How do I sell more weddings?

Whether you’re new to hosting weddings or you’re a seasoned wedding venue, selling more weddings and/or selling more wedding dates at a higher price is probably not often far from your thoughts and lips. 

How do I book more weddings at our venue? 

You may well ask – how do you attract to your venue or wedding location those spot on wedding couples? Those who value what you have and are ready to sign on the line almost before they walk in the door?  And how do you keep it simple too? 

1. Testimonials & Social Proof 

They have never been more important in all areas of our life as a consumer. Particularly when you’re spending possibly the largest amount you’ll ever spend on a one-day event in your lifetime.

Hearing from other couples about their experience of your venue, reading reviews from others about how amazing your team made their wedding, about how looked after they were and the social proof of how spoiled they have been is priceless.

And especially if you’ve been looking after couples during the height of the pandemic; how you treated them when times were tough is vital (almost to the point that pre 2020 testimonials are irrelevant).

Whether it’s Google Reviews, Trustpilot, your own website or social media. Making sure you ask for testimonials in a timely way and shout about them on all your platforms is key to sales success. 

And don’t forget text/written testimonials are great in helping you sell more weddings. But, video testimonials from those couples are even more powerful. 

2. Give the VIP Wedding Treatment 

Not just on the day itself, VIP wedding treatment needs to begin from the get-go.  That first point of contact where a couple interacts with your venue and your wedding team is where it all begins. This is a very special life experience and the journey and the planning deserves to be as special as the wedding day itself.  I cannot underestimate how far enthusiasm, warmth and rapport building goes in selling more weddings and how important your people are as well as your physical venue features; couples want to be greeted by a passionate team oozing energy and excitement for their day.

This is an emotional purchase and couples want a personal relationship with their major wedding suppliers; this is not a transactional purchase. Make sure you have your best people representing your venue at all the stages and that you invest in that vital team to help them keep being their best and having fun while they work. 

3. Clear and Transparent Wedding Venue Pricing 

Over 70% of a buying decision is made before a couple even tells you they are there and interested and certainly before they get in touch. 

The wedding couple of today wants to look at their options, be in control of their own budget and make early stage shortlisting in an empowered way.  In short they want pricing, they want to know roughly what your venue is going to cost and what their wedding budget is going to be if they choose your venue. And they don’t want to have to enquire, have lengthy conversations, arrange phone calls or wait for quotations.

If you want to sell more weddings with ease, make your pricing easily available on your website. At the very least a good guide price or sample pricing and wedding itinerary – it’s not to be hidden or hard to find. 

4.  Photos, Film and Creative Inspiration 

How do I sell more weddings?  Show, don’t tell. 

Never forget that couples have not seen your venue before, they are generally inexperienced event planners and they need to have the potential for what your space can do for them spelt out.  Couples are surrounded with imagery from the very creative industry and sector that is weddings; if you want to sell more weddings within it you need to stand out, invest in great photography, create your own styled shoots to demonstrate to and sell to your ideal client as well as use wedding-day imagery. 

Creative inspiration of how their wedding can be is absolutely vital, not forgetting the moving image, 3D tours and more. 

5.  Listen First 

And finally, if you want to sell more weddings, listen up to what your clients are asking and wanting.  As the expression goes we have 2 ears and 1 mouth and we should use them in that ratio. Ask great questions, ask really great questions! Listen, deeply listen to feedback. Listen to what is being asked and what is not being asked. Then, let the answers help to shape your offering.

Like all businesses, the great wedding venues are never “done”. There is always an investment, an adjustment and a fresh way of doing things. Personalising to the customer, to wedding market trends and being able to respond to customer needs in order to sell more weddings with ease. 

I’m passionate about supporting venues to be their best selves. If you’re looking to move your venue successes forward you can work with me in the following ways: 

• Purchase from my Training Hub where you will find online video training courses and other ‘off the shelf’ products to support you in selling more of your ideal weddings.

• A 90-minute on-demand one-off session.

• Private Wedding Venue Consulting on-site at your venue. Providing fresh eyes, expertise and perspective on your marketing, sales and wedding venue operations.