & Resources:

The Wedding Business Collective
Episode 84: Getting Your Wedding Business Featured By The Media Without A Styled Shoot With Brigitte Lyons
The Power Of Social Proof with Michelle Braswell
Wedding PR Made Simple: How to Get Quoted, Published, and Book More Clients with Meghan Ely

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