Things I’d tell you if we were having a coffee & you told me "I have hardly any weddings booked next year!" ☕️
Firstly, no business chat is the same without a warming coffee and a slice of cake, beaut.
So go get yours, come back, enjoy that first sip and settle in…
Cus we gunna have a chat!
If we were sitting across from each other and you said to me:
“My bookings for next year are shite at the moment and I’m starting to get worried…”
Firstly, I’d hear ya….. because I remember that EXACT feeling.
Usually around this time of year, actually.
I’d start checking the numbers for the following year and…MY GOD. DRY.
Suddenly I’d be questioning my entire existence in the wedding industry.
“Why am I not booked?”
“Is everyone else busier than me?”
“Are my prices too high?”
“Has everyone suddenly decided they don’t want bridal hair anymore?!”
Then I’d start doom-scrolling.
I’d find the artist who looked completely booked out, compare our prices, cross-reference our work, our ethos, our Instagram, our entire bloody business models…
And within approximately 14 minutes, I’d have convinced myself my business was fucked.
And THAT was my first mistake.
Because before we panic, compare, lower our prices, change our entire brand or announce that “the wedding industry is just really quiet now”…
We need to actually work out what’s going on.
And to do that.....
We need to look at your numbers.
One thing I realised year after year was that somehow, it was usually always okay.
IF I focused on what I could actually control.
And understanding your numbers is one of the best ways to do that.
Because numbers give you something concrete to work with when your brain is busy telling you everyone else is fully booked and you should probably just burn the whole business down. 😂
So first, I’d ask:
Where were you this time last year?
Not where you FINISHED the year.
Where were you right now?
How many weddings did you already have booked for the year ahead?
What was their total value?
How much did you eventually earn that full year?
Then:
What trajectory are you currently on?
How much are you projected to earn next year?
How much do you actually WANT or NEED to earn next year?
And what is the total value of the weddings you’ve already got booked?
Because this is important:
Your number of bookings doesn't tell me enough.
You could have fewer weddings booked than you did this time last year and still be in a better financial position.
Especially if your pricing has increased.
At one stage of my bridal career, I was doing around 60 weddings a year to make roughly £40k. Towards the later end of my career....I could do around 30 weddings and make the same, if not more!
Half the weddings. No drop in income. A LOT less pressure.
And more space to focus on other projects and income streams.
So if I’d looked at my diary and thought:
“Fuck, I’ve only got 30 weddings booked instead of 60!”
…I could have panicked over something that was actually EXACTLY what I wanted.
This is why numbers matter.
So how many weddings do you ACTUALLY need?
Once you know your income goal, we can work backwards.
And remember to account for any other income you have too.
If you make money from trials, occasion hair and makeup, education, additional services, another job, passive income or anything else… your weddings don't necessarily need to generate your entire annual income.
So work out:
How much money do I actually need my weddings to generate? (don’t forget it’s taxed too!)
Then, at your current average wedding value:
How many weddings does that mean I actually need?
And finally:
How many MORE weddings do I need to book from where I am today?
Let’s say the answer is: You need 30 more weddings. Great. Now we have an actual target. Not: “MY DIARY LOOKS EMPTY AND EVERYTHING IS FUCKED.” 😂
An actual, measurable goal.
30 weddings.
Now we can work out what needs to happen to get them.
Next: how many enquiries are you actually getting?
This is where I’d want you to stop looking at bookings for a second and start looking further up the journey.
How many genuine bridal enquiries are coming into your business every month?
Because you can't diagnose a booking problem without knowing whether you actually have an enquiry problem first.
If hardly anyone is enquiring, we need to look at things like your visibility, your messaging, your positioning and whether your overall brand and online presence are giving the right brides enough reason to actually hit ENQUIRE.
But if plenty of people ARE enquiring and they're not booking.......different problem.
Which brings us to…
What's your conversion rate?
Let’s say you're getting:
30 enquiries a month. And you're converting around 30–40% of those. (which is an average conversion rate) That’s roughly 9–12 bookings.
But let’s say you’re getting 30 good enquiries and only booking 5. That’s around a 17% conversion rate.
Now I’m less interested in screaming: “WE NEED MORE LEADS!!!”
…and much more interested in what happens AFTER someone enquires.
Because if brides are already finding you, liking you enough to enquire and then disappearing…
we need to look at why.
How quickly are you getting back to them?
Does your reply sound like an actual human being?
Are you building connection?
Are you making it easy for her to understand what happens next?
Are you over-explaining and trying desperately to justify your experience and pricing?
Are you relying on HER to lead the conversation?
Are you giving her a clear next step?
Or are you ending every enquiry with:
“Let me know if you have any questions!”
…and then sitting there wondering why she never replies? 👀
These are completely different problems requiring completely different solutions.
And THAT is why I want you looking at the numbers before you start changing random shit.
Because your big scary target might actually be… pretty fucking achievable.
Let’s go back to our example.
You’ve worked everything out and decided:
I need another 30 weddings for next year.
Sounds a lot when you stare at 30 empty dates in your diary, doesn't it?
But break it down.
You don't need 30 brides to magically appear tomorrow.
You need to average roughly:
2–3 additional weddings a month over the next year.
Now imagine your enquiry-to-booking conversion rate is around 30%.
To book 3 weddings, you need roughly: 10 good enquiries.
Ten!!!!!
Suddenly:
“I need 30 more weddings 😭”
becomes:
“How can I consistently generate around 10 qualified enquiries a month and convert around 3 of them?”
THAT is a business question we can actually answer.
There’s another bit of fuckery I see all the time…
You increase your prices because you want:
fewer weddings + better income + less burnout.
Then fewer people book.
And you panic. 😂
Sometimes that is literally the fucking point.
As you move into a higher price bracket, your conversion rate may naturally change because you’re asking for a bigger investment.
That doesn't automatically mean your pricing is wrong.
Especially if the clients you ARE booking are worth considerably more.
You cannot simultaneously decide: “I want to charge more and work less.”
…and then judge the health of your business purely by whether you're booking the same volume you did when you were cheaper.
Again…
Look at the numbers.
Comparison is a killer. Panic makes you do silly shit.
This is why I bang on about understanding your own business so much.
Because when you don't understand YOUR numbers, you start borrowing everybody else's.
You see someone say they’re fully booked and assume you should be.
You see someone booking 60 weddings and think your 30 aren't enough.
You see someone getting loads of enquiries and assume something is wrong with you.
But you don't know their prices.
You don't know their income goal.
You don't know their expenses.
You don't know their conversion rate.
You don't know how many weddings they actually WANT.
You don't know if they're profitable.
And you definitely don't know whether they're sitting there looking at YOUR business thinking you've got your shit together. 😂
Panic and fear make us do silly things.
Drop our prices.
Create random offers.
Change our messaging.
Copy someone else's marketing.
Say yes to weddings we don't want.
Try seventeen new strategies at once.
Or give up altogether and decide:
“It's just quiet everywhere now.”
But your numbers keep you grounded.
They tell you where the problem actually is.
And once you know that, you know what to work on.
Not EVERYTHING.
The thing that actually needs fixing.
And before you know it…
Those scary numbers start looking a whole lot less scary.
YOUR HOMEWORK, MY BEAUT ☕️
Before you tell yourself bookings are shit, answer these properly.
Get your diary out. Open your accounts. Grab a calculator if you need one.
And no guessing!
YOUR INCOME
1. How much money do I actually WANT/NEED to earn next year? (don't forget it's taxed!)
2. How much of that needs to come specifically from weddings?
3. What is my current average wedding booking value?
4. Based on that average, how many weddings do I actually need next year to hit my goal?
5. How many weddings do I already have booked?
7. How many more weddings do I genuinely need?
YOUR COMPARISON - this should only be based on YOUR figures!
8. Where was I at this exact point last year?
How many weddings did I have booked and what were they worth?
9. How does my pricing now compare with my pricing then?
10. Am I actually behind financially — or am I panicking because my booking NUMBER looks lower?
YOUR ENQUIRIES
11. How many genuine bridal enquiries have I received each month over the last 3–6 months?
12. Where are those enquiries coming from?
Instagram? Google? Recommendations? Venues? TikTok? Previous brides?
13. Am I generating enough enquiries to realistically hit my booking goal?
If not, we have something to work on.
YOUR CONVERSION
14. Out of every 10 enquiries, how many actually book?
15. What is my enquiry-to-booking conversion rate?
Bookings ÷ enquiries × 100 = your conversion rate.
16. If my conversion is low, what happens between ENQUIRY and BOOKING?
Look at:
How quickly you reply
What your initial response actually says
Whether it sounds human and personal
Whether you're building connection
Whether you're clearly communicating your value
Whether you're over-explaining or justifying your price
Whether the process feels easy
Whether you give them a clear next step
Whether you're actually selling… or just sending a price list and hoping for the best
DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW UP!!
AND FINALLY…
17. Based on everything above, what is the ACTUAL problem?
Do I need:
More enquiries?
Better-quality enquiries?
Better conversion?
Stronger positioning?
More visibility?
A better enquiry process?
Or… do I actually not have the massive fucking problem I thought I did? 😂
Because THAT is the question.
Don't change your pricing.
Don't rewrite your whole website.
Don't panic-post an offer for three weeks.
Don't decide the wedding industry is dead.
Don't compare yourself to Sally who's apparently booked until 2047.
Know your numbers first.
Then......and ONLY then..... decide what needs your attention.
Now finish your coffee & scoff your cake cus you've earned it! ☕️✌🏻
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