Images used in this blog post are by Cambridge wedding photographer Damien Vickers

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Welcome! This is part 2 of a series about blogging for success in the wedding industry. If you read last week’s article I hope you’re convinced that writing blogs for your wedding business is worth your time!

It’s daunting though: whether you’ve blogged before and stopped, or your wedding business is new and it’s something you’ve never tried. The thought of blogging can be off-putting. That’s why I’m writing these articles to help you.

I’ve been a wedding blogger for 15 years, and a wedding business owner for 20 years. I’ve learned an easy, consistent routine for the English Wedding blog. For my wedding calligraphy business I’ve had times where I’ve blogged regularly, and other times where I’ve let it slip. The reason? Too busy, other priorities, and the pressure of social media. The result? I almost lost my wedding business. Experience has taught me that blogging is a crucial part of a successful wedding business strategy.

This article will give you an easy way to get started with wedding blogging:

• Have a plan.
• Start small. Be unambitious and make things easy!
• Set yourself simple goals.
• Don’t dread blogging – take control.
• It’s all about showing up on the internet so people can find you.

Seven tips for getting started with your wedding business blog

1. Know what you want to achieve

Success will be your goal. Easily said, but success looks different to everyone. Perhaps you want a 6-figure wedding brand. Perhaps you want to live mortgage-free. Perhaps you just want to keep a roof over your head. Perhaps that roof is your camper van. Or perhaps you have a full time job and want to earn a little extra for a little while, or eventually make weddings your future. Knowing your goal is the best place to start.

Your definition of success will influence how much time you’ll need to invest in your blog.

For me, success is earning enough to support myself, plus a little more for adventures away!

2. Make time for blogging your wedding business

Consider how much time you have available. It would be lovely if we could all write a mega blog post every single week – but it’s not realistic.

Sit for a second and think what’s going to work best for you. Will you allow yourself 1 or 2 hour’s writing time per blog post? Can you spare those hours once a week? Once a fortnight? Perhaps once a month at first?

3. Outline what you’ll write about – and make it count

I’ll talk about content and ideas in the last blog in this series. Next week I’ll give you a simple introduction to wedding business SEO (search engine optimisation). For today, all you need to know is this:

What you write on your blog should match what people are searching for online.

Your potential clients are searching online for answers to questions (“who’s the best wedding photographer in my area?”) and for suppliers and ideas for their weddings. (“sustainable wedding flowers in Malvern” or “is it cheaper to make your own wedding invitations?”)

Talk about your products and services. Show beautiful images and examples of your work. Explain the benefits of hiring you (vs DIY weddings).

4. Stick your blogging schedule on the wall and just do it!

OK, so I’m going old school with this. (I’m a calligrapher: I write stuff really prettily, so it looks good on the wall!) Feel free to use your calendar app if that’s what works best for you!

I’ve set aside time every Monday to write a blog for my calligraphy business. I aim to spend between one and two hours on each post: no more.

I do have a reminder in my iPhone calendar which pings a notification every Monday at 11am: write a calligraphy blog!

4. Keep it simple and make your blog suit you

It’s easy to overreach. You don’t need to give your potential customers ALL the advice at once. Keep your blogs fairly short and simple, especially if you don’t enjoy content writing! Ideally, aim for roughly 5 paragraphs of 100 words each, including headings. This is what 500 words looks like:

There’s a lot of advice online about the ‘optimum’ length of a blog post. I couldn’t find anything written specifically for the wedding industry, and that’s interesting. Last week I mentioned that not everyone in our industry is writing blogs. If you do, it puts you ahead of your competition. Writing mega long blog posts isn’t important: just being there and updating your blog means you’re winning already!

Don’t pressure yourself to write more than you’re able to in the 1 or 2 hour time slot you’ve given yourself. If you can happily knock out 300 words in an hour, that’s your sweet spot for blogging. Then it’s time to take the dog for some fresh air, or do something creative that makes you happy!

5. If you don’t enjoy writing, collaborate or dictate

If you have a little network of wedding friends, share the work of blogging between you! Styled photoshoots are brilliant for blogs: you can write about the details, the light for photography, the venue and why you’re a perfect fit, and how you all work together. Best of all, write a paragraph each and use them all together on your blogs!

I know lots of wedding suppliers with dyslexia. If you hate writing, consider a skill swap. Mini styled shoots are a lovely way to generate content. If you’re a photographer, you provide the images and ask someone else do take care of a write-up.

Having a natural tone of voice is really important. If you don’t want to type your blog posts, dictate them into your phone. It might need a little tidy up before you hit publish, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than an hour typing!

6. Let your images speak for themselves

Any wedding business blog has to be beautiful. Photographers: everyone else in the wedding industry is in awe of your skills! You have the BEST content already, in the photos you take.

Never publish a blog without stunning photos. They’re what will grab your readers’ attention: the hook that will have them wanting to read your blog!

If you’re struggling for ideas for what to blog about, talk about what’s in the photos you’re sharing!

7. A less than perfect wedding business blog is FINE!

It’s kind of nice to sound human on the internet. I think this is even more important tin the UK, as AI takes over. There’s nothing worse than sounding perfect, in my opinion! Or like an excruciatingly dull American robot. So any sentences that aren’t quite right, any cheeky swears or phrases that sound a bit informal – will make your wedding blogs better. Throw some humour in. Include funny stories to illustrate a point. Focus on being interesting, never on being perfect.

The wedding suppliers’ blogs I really love reading are the open, honest and funny ones. The weddings I love to see are the ones bursting with personality, not the ones which are pristine and perfect and somehow flat. It’s the same with wedding business blog posts: a little mistake or an off-tangent ramble is better than perfection. (And hitting publish when your blog is just about good enough, way outshines the extra half hour you might spend tweaking it to perfection!)

My wedding business blogging plan

I’ll share my (simple) blogging plan with you, and perhaps it will help!

Even your plan doesn’t have to be perfect: it just has to be there, to exist in a format that you can stick to!

I have two websites for my calligraphy business: my calligraphy website (WordPress driven) and my online shop (provided by Pattern on Etsy).

My plan tells me to blog on them on alternate weeks, so they’re both regularly updated.

At 11am every Monday I get a notification to write a blog post. This is all saved in my Calendar app.

Whenever I have an idea for a blog post – usually in the bath, or in the middle of the night, or when I’m super busy doing something completely different – I’ll scribble it down so I can add it to my calendar.

This week, for example, my calendar includes a note saying “I write memes”. (I’m late: I still need to write that blog post!) Next week, I’ve added in a pasted note of a review sent in from a happy customer. So there’s a little nudge of content in there, but the main thing is my calendar reminder. It’s given me a routine to follow, and I know I can spend an hour and a bit typing something out, adding some images and hitting publish!

At quieter times of year I can plan my blog more thoroughly. In January this year I planned out which products / calligraphy services I wanted to promote and when. I’d blog about family trees before Mothers Day, and wedding invitation calligraphy in late spring. I know that as soon as I’ve finished my personalised baubles I’ll be writing about those on my blogs too.

Autumn is a good time of year to make a plan for your wedding business blog. Mine needs a little work… but it’s nice to have something there at least, so when I’m all out of ideas on a Monday morning I know what I need to do!

Are you ready to get started blogging your wedding business?

In a nutshell, if you make a little plan you’re already halfway there. Over time, it will become routine. And a regular blog will really help your business get seen online.

• Have goals but make them easy to suit you
• Blog consistently and have a regular time slot that works for you
• Keep your version of success in mind, and blog to achieve it
• Know what to write about: next week I’ll talk about SEO and in week 4 we’ll cover content ideas and inspiration for your wedding business blog