Want a Calm, Consistent Booking Season in 2026? Now Is the Time to Act

In this episode we’ll cover:

• Why your 2026 wedding bookings are being decided right now, even if couples have not inquired yet
• The single most important shift wedding pros make to create a steady booking season
• How to avoid the feast-or-famine cycle by taking action before it’s “slow season”
• What top wedding pros are doing differently to consistently book at the prices they want
• Why waiting until you “have time” to focus on marketing is the biggest mistake you can make

Want a Calm, Consistent Booking Season in 2026? Now Is the Time to Act

0:00:00 – Heidi Thompson
Today, I want to talk to you about the actions you can take now that will impact your next booking season and three big things that come as a result of that. Right now is the time to focus on this because, believe it or not, engagement season is right around the corner.

0:00:36 – Intro
If you don’t have your marketing on point, you’re going to miss out. So let’s dig in. This is the Evolve your Wedding Business Podcast. Here is your host, Heidi Thompson.

0:00:56 – Heidi Thompson
Hello there, my friend. Welcome to the podcast. I’m your host, Heidi Thompson, and I am here to help you book more of the weddings you want. Now you may have heard talk about an engagement slump. You know that weird leftover thing from COVID that there was a whole year where people didn’t date and so we’re not seeing as many engagements. But what’s happening this year can’t be described by just one thing. What’s actually happening in 2025 is much more layered than that. Here’s what we’re really seeing.

There are fewer weddings overall, that is true, but those who are booking are spending more per event. Couples are booking later, they’re being more selective and they’re stretching out planning timelines. The inquiry to booking window has jumped significantly, from around an average of 40 days to over 70 in some cases. And, of course, economic factors like tariffs and inflation are raising costs for everyone, which is making couples overall more cautious and, in some cases, even resistant to taking action. This means vendors are navigating slower inquiries, longer decision times and higher pressure to stand out because, on top of all that, we have more saturated markets than ever. I also heard this from a wedding planner recently. She said I don’t need the six-figure luxury clients, I just want the 50 to 100K weddings, and I really don’t know where those couples are anymore. If you are feeling like that, too, you’re not alone. If you are feeling like that, too, you’re not alone, and it’s not just the market. It’s a signal that your marketing may not be connecting with the people that you want to be booking. Yet what I’ve seen across the board is that wedding pros who are sitting and waiting for leads, relying on just referrals or directories, are the ones that are struggling the most right now. But those who have taken the time to define their message become the go-to person for their specific ideal client. Show up strategically and adapt to the ways that couples are booking now, while they’re seeing success even in slower markets.

A calm booked out 2026, though, doesn’t start in January. It starts now. This end-of-summer period is your chance to build the kind of systems messaging that stands out and marketing that actually works so that when couples start reaching out this engagement season, you are more than ready. You’re not scrambling, you’re not wondering why things feel slow, but you’re ready, you’re aligned and you’re showing up with clarity. You know exactly what you need to do in your marketing to attract and book those couples you really want. Let’s talk about what’s on the other side of that kind of action, because it’s not just about more bookings. It’s about how your whole life gets to feel different. There are three big transformations I see on the other side of this. The first is financial freedom from booking clients who focus on value, not price.

A floral designer that I worked with named Carolyn. When we first met, she was doing flower farming as well as trying to market to couples for weddings, and she didn’t really know how market to couples for weddings and she didn’t really know how. She wasn’t getting consistent or quality leads and she was paying for advertising that wasn’t worth it, especially when she was really just barely paying herself. But once she shifted her focus to attracting and booking the clients she actually wanted to work with, everything changed for her After joining the Wedding Business Collective. She told me that she felt like an actual legit business owner. Her pricing now starts somewhere between $12,000 and $18,000. She booked a wedding with a $35,000 floral spend and she has been able to outsource and get some things off her plate.

Then there is the fabulous DJ, Neil McFarlane, who you may remember from a previous episode of the podcast. When I met Neil, he was a solo business owner who wasn’t getting enough of his ideal clients and he had been in the business for several decades. He realized, hey, I don’t want to be working every weekend until 3am. So since then he has built an entire team of associate DJs and train them in his specific, unique approach. So clients still get his signature experience, no matter who works their wedding. Now he has the financial freedom of more revenue coming in and the time freedom to focus on growing the business and mentoring new DJs, which is something he absolutely loves to do. The second type of freedom is around time. Time to spend with family, friends, traveling, doing whatever it is that you love.

An officiant named Erin I worked with. She has a full-time job growing her successful wedding business and had two kids, two teens, and she made the conscious effort not to work nonstop so she could spend more of her weekends, more of the time that she had left with her kids before they go off to college, and she was able to do that with her business in addition to a full-time job. Imagine that it resulting in more time off. A stationery designer, Emily, had two young kids when she joined the Wedding Business Collective and a growing business. Her youngest was just starting school, so she’s in a different position than Erin was. She’s getting herself set up now. She’s focusing on her marketing plan. She’s prepping to outsource and being super intentional with the limited time she does have. She does fewer things, but she does the right things and it’s making a huge difference in her bookings.

Wedding planner Kay Northrup. When she first joined the Wedding Business Collective and attended her first summit, she was doing what most people do random acts of marketing. But once she learned exactly what she needed to do to attract and book her ideal clients, she started attracting and booking people who wanted to plan destination weddings all around the world, getting paid to travel, which is her absolute favorite thing to do. And that all starts with who you book. You have to have a plan to attract and convert the right people.

The third type of freedom is maybe a little more internal and it’s the way you’ll feel that pride, the confidence that I have my life under control, feeling that we don’t get to feel that often when business is going well. You don’t just feel busy and pulled in a million different directions. You feel like a real CEO. You feel proud when someone asks you so how’s your business going. That sense of pride and confidence and legitimacy is something I hear often from members of the Wedding Business Collective. In a panel we did, Emily said she actually felt like a business owner, a CEO, and she wasn’t flying by the seat of her pants anymore. Christy, a photographer, said after going through our Create Your Overwhelm Squashing Marketing Plan course inside of the Wedding Business Collective, told her husband that she felt like she took an entire semester of business school in this one course. She was no longer trying to do all the things. Now she does fewer things and she does them with intention and gets better results, and that’s what makes her feel like a CEO, like a business owner who knows what she’s doing, who knows what she’s doing, and that feeling is powerful. That’s what’s possible and it starts now.

If you want your 2026 to feel calm, in control, booked, intentional, join us for the Book More Wedding Summit. It’s happening next week, August 18th through the 22nd. It’s totally free to attend and you will hear from more than 45 expert speakers in our industry on what is working right now to attract and book your ideal clients. Head over to bookmoreweddingssummit.com to grab your ticket, and that link will be in the show notes as well. If this episode has helped you envision a possibility of a calmer, more consistent business, shoot me a DM over on Instagram with the word calm. I am @evolveyourweddingbusiness over there and I can point you to some sessions in the summit that’ll be perfect for the kind of transformation you are working toward in 2026. Let’s build that version of your business the calm, having it together, booked version together. I’ll see you at Book More Wedding Summit.

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
The Belief That’s Secretly Sabotaging Your Wedding Bookings

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