Potential clients are judging your brand long before they hit “inquire.” On today’s episode, Sarah Schreiber, who has reviewed thousands of real weddings for Martha Stewart Weddings and BRIDES, tells us what makes them fall in love and what makes them hit exit faster than you can say “mid.”

If you’ve never taken a hard look at your website, your galleries, or your Instagram and TikTok through the eyes of a ruthless curator (and honestly, who hasn’t?), or it’s been a while since you have, this episode is for you.

We’re talking about what couples notice before they ever reach out, the website mistakes even talented wedding pros make, and why showing less work can book you more. We’ll also get into how to turn your Instagram into a living portfolio, and exactly where to start if you want to audit your own brand before engagement season peaks.

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Welcome to today’s episode of The Planner’s Edit. Today we’re looking at the part of your business couples and clients see before they ever reach out: your website, your galleries, and your social media.

Engagement season is about to peak, which means couples are about to start scrolling. I wanted to bring in the person I trust most with that first impression, Sarah Schreiber. She has done multiple audits of my own brand at Verve, including both my website and my Instagram, and both audits were gold. But before she was helping wedding pros, she spent years deciding which weddings made it into the magazines.

Who is Sarah Schreiber?

Sarah Schreiber is a writer, editor, speaker, and consultant for luxury wedding and event professionals, with expertise in brand elevation, photo curation, and copywriting. She spent a decade in digital media, working her way up from editorial intern to director at titles including Martha Stewart Weddings and BRIDES, where she directed content strategy and reviewed and published thousands of real weddings. She’s been interviewed by Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and The New York Times. Today, she helps wedding pros separate the art from the artist so they can connect with their ideal clients through website curation, copy, and Instagram feeds that work like living portfolios.

How Did Sarah Go From the Magazine World to Consulting?

A Decade in Wedding Media

I was in the editorial world for about a decade. What was really interesting about that work, and that timeline specifically, is that I saw a little bit of the fall of the print model, the rise of the digital-first model, and the rise of the social-first model. I’ve had my hands in all of these, and I’ve seen all of these iterations unfold, crash, and re-unfold in the publishing world.

Taking What She Learned Directly to Wedding Pros

Speaking of a crash, that happened to me. I avoided media layoffs for a decade, which is a really solid track record. Everybody always jokes that you don’t work in editorial unless you’ve been laid off. But I had reached the end of my rope when it happened, and I thought, “You know what, it’s time to take what I’ve learned over this decade and make it more directly valuable for the wedding folks I’ve known for a long time.”

Back in those days, there was a shroud of mystery around working at a publication, especially two of the largest wedding publications in the world. That’s kind of by design. You can’t say much because you’re protecting a brand that’s not your own, and you’re upholding pillars you’ve been media trained on. So I thought, what if I didn’t do that? What if I took what I knew, what I learned and what I honed, and funneled it into a consultancy that let me directly help planners and photographers (who I primarily work with now) reach their ideal client through ruthless curation?

Killing Your Darlings and Escaping the Sea of Sameness

“Killing your darlings” is my go-to phrase. I say it all the time. I also make sure your copy doesn’t sound redundant or repetitive, or like everybody else’s, so you’re not lost in a sea of sameness. You don’t want couples flipping through you and all of your competitors, looking at your brand and saying, “I don’t actually see the difference.”

Separating the Art From the Artist

Having a laser set of eyes, a third party who isn’t emotionally invested in your brand and your business, is a big one. That comes down to the whole idea of separating the art from the artist. It’s so, so hard to remain objective about your own work. I’m Miss Objectivity. I don’t really care how the bride acted on the day or how the mom threw a fit. I care about how it looks, how we present it in your portfolio and how we market it.

I’ve been trained by so many incredible bosses who were curators in their own right, and who taught me how to really refine taste. Now I funnel that into one-on-ones, project overhauls, website refreshes and copy rewrites.

What Does Sarah Notice First When She Looks at a Wedding Pro’s Brand for the First Time?

Dated Branding Is the First Flag

Interestingly enough, it’s not always what people come to me for. But the first thing I notice when I pop onto somebody’s website (that’s where I like to start, because your website is kind of the nucleus of your brand) is the font and branding. I know that isn’t necessarily specific to curation, but it is so hard to beat dated branding and font suites that need updating. You know what I’m talking about: the script that was really big in 2016, the millennial golden beige we all latched onto back then. That’s where the first little flag goes up, and I think, “It’s possible we haven’t updated this in a little while.”

Your Brand Is Your First Impression

I’m ultra sensitive to these things, but Gen Z clients specifically are inundated by luxury brands outside the wedding space all the time. Think about how you feel when you experience a new beauty brand, hair care brand or athletic brand. There’s so much emphasis on branding, and people are so much more aware of what branding is, what it does and how it feels. They can be a little mistrustful of it, too, because we all know a really amazing logo, letter mark, font suite or color suite can belie the truth. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s talent or logistical finesse behind closed doors. But it’s your first line and your first impression.

Curation Is One Piece of the Pie

So I often start there, because honestly, it’s important for somebody to say that to you and for you to hear it. You hire me for curation, and we will absolutely get into that, and into your copy. But all of these things are pieces of a pie. Curation can transform, but it can also just be a Band-Aid. Sometimes we need to talk more globally: Are you going to get where you want to go with this branding, this website layout and this font suite?

I see myself as a ruthless curator, but also as a brand auditor and a truth teller. That’s what my clients want. They just want somebody to tell them. I recently told a client, “I hate to say it, I know you just did your branding, but I really think the colors are too dark for you. It doesn’t feel like you.” And she said, “You know what, Sarah? It’s fine. This is what I pay you for.”

Your Website and Your Instagram Need to Speak the Same Language

Synergy is everything. That brings me to the second thing I notice: I look at your website, then I pull up your Instagram and see how they talk to each other.

So often, the Instagram feed is actually quite strong. People are really hard on themselves about Instagram. They say, “I don’t post enough,” or “My feed doesn’t feel curated enough,” and sometimes that’s true. But more of the time, Instagram is the place where people think, “All right, I’ve got to get it up.” There’s less rigid structure, so people post content that feels better and more aligned. It’s fresher content and newer weddings. Then we go over to the website, and it’s from 2012. That’s a lapse, the same way dated branding is.

You don’t want to give anybody a reason to bounce. When the site speaks to your social, and your Instagram captions speak to the copy on your website, you have a full-spectrum brand. That’s when people really start to understand what you do, and what you do really well.

Is It Safe to Use the Fonts and Branding Elements Everyone Is Using Right Now?

Dare to Be Different

I really, really hate the sea of sameness. I say this all the time: dare to be different, dare to do something else, dare to use color, dare to research and get into it. In editorial, I was trained to say absolutely not to things everybody else had, because that could cross into copy infringement and plagiarism. So I look at trends a little more clinically. Why would you want the same front-facing media as somebody else? Then why wouldn’t a couple just hire somebody else? It’s just going to come down to pricing.

Give Yourself a Point of View

It feels so silly to say, “If you just change your font…” I’m not saying everything will change for you, but a lot could. It would allow you to have a personality, and people need to allow themselves to have a personality and a point of view, because that’s what people are hiring you for. When you minimize yourself, you minimize your talent and your creativity, and people want that point of view.

Brand Is What Exists When People Leave You

When I was working on my own branding, I wanted my text to feel really “editor-y.” Not typewriter, but like somebody who’s going to give it to you straight. I wanted a letter mark and logo where you think, “Oh yeah, cool, I’m going to remember that,” because brand is what exists when people leave you. It’s as simple as that. I’m a sharpshooter, so I needed a font suite that was, too.

So investigate: What am I? Who am I? What do I do? Do I specialize in romantic events? Am I really bold and boundary pushing? Am I a little more quiet and reserved? Then ask how you can use your branding and font suite to match that. A lot of the time I find people have been mismatched with all of these elements, and it’s pushing them in a direction that doesn’t feel like them at all.

Let Clients Understand You Before You Open Your Mouth

Brand should be a reflection of you. You don’t need to be a founder to have a brand. You’re the face of a business that a client is going to interact with all the time. How do you talk? How do you communicate? Are you funny? Are you dry? Then how do we visually represent that communication style, so clients already understand you before you open your mouth? When you do, it’s like, “Oh my God, I get it. She’s exactly what I hoped she would be.”

Start With Brand Before You Redo Your Whole Website

People will say, “I think I need to redo my whole website.” I tell them that maybe they should start with brand, logo, font and color palette development, and curation. That’s not going to score me points with any web designers! I just had a call where someone said, “Just give it to me straight, Sarah. What do I need?” I told her, “I have no skin in the game. You can hire me or not. This is what I would do if I were you.” She needed copy and all of those other elements, and I told her she’d be fine if she did those things.

It’s about understanding who you are and what you want to say visually, making sure that matches what you actually say, and having it all wrapped together in your branding, font and website.

Why Is Right Now, Before Engagement Season, the Time to Look at How You Show Up Online?

It’s Engagement Season for Them, but Refresh Season for Us

Hopefully, year over year, a lot of us have new events, new work and new ideas coming in. New work is usually going to speak better to a new client who has been monitoring this landscape.

People who are getting engaged know they’re getting engaged. The girls in their bridal era are in their bridal era for about six to eight months before that ring is on their finger. That’s the classic bridal cycle I’ve studied over the course of my entire career. They’re on wedding talk, they’re monitoring, they’re pinning. They know what’s what.

This Is the Most Aware Generation of Couples Yet

I think we’re looking at the most aware generation we’ve ever experienced. When I was getting married, friends would just say, “You know, a wedding.” Now couples say, “I’d like documentary-style wedding photography with an emphasis on candids. I want 30 minutes for portraits. I’d like a chartreuse, olive green and burgundy color palette, and I’d like calla lilies.” Or they say they don’t want any of those things, because they’re reacting against what’s already been done.

When Couples Start Comparing

If anything falls into that dated realm, or it’s been two, three or four years since you’ve touched your curation, it’s really time. The time to get serious about refreshing your portfolio and your hero imagery is now, between October 1 and the end of November. A really high concentration of engagements, about 40% of the year’s, happen between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day.

If you don’t monitor your site traffic through something like Google Analytics, this is a great time to start. It’s really interesting to see when traffic spikes on your site, because then you understand your own natural patterns. But by and large, this is when couples are coming, and this is when they start comparing. If you’ve fallen behind on updating, you’ve fallen behind on whether they’ll trust you and see your work and think, “Yes, she can deliver that.”

Show Where You Want to Go

Has your ideal client changed? Maybe. Are you hoping to raise your prices year over year? Probably. Wouldn’t we all? If you’re changing pricing tiers or markets, your imagery and copy should reflect where you want to go.

I’m really full of phrases (I should write a little coffee table curation book), but show where you want to go. If there’s a wedding where you think, “I never want to do a blue and white wedding again,” don’t show it. (Unless you’re in Florida, in which case you’ll never avoid it!)

Three Perfectly Curated Weddings Beat Nine

This is where less is more comes in. People tell me, “But then I feel like I don’t have enough work on my website.” That’s ridiculous. Think about attention spans. Couples aren’t looking at nine weddings. If you have three bangers that are perfectly curated and incredible, you can prove authority in other ways.

Being able to refine and remove is so critical, and it can be hard to do on your own. It can be hard to be ruthless with your own work, especially with couples you love. I really do get it. But now is the time, because eyeballs are about to land on your site and your social.

What Do Couples Notice in the First Few Seconds on Your Website?

You Have 20 to 30 Seconds to Make an Impression

I really do believe you have about 20 to 30 seconds to make an impression. There are data tools that let you heat map your website, so you can see where people linger, where their mouse goes and where they click. It’s so fascinating to me. For the most part, couples linger on your homepage first and spend the most time there. Then they start clicking around. They’ll probably go to your portfolio next, then look for your pricing, and then try to inquire.

Focus on Three Hot Spots: Homepage, Portfolio and Contact Page

When people ask me, “It’s crunch time. If I had a 30-day plan, where should I focus my energy?” I tell them: homepage, portfolio, and maybe where couples can easily access pricing, if we’re going to show it. (We’re not always going to, because I have opinions.) Then make sure the contact page is seamless, the form isn’t crazy, and the curation there is fun, bouncy and uplifting, and makes them excited to work with you.

Couples Want Fresh Photography

They’re looking for fresh photography that doesn’t feel like it happened five years ago. Five years doesn’t feel like a long time, but the industry, the photo standard and what people want now have changed drastically year to year. It’s more critical than ever to update this every year.

Weddings Have People in Them

What I tell planners very often is that couples are looking for people. Planners and designers are really invested in the design story, which is integral to how a couple visualizes and experiences their own day. Critical, critical, critical. But weddings have people in them, and in some ways we’ve stuck to that magazine vibe of details and reception shots with no butts in seats. When I work with planners and designers now, I’m not just curating visuals. I’m curating a feeling. It sounds cheesy, but as a couple, I’d be thinking, “Do you not care that I’m having a good time at my own wedding?” It’s client first. Weddings are for people.

Decide What Feeling You Want to Be Known For

Figure out what type of vibe you consistently produce at your events. Are you producing banger dance floors that go until 4 a.m.? Are you getting the really cool party girls with 50 friends who are going to have the best time, and who will all hire you afterward because they had so much fun at the wedding? If that’s you, then we’re focusing on the dance floor, on humor and on fun.

It’s specific, but it’s also about vibe and feeling, not just “This is the most beautiful design I did this year.” Maybe the best dance floor didn’t happen at your best wedding this year. We still need to look at that gallery and mine it for hero potential. Get strategic about who you are and what your vibe is, then create your own little visual set that communicates it.

Help Couples Feel What It’s Like to Work With You

That’s what couples are looking for first. Do I get a sense of what it’s like to work with you, and the type of events you produce? How am I going to feel on the day? So if we’re choosing your hero images, we might be looking for a dance floor, or somebody with their jaw on the ground and their mouth wide open, rather than a tight portrait of someone staring at the camera. The client who wants that is going to look for it. I try to meet them where they’re at: if the client wants to feel X, how do we bridge that gap?

Vibe is such a vague word, and I use it a lot. But I want to make vibe specific for each of my clients, because everybody’s vibe is a little bit different. Couples are trying to catch a vibe. How are you going to deliver it?

Couples Are Looking for “Copy Snacks”

On the copy front, couples are looking for interesting copy that I call copy snacks. (I’m full of them.) Nobody’s going to read blocky paragraphs. That style doesn’t work the way it used to. I’m not saying it doesn’t work for SEO, because it does. But I’m a really big fan of a bulleted list of snackable truths: This is what I do for my clients. This is my style. Or, “I don’t have a style, because you’re my style.” Fun is our priority. The after-party is our favorite part of the wedding. All the things you really want people to understand and know.

Your Headers Need to Be Strong Anchors

Your headers need to be really strong, fresh and creative. I don’t want to see “iconic,” “effortless” and “timeless classic.” I get it. There are only so many ways to say things, and I’m not averse to using some of those words in interesting bites. But I want really cool grounding anchors that are bigger on the page, so people see them and understand them right away. Those anchors should match the curation.

Most Testimonials Are Done Wrong

What I found so interesting when I left editorial was that Google was prioritizing Reddit and forum-style pages over big brands. If you research hair loss treatments, you’re going to get hit with Reddit and first-person, tell-it-like-it-is accounts (“I rubbed rosemary oil all over my head for eight months”) ahead of articles with reported tips from doctors and science. That’s what people have prioritized, and that’s what the web has prioritized.

So when I hear someone say they’re not sure about testimonials, I think, “That’s crazy!” I think testimonials are done wrong most of the time because they’re not snackable or sound-bitey or particularly interesting. They just say, “It was a beautiful wedding. Everybody’s talking about it.” Obviously! What are the four words we can pull out of a paragraph of nothing? Parse it down and remove things. Couples are looking for testimonials that feel true, punchy and memorable.

Less Really Is More, in Your Copy, Too

I talk about less being more in terms of curation, but it’s true for your copy as well. The caveat is that SEO likes more words. But for what the potential client needs to see and remember, we can lean on snackable copy. Couples are looking for it even if they don’t know it. It’s just user behavior now, in the endless scroll of the internet: hooks instead of full-blown text.

What Other Mistakes Do Wedding Pros Make With Their Imagery?

Planner Sites Feel Too Cold, Photographer Sites Feel Too Busy

The flip side to what I said before is that planners rely on detail-heavy imagery so much that their sites feel cold. If any photographers are listening, the inverse is true for you. I fully understand that the couple is the point. They absolutely are. But some design, a scenic or a landscape helps show where you want to work and who you want to work with, and it creates a feeling and a mood. It lets those people-heavy images rest and lets the eye calm down.

Photographer sites are sometimes very overstimulating, and planner and designer sites are very understimulating. Everybody needs to find a balance that works for them and suits their brand and who they’re trying to reach. Think strategically about sequencing and about your images in broader categories.

Generic Copy

Another mistake is far too much copy, and really, really generic copy. “Not how it looks, but how it feels”? We’re done. We’re not doing it anymore. You can find a different way to say it.

Writing is a heads-down process. People hate it, and I get it, because as a writer, I also hate it. Every writer hates to write. We only do it because it’s the only thing we’re good at! It can be agonizing to find the right words. So invest in help, or sit down and really do it. And if you’re going to use AI, I’d better not know in the end.

Too Many Images

Too many images is something I really, really rebel against. You don’t need 15 hero banner images. I’m also wary of too much video, especially up top, unless you’re a videographer or cinematographer. It can be visually distracting.

When we have too much, that’s the biggest flag. The best part is that it’s the easiest thing to fix, because we can start a removal process instead of starting from scratch. I’d go with three to five really strong hero images. If you want to show a little more without taking up too much visual real estate, use an animated slot for images. And don’t add too many sections.

Keep Your “Rivers” Controlled

Rivers are very popular. That’s what I call them: the endless scroll, the feed. They popped off right when I was starting my consultancy. The first time I saw one, I thought, “I hate it. Please don’t make me do it.” Then everybody wanted a river! So I figured out how to sequence them in a way that feels visually interesting.

If you’re going to keep using them, especially on your homepage, they should be really controlled. I don’t think they need to be more than 50 images, and even that’s pushing it. Don’t overwhelm someone to the point where they think, “I don’t know where to go next, and I don’t like how this feels.” The biggest mistake is believing more is more. You have to figure out a way to be okay with showing less.

Where Do You Find Copy That Sounds Like You?

Good Copy Doesn’t Exist in a Vacuum

I’m all for finding new ways to find copy. Good copy doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and it can’t be created in one. If we put our head down, close our eyes and just try to write, it’s probably going to sound like everybody else’s.

Record Your Client Calls

Whether I’m writing for someone or helping them write it themselves, I highly suggest recording your client calls. You don’t have to record on Zoom in a way that makes the client feel weird. Just record on your phone, then analyze the patterns in the things you say and the questions they ask you.

Send an Exit Interview

I’m also a really big fan of sending an exit interview. It doesn’t work for everybody, and some clients will never answer anything. But for the most part, the girls like to talk about their weddings. I know because I fielded hundreds of thousands of questionnaires over my career. Most brides are so verbose that I only needed 20% of it! And the post-wedding blues are real.

So come up with a set of five questions that help you understand what they loved about working with you. Those answers can become testimonials, without you asking, “Hi, can you write me a testimonial?” They can become website copy, too. You never know what great little nuggets somebody will give you.

Use an Editor’s Mindset

Start looking for copy outside your own head. Whenever I wrote a story, I interviewed my sources, and so much of that research informed the direction of the story and the copy itself. It’s basic journalism, and we can all borrow that editor and publication mindset when we write for ourselves.

Ask your team, “What are some of my quips? What are the things I always say?” Everybody knows I say “separate the art from the artist,” “kill your darlings” and “show where you want to go.” It’s so easy to turn those into copy. Then when people talk to me, they say, “Wow, that really is her,” and that’s the point. Externalize your copy research instead of racking your brain for the perfect word. You’re probably not going to find it in there!

How to Use AI Without Sounding Like AI

That’s how we use AI: to find patterns and consistencies in ideal clients, to find catchphrases, and to find ways to put things that are already great, already said and already true into words. Not AI slop.

Honestly, going back to mistakes, I probably should have started there. AI slop captions and AI slop text overlays are so obvious, and we can’t do it anymore. I would rather you have bad copy than AI slop at this point. It’s also dinging you on Google and isn’t good for your site health. I’ve gone through so much SEO training over my career, and from what I know about the standards right now, AI isn’t helping your direct copy and marketing. It’s just not.

What Does It Mean to Separate the Art From the Artist?

Your Feelings About a Wedding Aren’t the Whole Story

A few weeks ago, I was doing some Instagram curation with a photographer, and she said, “I can’t get past it.” The gallery was perfectly beautiful, with lots of winners in it. But she said, “The bride was so mean to her mom. It just didn’t feel good, and it’s not what I want.”

I understood 100%, and if she really didn’t want to, we wouldn’t. But there’s an advantage to showing that shot, to having worked at that venue, and to showing her strength with drone and film. There were so many incredible moments in that gallery that had nothing to do with how she felt about the wedding itself.

That may be an extreme example, but separating the art from the artist comes down to this: how you feel about your work isn’t necessarily the truth. That’s particularly true for photographers. How you feel about it isn’t necessarily how other people perceive it, or what’s technically true about the photo, the wedding or the work.

Market for Your Next Client

That’s where I come in. Guess who wasn’t at that wedding? This girl. Guess who has no concept of the mother of the bride? This girl. Guess who doesn’t care? This girl. I care about your next client. That wedding is behind us, and what’s done is done. You’re running a business, so market it accordingly.

Sometimes it takes a push to put the emotions down and think about what the image actually says. If it’s a one-in-a-million shot, I don’t care how the wedding felt. You should feel even better that you pulled off a one-in-a-million shot in a really challenging circumstance, and be even more willing to share that work.

Ask Why You Love a Photo

More granularly, someone will say, “I love this photo,” and I’ll ask, “Why? What about it?” It may do absolutely nothing for the eye and feel flat emotionally. “Well, I like it because it’s a Danielle Frankel dress.” Danielle Frankel dresses are a dime a dozen! So what does that actually say? “I want a more fashion-forward client.” Then my next question is: What are you doing with the classic dresses to attract a more fashion-forward client? Are you shooting non-Danielle Frankel dresses in interesting ways, or relying on the label to get you where you want to go? Are you practicing creativity and vision, or just pushing out the most boring portrait I’ve ever seen in my life with a designer name on it?

It really is ruthless. Wanting something is usually a sign of a bigger want. You want to be more creative and shoot things more interestingly. Maybe you’re bored with what you’re shooting or the locations you’re working at. Separating the art from the artist is a whole lot of therapy, too. I get why you’d like this photo, but it isn’t saying what you want it to say. It’s slapping a Band-Aid on a larger problem. So why do you want this? Let’s brainstorm ways to get it regardless of who’s in front of you, and grow in our craft, visually and in our network.

The Clients You Love Can Be on the Chopping Block, Too

It goes the other way, too. For planners, something that happens a lot is two weddings at the Inn at Perry Cabin. One was a nightmare from a client perspective, and one was such a pleasure and a joy. Love that for you. But if the nightmare wedding’s visuals are so much stronger, fresher and more recent, and the other one happened a few years ago, then from a portfolio perspective, the client you love is on the chopping block.

That doesn’t mean it’s gone from your life. We can use it in your hero imagery or on social, and there are so many ways to keep the galleries you love close. But when it’s time to make a decision, it can’t come down to how you felt about a client or a design. It really has to be factual and objective.

What Makes a Couple Exit a Wedding Pro’s Website Fast?

When Couples Don’t See Themselves Represented

It comes down to dated, weird copy, and to couples not seeing themselves represented. I talk about diversity a lot. If it’s important to you (and it should be), show it. You can’t always control who books you, but I’m the first person to say, “Can we do anything here from a guest perspective, like showing different skin tones?” Not seeing themselves represented is the fastest way to lose a client. Show that it matters to you and that you want them to feel seen. We either don’t talk about this enough, or we talk about it a lot and then don’t talk about it at all, so I’m always trying to bring it back into my projects.

That goes for diversity in all its forms, too: body diversity, geographic diversity. Couples often have an idea of what they like, and if they don’t see it, they won’t think you can do it. That’s the biggest misconception in this industry. A couple sees that you haven’t worked at their venue, so you’re out. So how do we address that? Show adjacent or similar properties, or say it explicitly in some way.

Think the Way Your Client Actually Thinks

Think about the way the client actually thinks, not how we want them to think or what we think they should think. We’re experiencing a really big gap right now. In so many ways, it’s us versus them. Clients can be very mistrustful of our industry, and our industry is sick and tired of hearing about a “wedding tax.” I literally got another video about it this morning. I know you’re all tired of each other, but you need each other. They need a wedding planner, and you need money, so you need to figure out how to bridge that gap.

So I try to get to the bottom of the real user experience and the real client journey, and make sure all of those needs are met. Beyond dated visuals, branding or a font suite, if couples don’t feel like they understand what you do and that you check their boxes, they’re going to bounce.

Don’t Assume Couples Speak Our Language

That’s why generic copy is such a total pitfall. It isn’t helping and it isn’t educating. Educate them with strong copy that communicates what you do really well.

Couples probably want to know what it costs. That’s a big one. They don’t know what things like “full service” mean. You don’t need a glossary, but don’t assume they understand our language around things like multi-day events. And “luxury” means nothing. Define what you do in a way that makes the client think, “Cool, that was really easy to understand, and it feels transparent.” Without that transparency, they’ll go find it from someone else.

Give Couples Some Education

There needs to be some level of education, especially on your homepage. I don’t mean “this means X.” Although honestly, there could be a really cool way to do that, like a fun interactive drop-down that would also be great for SEO. There’s always a way to do something if you really want it, as long as you do it well.

I’m all for copy that pushes boundaries or approaches something in a different way, and then I get hit with, “Well, is that luxury?” Stop it. Enough with that. We need to reach real people. Not all of us are going to work on $1, $2 or $3 million weddings. Most of us need to be so for real about the market we’re serving. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

What Made a Wedding Make the Cut at Martha Stewart Weddings and BRIDES?

Did You Follow the Rules?

Number one: Did you follow the rules? Did you give us what we very clearly asked for? Vendors don’t read. I know that for a fact. If a publication says 150 photos, they actually mean it. There was a point where I physically could not stomach one more Pic-Time or Pixieset login error, so we switched to Dropbox. Anything not in Dropbox wasn’t going to be reviewed, and the number of people who didn’t send Dropbox links? Automatic no. Follow directions.

I start there because after I got laid off, I learned that a lot of what was in my head wasn’t common knowledge. Like I said at the beginning of the episode, so much of the publishing world feels shrouded in mystery, and a lot of it is by design. There are legal protections, and everything is done for a reason.

Every Publication Has a Different Look

On the creative side, what I looked for depended on where I was. Martha was really detail-heavy. If a wedding didn’t have standout details, flat lays and really stylized moments, it probably wasn’t going to work. At BRIDES, if it didn’t have that cool factor, whimsy, boundary-pushing bold colors, or big design and scale, it probably wasn’t going to fit.

Use the Real Weddings Page as Your Map

People say “know what each publication looks for” a lot, so I’m going to tell you exactly how. Every publication has a real weddings page. Go there and look at the images they choose for their headers, their first slides and their thumbnails. On Over The Moon, you’ll see a ton of first looks, couples coming back up the aisle, whimsical open-mouthed moments. It’s feminine and a little saccharine in some ways, and you can feel it from the thumbnails alone. You don’t need to scroll through every wedding from the past six months. Then go to Vogue and see what they’re looking for.

To understand what to send, you first need to understand what a publication is looking for. Then be so for real about what you’re sending. It might be perfectly pretty, but if a publication shows place settings at every wedding and you don’t have any, it’s probably not a fit. That changes if there are other standouts: a high-profile couple or guests, really insane fashion, a crazy location, or a standout vendor list. Everything’s a sliding scale. But brass tacks, you can get a sense of what a publication looks for from its real weddings page alone.

Understand the Outlet and Tailor the Edit

Everybody asks me about this, so I now do real wedding submission gut checks. I’ll tell you why a wedding works for one outlet and not another, and which images I’d focus on. I can be your cheat code. But all of this already exists. The Instagram feeds and real weddings pages are readily available. We spend a lot of time saying, “Who knows?” You do know, if you sit down, take the time and get real about whether your work is a fit.

So understand the outlet and tailor the edit to what they show. It’s literally a visual map. Then craft your submission email or form using the language you see them use, and lean on the cues in their photos you know are winners in their eyes: the details, the fashion, the location.

Think in Quantifiable Hooks

I’m really giving you something for free here. I call them quantifiable hooks. They always worked, and I was always interested in them when I reviewed submissions. Numbers do well on Google: “5,000 flowers lined the runway-style aisle at this Mallorca wedding.” There’s your submission email header. A number gives the editor a little “Oh, that’s interesting.” So does “100,000 yards of fabric draped the ballroom,” or, for Vogue, “It took seamstresses six months and 400 hours to make the after-party dress.” Weave these in if you have access to that information.

It’s just sleuthing. A green and white wedding palette isn’t what’s going to hook an editor. Think in quantifiable hooks and think like an editor. What grabs your attention when you’re scanning or scrolling? That’s often really good fodder for a submission hook.

Use Numbers in Your Own Copy, Too

It’s just nice, snackable little things. I’m a snack girl. My husband would say, “Of course that’s your tagline. All you do is snack!” But it’s true. Numbers matter in your own copy, too, outside of submissions. I like to see how many weddings you’ve done and how many years you’ve been in business. People tell me, “I don’t want people to think I’m old.” Couples want somebody who knows what they’re doing!

There’s so much instability and misinformation, and so many “I hired a planner and it was an utter disaster” stories, usually because she’d been doing it for five minutes. She planned her own wedding, and this is her second one. Numbers are authority-boosting and stay in the brain. Numbers and bulleted lists are a great way to get that staying power, with couples and with editors.

Why Does Showing Less Work Help You Book More?

An Overwhelming Website Is an Overwhelming Website

The first reason is visual overwhelm. We talk a lot about buyer types: people who are decisive or not, people who like to peruse or don’t. That’s all true to some extent, but an overwhelming website is an overwhelming website, no matter how you slice it. I see a lot of misconceptions about Gen Z, like they don’t know what they want. They do know what they want. I think a lot of that is marketing lingo.

What I know to be true is that when we take away the things that shouldn’t be there and leave the things that should, you attract more people who can easily see that you’re what they want. When we confuse them, it’s like they have to complete five trials and click on five billion things to think, “Well, maybe she can do this. But now I saw this, and is this what she’s about? Because I don’t like that.”

Too Much Work Sends Mixed Signals

Confusion and mis-signaling happen when we show too much, conflicting styles, or older work against new work. Which are you? When your Instagram feed doesn’t match your website: Who are you? The less you show, the less chance you have of confusing people and making them think, “I thought I understood her, but now I don’t.” That’s when they say, “She seemed great, but I don’t know. I’m going to try somebody else.”

Fewer Inquiries, More Conversions

I would rather you have fewer inquiries and more conversions. That’s less work in your inbox, girlfriend, and a higher conversion rate. Isn’t that the point? You have more time in your day, and you work with people you really like and care about. That’s the win.

We have to remember the point and get rid of the fear around it. “They’re going to think I’ve only done three weddings.” No, they’re not, because you’ve been doing this for 20 years. And you can always show more. If a couple inquires and asks, “Have you worked here?” or “Can I see a bit more of your work?” you have your second line of defense, your tier two, ready to fire. Things don’t leave us forever. When something stops serving you in that first line, it’s time to refresh it, replace it or remove it.

Let Yourself Have New Favorites

That’s why killing your darlings is so critical, and it’s so hard. People fight it. They fight with me! I tell them they’ve got to trust. Then they have a killer year, and even the things they love are going, because everything else is better. Isn’t that beautiful? We don’t want to linger in the past or stay stagnant. The most amazing thing about this industry is how dynamic it is, and all the creative power inside it. I’m constantly in awe of what you all do. So let’s embrace that, instead of saying, “But that couple from three years ago was my favorite!” You’re going to have new favorites.

Trust Your Vision, and Commit to It

I recently worked with a planning team on reworking their proposal. One partner wanted to push the business into a new era. The other wanted to make sure everybody knew they also did the neutral, simple stuff. I asked, “What do you want? What makes your heart go?” Their best work is incredible, really insane concepts, and if we diluted it, it wouldn’t be as visually effective. So we completely redid the proposal: the curation, the copy, all of it, punched up to 1,000. They’ve converted every single client since using it.

That’s what trusting your process, your product and your passion can deliver. If you’re not killing your darlings and you’re diluting your work with visual clutter, you’re in your own way. This work is like 60% creative and 40% therapy. Trust yourself, because you can always change it. If it doesn’t work, it’s back to the drawing board. Is that really so bad compared to never trying something new when you’re tired of how things are going? So commit to the declutter, commit to sharpening your vision, trust your passion, and see what comes on the other side.

How Can Planners Create a Consistent Look When They Work With So Many Photographers?

The Trickiest Piece of the Curation Puzzle

This is genuinely the trickiest piece of the curation puzzle when I work with planners. When I sat down with Desirée, I told her, “This is the hardest thing you will ever have to do.” It’s the hardest part of my job with planners: melding all of these styles into one distinct language that feels like you and doesn’t feel insane.

Encourage a “Martha Stewart Weddings” Mindset for Details

Styles can be drastically different. That’s why I encourage the Martha Stewart Weddings mindset for details, especially on the agency side. Shoot it true to color. Create a planner edit. Shoot it straight, symmetrical and honest, the way Martha wanted it. Shoot it wide, so there’s a full-bleed image for heroes. I encourage this when I speak to photographers, because I see on the other side how haphazard it can be. I’m trying to work on a global fix, so details are delivered in a way everybody can use. It really helps planners and photographers work well together.

It’s really not that deep. Sarah’s rule book: shoot it dead on, horizontal, from the side, from the other side, and as a drone aerial. No water in the glasses! I’m literally fighting the caterers on that one. Do not pour any water until we’ve taken the photos. I don’t care if we start 15 minutes late. The condensation on the glasses really throws me. And no exit signs. Get rid of the weird stuff at the top of the tent. Help each other out.

Don’t Curate Piecemeal

Searching for individual photos, the needle in the haystack, really isn’t my approach. I think that’s why people hate curation so much. They think, “I need three hero images, then six or seven for this section,” and they look for individual shots that speak to each section. Then they put it all together and wonder why it looks terrible. It’s because they approached it piecemeal.

Start With a True North Edit

Now we’re talking about my favorite thing. My process starts with something I call the True North call, and I do it for every single client, even my copy clients, because visuals should lead and copy should reflect those visuals.

I go through all of your work, pull photos into a folder and place them in about a 30-photo edit. This is your brand, and this is how it should feel. When you place photos next to each other in a grid or a collage, it’s much easier to see how they play together than when you’re dropping them into Showit or Adobe one by one. You need to see how the images resonate together.

The True North edit isn’t necessarily the images you’ll use on your site, although honestly, a lot of the time they are. You’ll even start to see a color palette, which might tell you your branding colors. We like certain colors for a reason: it’s because you’ve worked in those palettes and you like designing with them. One planner told me, “I don’t know, every style is so different.” I said, “Yeah, girlfriend, but look at these tones.” We can pull it all in and create a color story, use black and white, and use different times of day and light to create something that looks so good no matter who took the photos.

Make Your Own True North Folder

Whether you work with me or not, I tell all my consulting clients to start here. Create a folder of all your favorite work. No pressure. You’re not looking for the hero photo or the portfolio photo. You’re looking at what your brand says, in broad strokes. Then look at it all together. Do you see the colors? The types of light and details? The moodiness or lack of moodiness? What do you need? What’s missing?

Then use the True North edit in one of two ways: place those images directly, knowing they’ll look great together because they did when they were lined up, or hold a photo you’re considering against the grid and ask, “Does this work here?” If it does, it’s a winner. If it doesn’t, it isn’t serving you, so move on.

I know it seems arduous, and it does take hours. But it doesn’t have to fill you with existential dread. It’s totally possible, babe. Trust. You’ve got to do the work first, before you start throwing spaghetti against the wall.

How Do You Turn Your Instagram Into a Living Portfolio?

Plan Your Grid

Grid planning is so important. It’s the first thing I ask about when people say, “Tell it to me straight, doc. What about my feed?” I know you don’t plan! With any creative process, a little logistical planning behind it improves the result. That’s the Virgo in me, and the corporate girl in me.

There will always be people who just make it happen. Plenty of photographers and planners are organically great curators with a built-in ability to know which post comes next. But a lot of folks don’t see it all the way. So let’s create a grid. You don’t need to be fancy. Open a Canva whiteboard, drop your photos into a grid and start playing with how things flow. It’s very similar to the True North edit: Do these images feel like your brand? Do they feel flat? Is the sequencing there? Is it varied enough? What’s the vibe?

Keep Your Tools Simple

If you’re really lost, need to start over or absolutely hate how your grid looks, start there. I’ve tried Planoly and all the schedulers, and it’s so much easier to just pop an image in and out. I’m really straightforward about the programs I use. Big Canva girl.

Slide One Matters, but So Does Slide Two

Slide one is the most important for your living portfolio. But when I work with grid planning clients, I always plan slide two as well, because that’s the one the algorithm will probably show people. Instagram hates us. Why make it easy? If you’re paying for grid planning, the grid matters, but think about what people will actually see first. It’s probably not slide one.

Post What Makes People Feel Something

People make social more complicated than it is. High energy performs well: the dance floor, big kisses, emotional close-ups, things that make you feel something. (The big dips? You don’t need to do the dips.)

For planners, this can be confusing, because they say, “My work is the room, Sarah. The ceremony design.” And yes, it is. We’re absolutely posting bangers of the room. The Martha girl in me will never stop loving that. Detail shots are my favorite things to put in a grid because they’re so visually beautiful. You can take the girl out of Martha Stewart, but you can’t take Martha Stewart out of the girl.

Sequencing Is What Makes It a Living Portfolio

Sequencing is where the living portfolio comes in. Planners shouldn’t post room shot, room shot, room shot, and photographers shouldn’t post couple, couple, couple. We can’t underwhelm, then overwhelm. So give me a room shot, then a beautiful close-up portrait, then the bridal party. Show me a really cool drone shot, a really sick floral install, a storytelling detail, the couple walking back up the aisle. Show me emotion. Show me Dad. That’s a living portfolio: we see the work clearly, and it also feels like you.

Tie it back to your vibe. Are you quiet luxury? Moody and editorial? How are the couples emoting? People don’t think about that enough. How are they holding their mouths and their faces? It can get quite granular when you really think about what an image says and what works over time.

Use a Color Gradient, Not Just a Color Palette

I love working within a really fun color grade. I don’t mean every photo is yellow, then every photo is green. I mean a gradual, subtle, gorgeous color gradient, like gold tones moving into greens. One grid planning client told me, “I love our blues and greens.” I said, “Girlfriend, the golds in your work are what let the blues and greens really shine.” It prevents flatness and sameness. Your feed should meander, so people think, “Ooh, there’s a visual journey happening here.”

Don’t Get Paralyzed

This can be as granular as you want it to be, but I’m more of the get-the-work-up-and-out-there mindset. Don’t sit on things or get paralyzed. I’d rather you post it than be as particular as I am about these things!

Protect Your Feed: Collabs Aren’t King

Be protective of your feed. Collabs are great for a certain period of time. They’re great for peer-to-peer networking, engagement, impressions and growing your follower count. Love that for you. But they don’t have to live on your feed forever. You can archive a reel or hide it from your feed, and most of us can rearrange the grid now, too.

People call me asking, “Should I accept this collab?” Are you at gunpoint? Accept the collab. Once engagement dies down, do whatever you want. Nobody’s feelings are hurt when you hide a collab. They don’t even know!

Social Media Is a Trial-and-Error Game

It’s more important to get the work up and out, and honestly, you learn by doing. Nobody who’s good at social media started out good at it. My Gen Z sisters are, because they were DMing in the womb and came out curating carousels. Even so, they still ask, “Can you do my summer photo dump?” Most of us learn by trial and error, and you won’t get good until you do it. It’s not that serious. Post the work, then post it again, then post it again.

How Many Photos Should You Post?

You don’t need 20 photos every time. We see a real drop-off after about five to seven. Spread out the work instead of blowing it all in one post. You can do an overview, then dig into different parts of the event, like how you interpreted the details or told a story through the design.

People also ask, “How do I keep using the same galleries over and over?” I have so many ideas! There are so many ways to re-mine a gallery and tell different parts of the day. You could post the same content 40 different ways. A really good social media manager or curator will do that for you, but you also get better once you flex the muscle.

It’s Not Cringe, It’s Marketing Your Business

Posting consistently isn’t cringe. You’re marketing your business! There is cringe out there (I definitely veto things), but people say, “I don’t want to post too much.” Why? What are we so worried about? You’ve got to market your business. The more you do it, the easier it gets and the stronger your content gets. You see the data and get more savvy. You understand posting times and hooks. You learn the difference between a post that makes someone follow you, a shareable post, a follower-boosting post and a portfolio-boosting post. There are different types of content, and it’s about figuring out how to use each one.

How Are Gen Z and Younger Millennial Couples Finding Wedding Pros?

TikTok Is the Frontier

I think TikTok is the frontier. People don’t like it when I say that, and I get it. I didn’t use TikTok until two years ago. After I got laid off, my sisters told me to start posting on TikTok, and I said, “I am not going to be on TikTok.” Now I have a following. It’s insane!

The girls are over there, and they’re lost. They have no idea what’s going on, and they’re miserable, because they’re getting quotes they consider crazy. Part of my push to get wedding pros on TikTok is that I see such an opportunity to change the narrative and direct the conversation. I see the engagement in the comments. I recently talked TikTok strategy with a planner in California whose daughter is really involved in her business. I told her to lean on her daughter and let her lead the TikTok strategy. She said her TikTok-to-client conversion rate is crazy. It’s become a place where she’s fielding viable inquiries.

Start by Repurposing What You Already Have

A lot of people will tell you cross-posting between platforms isn’t the answer, and if we’re talking purely about growth, that can be true. But to get started, I’d rather you just rip off the Band-Aid. You probably have so much existing content on Instagram. Believe it or not, carousels can perform quite well on TikTok with a little tweaking and a little copy. Just start, then see what the data shows you, what pops off and what stays flat, and go from there.

Eventually you’ll see the different strategies for each platform. Instagram is an extension of your website: polished, pretty, brand building and portfolio-like. On TikTok, you can be a little more fun, behind-the-scenes, unpolished and real, and people are really connecting with that kind of content.

Pinterest Is the Easiest Win Nobody Talks About

The other one is Pinterest. Instagram has been king for so long that people don’t talk about it. Shani Galbraith has an incredible Instagram group for planners, and she recently shared an amazing stat about Pinterest and conversion. Pinterest is a long-game strategy, just like SEO. Post three to five pins a week, which will take you about 10 minutes. Pin your detail shots and the fashion. Photographers, planners, florists, caterers: couples are pinning ideas in every category. It’s one of the biggest wedding planning and ideation platforms in the world, and it costs you nothing. You probably won’t see results for six months to a year, but consistency, baby.

It doesn’t get talked about enough. I want to go to a conference and hear from a Pinterest expert. That’s what I want to hear about most!

Use Reddit for Research

So TikTok and Pinterest. That’s where couples are, and it’s where wedding pros probably are the least. Everybody’s on Instagram, and everybody knows their website needs to be good. Reddit is the other piece, but I think it’s weird for vendors to be very involved there. It’s a place for the girls to complain, so let them complain. Use it for data mining, content ideas and TikTok planning. Threads is an interesting frontier for me, too, but it can be very volatile. Whatever platform you’re on, remember that clients can see what you say.

How Can You Audit Your Own Brand Before the New Year?

Know When to Bring in a Pro

First things first: now is the time. Between now and the end of the year, I’d focus your energy here. If your season is lingering (I know a lot of folks with an extended season this year, with lots of October, November and even December weddings), I’d bring on a pro right away. If you’re behind on editing and have vendors to wrangle and contracts to send, scope out your season honestly.

Step One: Start With Your True North Edit

If you have the time, start with your True North edit. That’s my first line of offense. We’re playing offense now! Go through the galleries you feel really strongly about, and even the ones that weren’t perfect but had some moments, and pull out what you love. Don’t put any pressure on it. This isn’t for social or for your site. It’s for you to understand how your brand developed over the course of the year. Then ask, “Do these images transfer over to my website?”

Step Two: Revisit Your Portfolio

Then think about your portfolio. What am I dropping? Am I doing a big reduction this year, or just a few swaps? Is the work I did this year actually reflective of where I want to go? Did I have a so-so year? That honestly happens to all of us. Be strategic. Sometimes last year’s work is your best work, and that’s totally fine. If you don’t have new work you feel strongly about, but you have a wedding you’d do nine times over, keep it.

Step Three: Curate and Place, Ideally by the End of the Year

Then curate those galleries and place the photos on your site. I’d try to wrap it by the end of the year. Couples got engaged at Thanksgiving and over the holidays, and they’re excited. Come January 1, we know the cycle, and that’s when they start coming. But really, whenever your season ends, do it. It’s better done than not, so do it, or outsource it, because it’s so important.

One Hour of Clarity Goes a Long Way

If these decisions feel overwhelming, or you’re genuinely sick to your stomach and it’s ruining your holiday season, just book a call. Most people think it’s a big thing, but you need one hour. I tell people they can do a lot of this themselves (which is probably bad business!), but I really believe in my consulting clients. If the problem is clarity, let’s get you clarity in one hour, and then you have the work ethic to implement it. If you want to go on vacation for three months and have someone else do it, we can talk about that, too.

How to Connect with Sarah

You can find me at sarah-schreiber.com, and at @sar_schreiber on Instagram and TikTok. You’ll probably find me on Instagram Stories being absolutely insane, and on TikTok being even crazier. Curated chaos, but sharing some knowledge along the way!