As a wedding industry professional, you have heard the word “luxury” a lot. “I’m a luxury wedding planner.”  “I am a luxury floral designer.”  “I am a fine art wedding photographer who shoots primarily luxury weddings.” It’s become quite the buzz word in the industry.

Let’s set the stage. There are different definitions on what the wedding industry uses to determine what is a “luxury” wedding. Some say the spend is $1,000 per a person. Some say it’s $2,500 per a person. Knowing that, we also know that the average number of guests at a wedding is 130. So, that means for a wedding to qualify as “luxury,” as defined by the wedding industry, couples would have to spend $130,000 to $325,000 for 130 guests. That means if a couple has 130 guests and only (haha!) spends $100,000, it’s not considered a luxury wedding… according to the wedding industry.

Let us let you in on a little secret. If you are in the wedding industry, you are in a luxury industry. Period. Spending thousands of dollars on one day in someone’s life is a LUXURY.  We want you to feel confident in that.

And more importantly, we firmly believe that you don’t need to target what the wedding industry deems as “luxury weddings” in order to be profitable, sustainable, or successful. Let me say it for you again:  You don’t have to target what the wedding industry deems as “luxury weddings” in order to be profitable, sustainable, or successful.  

Based on what little research we could find on this topic, less than 5% of couples are spending more than $100,000 on their wedding days. Even less are spending what the wedding industry deems as “luxury” based on what we defined above. Our best guess would be that less than 1% of couples are spending what the wedding industry defines as luxury on their weddings. Do you want to be able to target only 1% of couples getting married?! We personally don’t like those odds.

We’re going to come out and say it. If you are only targeting luxury weddings, statistically, you are missing out on a lot of incredible couples, and it’s seriously something to consider in your marketing strategy.

Do Eric and Jamie shoot luxury weddings? Yep. Does Becky plan luxury weddings? Absolutely. Are all of our weddings “luxury?” Not by a long shot. And guess what? Planning and photographing only luxury weddings is not a goal of either of our businesses. Instead, we focus on joyful couples who value what we provide and are willing to pay for our expertise and client experience. Because we know that what we offer is valuable. 

Sometimes that means that couples spend a big portion of their wedding budget on us. What. An. Honor. We don’t care how much they spend on their wedding days – we care that they value what we provide enough that they are willing to invest in us. And personally, we all think we have the best couples.

If you’re only looking to specifically break into the luxury wedding market, The Wedding Business Blueprint probably isn’t for you. However, if you are looking for proven strategies on how to book real, incredible couples and want to join a community of other wedding professionals who want to do the same thing, join us in The Blueprint!  We’d love to have you!!