Getting started as a wedding photographer

As a photographer, your day starts before anyone else and your deliverable arrives weeks after the wedding ends. Wedding Computer tracks the full arc — from first enquiry through gallery delivery — and puts your call times and location details into the shared timeline where every other vendor can see them.

Step 1 — Complete your profile

Open Settings and complete the Business section:

Business name — your photography business name
Category — select Photographer
Location — your base city or region
Bio, website, Instagram — your portfolio and contact links appear on your directory listing

Why: When a planner or venue adds you to a wedding workspace, other vendors see your profile. A link to your Instagram portfolio is often the fastest way for vendors to understand your style before they’ve seen your work in person.

Step 2 — Build your photography enquiry form

Go to Forms → Enquiry and customise the questions couples answer. For photographers, the most useful questions are:

Wedding date
Ceremony location (venue name and suburb)
Getting-ready location — is it at the venue, or a separate hotel/home?
Reception location (if different from ceremony)
Estimated guest count
Approximate number of hours of coverage requested
Package interest (if you offer defined packages)
Are they looking for a second shooter?
Any specific moments or locations they want prioritised
How they heard about you

Why: Photography logistics depend heavily on location. A ceremony at a venue 90 minutes outside the city is a different day to a ceremony in the CBD. Knowing locations from the start means you can plan your day, quote accurately for travel, and identify any golden hour constraints before the first call — once the wedding is on the workspace, Wedding Computer calculates the actual golden-hour window for you (see Step 5).

Replying without extra apps: Every account includes a free inbox at yourhandle@wedding.computer, so you don’t need a separate email client to work an enquiry — every message you send or receive there logs itself onto that contact’s record automatically, alongside their notes and invoices. From the contact, click Draft email for a one-click AI-written reply grounded in their enquiry details, wedding date, and your notes — it covers the warm follow-up, the “we’re not available that date” decline, or a referral to another vendor, whichever fits. You always review and edit before sending. See Email and AI features & integrations.

Step 3 — Create a package invoice and payment schedule

Go to Invoices → New invoice, or create an invoice from a contact or wedding workspace. Add your package as line items, then set a typical photographer payment structure:

Package total — the agreed package price
Booking fee (deposit) (typically 25–33%) — due at booking to secure the date
Balance — due 2–4 weeks before the wedding, or on the wedding day

Wedding Computer does not currently offer invoice templates. For an elopement, portrait session, or different coverage package, create the invoice with the appropriate line items and schedule.

Set your one default service contract under Settings → Contracts. Wedding Computer copies it onto each new invoice. The couple reads it on the booking page, types their full name and email address, and ticks that they agree. This is a recorded typed acceptance, not a drawn signature or downloadable signed service-contract PDF.

Why: The invoice records the package, booking fee, later instalments, and the exact contract text accepted for that booking. If Stripe is connected, the booking form can continue to Stripe Checkout for the booking fee; record later payments as you receive them.

Step 4 — Connect your read-only calendar feed

Open Account → Personal calendar to create your free private feed. Subscribe in Apple Calendar or copy its link into your calendar app:

iPhone / Apple Calendar: tap the link on your phone, or go to Calendar → Add Account → Other → Add Subscribed Calendar
Google Calendar: Other calendars → From URL
Outlook: Add calendar → Subscribe from web

The feed includes wedding-day markers and timeline sections shared with or assigned to you. Dates, times, and locations already recorded on those entries are available from the calendar app.

For a Pro business connection, open Settings → Calendar & contacts and create a named calendar connection. Its iCal or CalDAV credential is read-only. Wedding Computer changes appear after the calendar provider refreshes, but edits in Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook, or another app do not flow back.

Why: Your wedding calendar isn’t just a list of dates. When a shared or assigned timeline entry has a location, the calendar entry keeps that location alongside the relevant call time. The complete getting-ready, ceremony, and reception plan remains in the wedding timeline.

Step 5 — Add your timeline items to each wedding workspace

When you join a wedding workspace, go to Timeline and add your schedule items. For a typical photography day:

Getting-ready coverage start (time and location)
First look (if planned)
Ceremony start (you’ll see this already if the celebrant or planner has added it)
Post-ceremony bridal party portraits
Family formal portraits
Couple portraits / golden hour session
Reception coverage start
Key reception moments: first dance, cake cut, speeches, bouquet toss
End of coverage

Set these to vendors visibility so the planner, celebrant, videographer, and florist can all see your schedule. Set any notes about your specific timing needs (portrait time needs minimum 45 minutes before sunset) as private or as a checklist item.

Golden hour, calculated for you: Instead of negotiating exact timing over text, open the wedding workspace’s Weather section — sunrise, sunset, and golden hour are calculated automatically for the wedding’s date and location. Use the Add sun times button to drop them onto the timeline as reference markers, or set your portraits item to Relative timing anchored a set number of minutes before golden hour so it recalculates itself if the date ever changes. The same section shows an AI-written long-range climate outlook as soon as the wedding is booked, then switches to a live day-by-day forecast during the final week — useful when you’re deciding how much buffer to build into an outdoor session.

Why: Your timeline items solve the most common wedding day coordination problem: the planner texts you mid-day asking “how long do you need for portraits?” — and you have to find your phone, check your notes, and respond. With your items in the shared timeline, everyone already knows your windows, including exactly when golden hour falls without anyone needing to look it up. Fewer texts, more shooting.

Step 6 — Set your availability

Open Calendar → Availability and:

Set which days you shoot weddings (typically weekends and some Fridays)
Block individual holidays or personal commitments; confirmed wedding workspaces and booking events mark their dates as booked automatically
Under Settings → Availability sharing, choose Public

If you do multiple weddings per weekend (Friday + Saturday + Sunday), each confirmed wedding is marked as booked automatically. Manually block any adjacent travel or recovery day on which you do not want another booking.

Why: An accurate public availability calendar means enquiries come in only for open dates. Couples check your calendar before they fill in your enquiry form.

Step 7 — Track gallery delivery milestones

After the wedding, use your vendor checklist in the wedding workspace or the contact’s notes to track:

Culling complete
Editing complete
Gallery delivered to couple
Final files backed up

The wedding checklist is part of your vendor view; it is not a shared progress tracker for the couple. Send the couple a direct update when you want them to know that a milestone has been reached.

Why: A consistent internal checklist prevents delivery steps being missed, while deliberate updates give the couple a clear expectation without exposing your internal workflow.

You’re ready when:

Your profile is complete (category as Photographer, location, portfolio links)
Your enquiry form asks location and coverage questions
You know how to build your package invoice and have one default service contract ready
Stripe is connected with your deposit/balance structure
Your availability is accurate and set to Public
Your iCal feed is subscribed in your phone calendar

What to do right now

Subscribe to your iCal feed — it takes two minutes and immediately starts showing your weddings in your phone calendar. Then open your next booked wedding and add your photography timeline items so the planner and couple can see your schedule for the day.

Go deeper

Calendar & availability — iCal subscription instructions, read-only CalDAV connections, and availability settings
Invoices, payments & contracts — package invoices, Stripe, booking-fee schedules, and the default service contract
Enquiry forms — form builder, embedding on your website, and source tracking
Run sheets & timeline — how timeline items work, sun-event anchoring, weather, and live mode on the day
Email — your @wedding.computer inbox, how replies link to contacts, and using it alongside your own address
AI features & integrations — one-click drafted replies, enquiry auto-reply, and the AI expected-weather note

Instagram Threads Email support