We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lenaig Delisle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lenaig below.

Lenaig, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The wedding industry is largely comprised of people with a passion for expression and creativity. Florists, designers, photographers, makeup artists, etc. – we all share a baseline desire to “make”. Unlike many other jobs, there is a sense of personal fulfillment as an artist that accompanies the services we offer; the work we do is for the client but truthfully, also for ourselves. This can create tension between what we want to do as creatives and what is reasonable and profitable for our business. There are often opportunities that feel impossible to pass up, despite knowing that it comes at a cost to the business. It’s difficult to learn that loving what you do doesn’t mean you should accept to be paid less than what you deserve. Many of us feel so lucky to do what we do that we’re often tempted to say yes to things that we know are actively hurting our profitability.

There is a different set of rules for the wedding industry. People are often frustrated between what they want (what they’ve seen on social media, Pinterest, blogs, etc) and what they can reasonable afford. The “once-in-a-lifetime” mentality that accompanies weddings can embolden customers to ask favors of small wedding businesses that they wouldn’t ask for in a typical customer-provider situation. You wouldn’t walk into a mechanic and ask them to do an oil change for less than their listed rates? You wouldn’t go into a grocery store and ask if you can take an extra apple for free?

This isn’t to say that we aren’t always open to working with clients on budgets. We are often creating custom proposals to match priorities, vision and needs with budget. With open dialogue it is usually possible to find a solution that suits both parties, as long as there exists a baseline understanding that we are a business and therefore must charge a certain rate to remain operational. Profitability really increases when you are able to stand firm in knowing your worth and your value. It is difficult getting comfortable with releasing opportunities that don’t serve your business, despite how enticing they may seem. Eventually your opportunities will start to align more and more with the rates you want to be charging and you can find balance between opportunity and profitability.

Lenaig, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After completing a BFA in Photomedia at the University of Washington, I began photographing weddings and events for friends. Slowly this turned into a business and in 2017 I became a full-time photographer. At the end of 2019 my husband left his corporate job to offer videography under a new brand that we developed together. Over the years we’ve become specialized in mixed-media wedding documentation. My work is a mix of digital + film photography while John works largely with 16mm motion picture film. John and I both share a love for vintage, analog objects and this has played a big part in how we choose to document weddings. The slow, intentional approach to film grounds us. We’re incredibly proud of the approach and workflow we’ve developed as a photo and video team. We make it a huge priority for our couples to feel like they can be present in the wedding day and still get the documentation they’re after. We are streamlined, low-key and efficient. We really love highlighting the human elements of weddings – interactions with friends and family, small moments of emotion, good food, drinks and a lively dance floor. We understand the importance and rarity of gathering in the way people do for weddings and really want to honor that.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our growth on social media has been slow & steady and is very much ongoing. Early on in our business we felt a lot of pressure to be consistent with posting. There was a lot of rhetoric regarding the “algorithm” and “how to go viral” and people were encouraged to post daily; if not multiple times a day. After years of doing this we noticed a plateau in the kind of work and inquiries we were getting. We were working the same venues over and over, staying in a very limiting budget range and felt like we were in a creative rut. I received the advice from a fellow photographer, Malorie Kerouc, to only post what I felt completely confident and passionate about. The reality is that for years, we’d been posting content with little discernment for what it would do for our business. It became clear that you attract what you post and while this may seem obvious, it unlocked a lot of potential for us. We started being a lot more critical about what we wanted to share. We stopped sharing content from venues that no longer interested us, made sure the content of the posts was in-line with our brand and where we wanted it to go and we really culled down to posting only the best of our work. This has made such a difference in the kind of work we are now attracting for the most part, the couples who reach out to us have a better understanding of our work, our brand and our ethos.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Weddings are a very interesting space for client relations because it’s important to strike a balance between being relatable, like-able and professional. While it is inherently a business relationship, we do spend a very important day of their lives with them and feel very immersed in the fabric of their friends and families. We often walk away from weddings feeling really connected to our couples. Communication is a really big part of how we set our couples up for success. Upon initial inquiry we create a custom proposal for our clients so they feel catered to for such a special occasion. We often take time to get on video calls to connect on a more personal level. From there we have several touch-points between booking and wedding date. We send detailed questionnaires to feel aligned on priorities, vision, goals, etc on wedding day. Once we have delivered final products to them post-wedding, our relationship typically comes to a close but sometimes we’re lucky to work with friends, family down the line and often run into clients at other weddings. Our brand loyalty comes largely from strong, reliable and personable communication throughout the planning processing and beyond.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.weissphotoandfilm.com
• Instagram: weissphotoandfilm
• Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/weissphotoandfilm
  TikTok: @weissphotoandfilm

Image Credits

All photos by Weiss Photo and Film