Why pre-wedding consultations and cafes don’t mix

The final straw for me was meeting a lovely young couple for their pre-wedding consultation at their local Alderley cafe on a Sunday morning.

The client had booked this time and suggested the location. Despite them doing the right thing and arriving early, when I arrived they were seated at the worst possible table in the cafe. It was hot and humid and surrounded by families with kids.

Now I have several children of my own under six so I have a pretty high tolerance to noisy kids. But there is only one thing worse than a crying baby in a cafe, and that’s a cup basher. That child who has been brought up to believe that its socially acceptable to continuously bash their plastic cup on the wooden table!

And then there was the cafe owner who as soon as we had finished our breakfast, plonked a reservation sign on our table with 10AM scrawled on it and asked us rhetorically ‘Your’e okay with leaving by 10?’ as we were halfway through discussing getting ready photos.

So not only was it hot and loud, but we also only had just 20 minutes left to finish the meeting and go through the entire wedding day timeline. And every time I tried to write down comments and requests from the bride and groom to be by lifting pressure off the table, it would wobble and our drinks would threaten to tumble over.

I tried to find a table outside, but that was futile as there were three other couples waiting in the wings (dogs in tow). In short, we had to make do with what we had.

I’ll never forget the look on the groom's face as he had his hands splayed across his forehead, elbows resting on the table to try and stabilise it, trying desperately to concentrate on the task at hand while (possibly) regretting that last bourbon and coke he had at 1AM.

I made a promise to myself during that meeting, I would never, ever conduct a pre-wedding consultation in a random cafe ever again. When I looked back at past meetings, I recalled other near disasters such as late arrivals or no-shows, or being seated in a small room in an old Queenslander so close to the next table they could hear every single word that we said. Not exactly the ideal situation when discussing the intimate personal details of your wedding day!

Once when I was almost practically pulling up to a client meeting in Springwood after driving for 30 minutes I got a text message from the bride to be which read ‘Hi Chris, we won’t be needing to meet you today now. I will be in touch later if required’. The client had obviously met with another wedding photographer before our meeting, was mesmerised by them and had decided to book on the spot. These things happen, and I didn’t take it personally, but it was still a horrible waste of time.

Then there was the time the couple agreed to meet me at their chosen cafe at 4PM only to find the cafe had been closed since 3PM. We had to conduct the meeting on a park bench next door.

Thankfully there is one positive outcome from COVID-19 (at least that I can think of) and that is the general acceptance of video chat to entirely replace in-person meetings as a much more efficient, comfortable and practical way to do things.

In the same way that very few people need USB drives these days to transfer their digital photos, the reality is that we don’t actually need to meet in person for the pre-wedding consultation. And in my opinion, conducting the pre-wedding consultation by video chat or telephone is far superior.

In the 100% controlled environment of my office studio with two monitors and NBN internet during a video chat or phone call, I can make notes and refer to checklists while viewing venue run sheets, looking up photos of the venue on large screens, checking the latest weather reports and scouring Google Street View as I chat to clients. As my touch typing speed is faster than I can write, I can quickly make notes and still maintain eye contact with clients.

Using the screen sharing features of all video chat tools, I can also share photos, scenes and locations and you can view the photography timeline in real-time. None of which you can easily do in a café (especially if seated outside in the bright light).

There are no time limits or restrictions, crying babies or wobbly tables and instead of trying to find a car park or arriving 15 mins early to be on the safe side, I can use the time before the meeting to fully review my notes and correspondence with the client.

Since conducting all pre-wedding consultations by either video chat or telephone since February 2021, I can honestly say that this has vastly improved my service to clients, and made it much more enjoyable for them as well! In fact, since insisting that all pre-wedding consultations are conducted over video chat, I am pretty sure it has been a relief for many clients (as it’s one less meeting they need to attend close to their wedding day).

Every meeting goes down now without a hitch, and it is much easier and more effective to communicate. I have installed a permanent webcam on my main computer so everything is setup perfectly for each meeting. If the client has technical problems with their video or camera, we can also switch to a voice call.

In short, while you still may want to meet your photographer before booking in-person, a video chat is far superior to in-person random cafe meetings.