Marketing Your Wedding Officiant Business With an Online Portfolio: Highlights from AMM Talks

Brand new wedding officiants usually say the same thing: “I want to start performing more weddings, but I’m not sure where to meet couples who want to get married.”

 

That’s where a few essential marketing tips and a great online presence come in – as the old saying goes, if you build it, they will come!

 

If you’ve already performed a wedding or two for friends or family members, then you’ve got everything you need to start establishing yourself online. And if you’re still waiting to officiate that first wedding, don’t worry! The tips below will get you headed in the right direction no matter where you are in your officiant journey. 

 

This great advice comes straight from a professional wedding officiant: Officiant Sherri Crawford. 

 

AMM Minister Sherri Crawford is a professional wedding officiant (OfficiantSherri.com), event emcee, and entertainment/ lifestyle writer, based along the North Carolina coast. She’s been officiating weddings since 2018, and is a former rock radio personality and news radio announcer. Her personable and professional style has made her a favorite choice among regional and destination wedding couples in coastal North Carolina, South Carolina, and beyond.

 

 

 

6 Tips to Market Your Wedding Officiant Business Using a Great Online Portfolio

 

1. Create a strong personal brand on social media platforms

 

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s certainly true in today’s world! Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and similar social platforms allow you to show couples who you are and what you’ll do for them on the wedding day through great photos and captions. Use photos to showcase your personal style, sense of humor, wedding services, professionalism, and the types of couples you hope to attract.

 

Sherri says: “One of the best places to start is creating an image and a brand on Instagram. That’s a place where couples, they’re checking out different vendors, different styles, they’re getting ideas… When I do my first initial contact talk with a couple, they’re saying to me, “I’ve never done this before. I don’t even know where to start…” Of course, they say a picture’s worth a thousand words – that’s why Instagram is so fantastic…”

 

See Officiant Sherri's Instagram for inspiration: @officiantsherri

 

2. Use a re-share app to share content from other wedding professionals & start networking

 

Another way to boost your visibility on social media platforms is by resharing content posted by other vendors and venues you love – and would love to work with. This helps you network and build relationships with other wedding professionals in your area and around the country, while also adding great content to your profile. 

 

“Get a reshare app,” Sherri suggests. “Repost is probably one of the most popular. That’s a good way to start establishing some relationships with other wedding professionals… It’s also giving you some content to share, content to recycle, when you don’t necessarily have a whole bunch of natural stuff to share on your own.”

 

3. Start with a few simple photos and add more as you go

 

You don’t need a collection of photos of you ‘in action’ at the altar to start building an online presence. If you’re new to officiating, find stock photos of great wedding decor to share on your website, ask friends to pose for a mock wedding ceremony to get a few fun photos, or take selfies with the couples you marry after the ceremony. 

 

You can always add more photos as you grow and learn. You’ll have more opportunities to add at-the-altar shots and photos by professional photographers as you gain more experience. 

 

4. Keep your website simple when you’re first starting out

 

Your website doesn’t have to be expensive or flashy to effectively establish your business online. Even a simple one-page website that describes who you are and what you do (officiate weddings!) will help build trust with prospective clients and show couples that you’re a dedicated professional who takes your role seriously. This same philosophy applies to choosing photos for your website, and Sherri suggests “less is more.” Just choose a few great photos and keep it simple. 

 

“You don’t need to ‘go big or go home,” Sherri tells us. “When I first started my website, I just had a simple page holder. I was in the mindset of, ‘This is what I want to do, but I don’t want to put in that much money’... So I started out with a page holder, and from there added a few more pages.”

 

5. A Google Business Profile is one of the best decisions you can make

 

Create a Google Business Profile for your officiant services! This is one of the best things you can do to help prospective clients find your business online. Your Google business page will show up whenever local couples search for a wedding officiant in your area, along with any photos you submit, your business phone number, and a link to your website. You can also post seasonal updates and promotions to attract more couples. 

And best of all? It’s completely free!

 

As Sherri says, “You can narrow it down to what region you’re in, what services you offer, you can put in some keywords… and you can share plenty of photos… Google is the first place that everybody seems to go to. It’s kind of a one-stop-shop… It goes out into Google, and the universe, and does its thing. It’s just amazing.”

 

6. Don’t be shy when it comes to asking couples for reviews

 

Once you’ve officiated a wedding or two, it’s time to start asking couples to review your services online. Asking for a review might feel awkward at first, but it’s absolutely worth it. Great reviews build trust with prospective clients and couples, and will help attract the types of couples you want to work with in the future. 

 

A few days after the ceremony (or a couple weeks if there’s a honeymoon planned), send your couple a sweet follow-up email  to wish them well and include a link to your Facebook page or Google business page, where they can submit a review if they’d like to. 

 

“I felt weird asking for reviews…” Sherri admits. “But I started doing it in follow up emails… I’ll give it a couple weeks, and then I’ll send them a follow up thank you, wish them well… In my closing, I’ll just say, ‘Hey, if you would like to leave a review, if it’s something you’d like to do, I’d appreciate it. Here’s the links, they can be left anytime – and just kind of leave it at that. Just kind of throw it out there.”

 

*The quotes above have been lightly edited by AMM Staff for clarity and flow. 

 

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Want more marketing tips for your wedding officiant business? 

 

Watch Officiant Sherri’s full talk below, including a helpful Q&A session, as part of the AMM Talks online officiant training series. 

 

 

 

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PayPal, Venmo, Square, Cash... Which is best? Learn about popular ways to receive payment for wedding officiant services. Read the full article here 

 

 

 

Read all Officiant Business Tips Articles

 

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AMM's Professional Wedding Officiant Training Course 

 

 

Asked to officiate?  

 

You only get one shot to deliver a perfect wedding ceremony.

 

There’s no ‘take-two’ when it comes time for a couple to say ‘I do’--  Wedding officiants only get one shot to perform a perfect wedding ceremony. 

 

 

Learn more on the Course Page. 

 

 

 

 

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