-: So, my name is Nicole Daacke.
I started a wedding photography business
about a year ago, officially,
and, I photograph weddings,
but I also photograph engagement sessions.
And I really love travel and landscape photography,
so that dabbles in there, and, of course,
other random photo gigs, but mostly wedding photography.
My whole business kind of runs off of the philosophy
of building a relationship with that couple.
I really believe in cultivating that relationship
throughout the year of their engagement,
and when I'm working with them,
so that when the wedding day actually comes,
I'm not this random person there,
I'm someone that they are really comfortable with
and that shows in how the day proceeds,
but it also, in their photos
and how relaxed and comfortable they are.
So that kinda starts from day one
in us having regular meetings.
And a lot of times, that can honestly just be to get coffee
and talk about life and not even talk about their wedding.
And then, about six months out, I give them a questionnaire.
And that has over 70 questions about
how their day's gonna go, timing of things,
what's important to them, a bunch of information.
And then from that, I actually make a timeline.
So, we work together.
I kinda build a basic timeline of basically,
this is when I'm coming, this is what I'm shooting when,
this is when you need to be ready,
when family needs to be there, ceremony, reception,
all that good stuff.
And from there, we kind of nail that out and I work with the
other vendors they're hiring to make sure that
that is clear across every board.
I have them make a family shot list, or group shot list.
So we have the list of people that they know they want
photos of, and the combinations of those people.
And then, typically an engagement session is thrown in there
at some point, too, so we are getting to shoot together.
I can kinda see how they interact,
and they can learn how I direct and shoot with them.
And then the wedding day comes and goes smoothly,
'cause we've done all this planning and preparation for it.
And then after the wedding,
I also help them to build an album.
So, I have album credit in all of my collections,
and that is kind of a whole process in itself,
of after the wedding and after their gallery
is completely edited, and they've seen all that,
we work together to kind of build their album spreads
and then create the final product so they have all of those
photos that they've invested the time and money into having,
preserved in an appropriate way.
Yeah, so in the off-season,
I'm preparing a lot of stuff on my website,
and making sure that's up-to-date,
as well as the different types of marketing techniques
I wanna use for the following year.
Really being strong about my social media
and reaching out to couples.
And just a lot of longterm thinking of the direction
I want my business to go,
and the things I don't have time for
when I'm busy shooting and editing.