We sat down with Ashley Fisher, half of the dynamic duo behind Ashley Fisher Photography, to learn how she and her husband John have used Fundy Designer to incorporate Wedding Reveal Parties in their business and to revolutionize their print sales.
What exactly is a Wedding Reveal Party?
Ashley: Well for us, it’s scheduling a time to invite our wedding clients over to our house and allow them to see their full wedding gallery for the first time. We have room for six seats (plus us), so our couples usually bring their parents, but we have had a full house with friends seated on the floor. We leave it up to our clients.
What was the catalyst for you to start these in-person sales sessions?
We started the reveal parties for a few reasons. First, because I was so bummed that we would send over the gallery and never hear anything back. We put such a huge emphasis on our relationship with our clients, we go through this whole process—helping them plan their wedding, getting really close to them, and finally shooting their wedding and spending the most important day with their family and friends—and then hear nothing.
We would hear that 95% of them hadn’t printed anything yet…it was just heartbreaking because the wedding is the beginning of a family’s history, and we feel it is crucial to have something to pass down to future generations.
I started to reach out to my clients about a year after their weddings for their anniversaries, and that’s when we would hear how much they loved their images, but also, we would hear that 95% of them hadn’t printed anything yet.
So that led to my second reason. My parents and my husband’s mother all passed when we were young. We cherish any and all images of them, especially now that we have our son Jackson to share them with. We did the same thing with our DIY wedding, five years later, and I only had a few 4×6’s in frames. It was just heartbreaking because the wedding is the beginning of a family’s history, and we feel it is crucial to have something to pass down to future generations.
How were your print sales up to this point?
I believe that the couple should get their digital files, so we had made a price point where we were comfortable shooting their wedding and then giving them their files. We offered all the standard print options, and we made a few sales here and there, but it wasn’t anywhere near where we knew it could be.
What changed after you started implementing these reveal parties?
But truly, besides the additional print revenue, we LOVE getting to reconnect with our clients again. They go home and rave about us after these parties and share the slideshow we’ve created on social media.
Everything. We started them about a year ago, and we have been able to add a full-time studio manager to our team to keep up with it. When you’re shooting 40+ weddings a year, and you have an almost 2-year-old, life gets insane, and the help is essential. These reveal parties let us do that.
We still offer the full digital files, but having our couples over again to spend more time and see their reactions has been amazing. Then, coupled with Fundy Designer, these tools allow us to show our couples what the printed products will look like in real-time. They can’t imagine not buying after seeing it in real-time.
We use both Album Builder and Design Proofer to show the couples finished spreads from a potential album, and because they are in our home, they can see and hold the sample finished albums we have. Then, Gallery Designer allows us to show them their images on their walls in digital form, and we have big portraits (as big as 32×48) hanging, so they can really see scale.
But truly, besides the additional print revenue, we LOVE getting to reconnect with our clients again. They go home and rave about us after these parties and share the slideshow we’ve created on social media. It’s been a massive word of mouth lead generation for us.
What else have you learned from these parties?
By telling our personal story with our families, we can convey how important these prints can be in the future when they are all you have left.
It is a significant time commitment—40 wedding couples equals 40 nights to host. And we have had couples who don’t buy much; we’ve even had one couple who didn’t buy anything. But, that has been the overwhelming minority.
I think I just want other photographers to understand that it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing thing with in-person sales. People can have the digital files and still want to buy albums and wall products. My clients have all of their photos and are still spending thousands of dollars on printed products because it’s meaningful to them. By telling our personal story with our families, we can convey how important these prints can be in the future when they are all you have left.
Thank you, Ashley, for sharing your story with us! You can find Ashley at her website and Facebook page.
New to Fundy Designer? Download the trial now and learn how to triple your sales.
