What belongs in a wedding photography client welcome packet

Send less, in order

Six notes cover the job. More than that and people stop opening them.

1. Inquiry reply. Say whether the date is open, your starting price, and the next step. One link, not three.
2. Questionnaire. Send it when they are serious, not as the first thing a stranger sees. Point them at the six groups and tell them it takes about fifteen minutes.
3. Date hold. After you agree, restate the date, the hours, and what the retainer is for. Leave your real numbers in your own words.
4. Six weeks out. Ask for the family list and any vendor who will be giving you instructions. This is the last calm moment to fix a bad address.
5. One week out. Send the timeline as a decision, not a draft. Ask them to correct facts, not to redesign the day. The timeline guide is the method.
6. Gallery handoff. Tell them how long the link lives, how to download, and who to write if a name in a caption is wrong. Then stop adding new offers in the same email.

What does not belong

A twelve-page brand story. A contract you copied from another country and have not read. A shot list of eighty poses they must rank. Your pricing PDF can live on its own. The packet’s job is to make the wedding day obvious to everyone holding a camera.

The shot list stays one page

Details, both getting-ready rooms, three ceremony positions, the family groups they already named, the portrait window, speeches, and the exit. If a second shooter is there, mark which lines are theirs. An unmarked list is two people photographing the same cake.

The files that match this order are in the studio kit. You still write your own prices and you still use your own contract.