Ready, Set, Submit: Prepping your Wedding PR During the Busy Season

by Meghan Ely

If there is one thing that I don’t miss about wedding planning, it would be wedding feet.

Despite my best efforts prior to the start of wedding season, you could still find me every Sunday with a set of numb feet propped up on the couch, while I bemoaned of the far less glamorous aspects to my job.

Every year, I found myself prepping more and more for the insanity that was wedding season. I completed banquet event orders further out, scoped out the latest kitten heel and confirmed as many vendor lists that I could- all in the hopes of being able to take more than just one breath between April and October.

Wedding PR is fast becoming a permanent fixture in a wedding pro’s marketing strategy and like those cute strappy sandals, it tends to be tossed to the wayside when the going gets busy. The good news? There are plenty of things you can do to prep your wedding PR strategies as you dive into the busy wedding season:

1.  Have a clear idea of your goals– During busier times, we’re apt to just throw our wedding marketing and pr strategies against the wall to see what sticks, which is both ineffective and inefficient. Take time before things get really busy to outline your wedding pr goals- whether it be to promote yourself in other markets, or simply increase brand awareness in your own corner of the world.
2. Get your deadlines straight– Take some time to familiarize yourself with wedding blogs and magazines that best fit your work, as well as your goals, and research the coming editorial deadlines. Those deadlines come and go quickly, especially when you’re drowning in tulle and mason jars.
3. Cover your bases legally– For the most part, brides love seeing their wedding featured on a blog or in a magazine, but it’s best to take the necessary precautions for the few that don’t. Make sure the bride has signed off on use of the images in advance. The proper legal counsel should be able to advise as to the appropriate wording for one’s contract.
4. Collect names– A fabulous wedding normally consists of a cracker jack team of wedding professionals. Your real wedding submission should give credit to all those involved, so instead of chasing down the names after the fact, have the bride complete a list of her wedding vendors prior to the wedding day.
5. Get the story– A competitive real wedding submission often includes a great narrative, but you’ll soon come to find that it’s a lot more difficult to get a quick response from the bride now that she is a Mrs. When collecting the names of the wedding team, consider also sending along a few general questions about the details of the day. Not only will it provide great content for your submission, but it will also give you further insight about the Big Day.

Seeing your name “in lights” can be a tremendously rewarding moment and with the above strategies in place, your wedding PR efforts will remain intact during the busy wedding season. As for your wedding feet? Well, I can’t make any promises there.

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Meghan Ely is the owner of wedding marketing and wedding pr firm OFD Consulting. She is the exclusive wedding PR columnist to wedding marketing journal WedLock magazine and offers wedding marketing and wedding pr advice for wedding professionals on her own blog Illuminate. She loves ruffle table runners and Royal Wedding Tchotchkes.

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