The Booking Process
Hello everyone!
I am stopping back to the blog again to talk a little bit about current booking processes.
When inquiring about a session I’d love to discuss the genre of session you’re interested in and the aspects of your session that you personally value the most.
At the time of booking, you’ll have the opportunity to select the package that best suits your needs. After you select a package, I will send you over dates to choose from and you’ll select a date and time. At this time I will prepare a contract, booking questionnaire and invoice for the 50% retainer. To be officially added to my scheduled all 3 of those documents are required to be completed.
Once these documents are received, you’ll be officially locked into my schedule. The retainer is used to secure your date and time and guarantees I will not book anybody else during this date and time. This fee is non-refundable as it makes sure that I am still being paid for my time when I have last minute reschedules and or cancellations and it also guarantees the time slot is yours so other clients do not have the opportunity to claim the selected spot.
My business is my only form of income so having consistent booking requirements ensures that I am able to help provide for my family and keep my business open to serve all of my lovely clients and the beautiful community we belong to.
I have also had people ask me about the upgrades that I offer. Each package includes a select number of digital images with the option to purchase more digitals after a session. The reason that I do my sales this way is so that I am able to keep my sessions more affordable for all of my amazing clients during a tough economic situation.
For clients wishing to upgrade but not having the funds upfront to do so, we can arrange a payment arrangement to be sure you’re still able to get all of the images that you love! I am always willing to work with budgets.
I also offer pre-payment plans for bookings if the investment is out of your immediate budget and there have been circumstances where I divided the 50% retainer into two scheduled 25% payments.
It’s important to remember when hiring any service provider that while the cost may seem shocking at first glance, that there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work and financial and time investments that goes into every photo session. There is childcare to be arranged for your artists children and the overhead of keeping a business open. I pride myself in taking the time to communicate with clients before each session to achieve our desired collaborative vision. I also pride myself in offering a quick turnaround time with my editing whenever that is possible within my family’s schedule.
Scheduling, document preparation, communication, editing, taxes and bookkeeping are just a few of the things that your service providers are responsible for. Each image created has an artist style added to it that takes time and experience to perfect. If something is out of your immediate budget, pre-payment plans are available to help out with this as well.
Thank you all for being here and for reading this if you took the time to do so! I appreciate you all and my booking policies are in place to ensure that I am not double booking the same time slot and that I am able to support my family in the meantime! (:
~Ashli