Thursday, May 5, 2011

How to get your wedding published


While I'd love to take credit on telling you girls how to get published, haha I really won't know how to... But I read this cool post from the famous wedding planner Beth Helmstetter so I'm sharing with you guys.

1. Photography is everything. While details are amazing and important, if you don’t have a strong photographer that is great at capturing these details or styling up the image in a way that will showcase well, most magazines will pass on what could have been the most creative and inspirational wedding in the world. In addition to the shot list Shira recommends, before you hire your photographer, look at their body of work to see if they capture the details & moments that you see your favorite publications showing off. Also, if they have been published before, you can feel more comfortable that they have the skill to capture what the magazine needs to show off your gorgeous day.

2. Keep it original. Keep in mind that magazines are essentially looking for weddings that their readers will find inspiration in. That being said, if they covered a rustic wedding with mason jars everywhere last week or even last month, chances are they are not looking for that type of inspiration to share with their readers anytime soon. Now, this doesn’t mean you should be adding random trendy touches just to be different, but try not to copy ideas from magazines or blogs that have been done over and over again if your ultimate goal is to get published. While Martha obviously loved the cake they put in their Spring 2009 issue, they won’t love it enough to repeat the same content in future issues. The same is true for most magazines.

3. Know what your preferred publication looks for: If you love Grace Ormonde, then you might consider a day full of glamour and maybe even a bit avant garde. Love Town & Country? Think timeless, timeless, timeless. Or, if Martha is the direction you want to go, then no detail is too small. Don’t just think about the cake design, but also the cake display & backdrop behind the cake and so on.

4. Budget isn’t everything: While some publications do prefer to feature big, lavish, over-the-top weddings, many prefer charm over grandeur and from experience, I can say for a fact that the weddings we have had published haven’t always been the most expensive in our portfolio. Instead what they had was a well thought out design, lots of details and an overall approachability that just makes you want to jump into the moment!

No matter what though, don’t allow your desire for getting published to get in the way of creating a day that makes sense for you. Create a day that is reflective of you as a couple whether that means throwing in every trend there is or going classic & sophisticated. In the end, the weddings that truly tell the story of the couple are almost always the most inspirational!

3 comments:

  1. Very interesting! I totally plan on submitting my wedding to different websites, etc. after the fact just to see if it would get published, lol!

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  2. Our wedding was featured on two websites and might be in a magazine (if I get around to submitting it...they contacted us 6 weeks ago!), and I actually didn't contact anyone, our photographer submitted our photos. I agree with a lot of these tips--we did NOT "design" our wedding to be published, we made it about us & what we loved, and it just happened to be liked by people who own wedding blogs.

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  3. @Manda: I can't decide if I want to submit my wedding haha... i'll just think about it later

    @Laure: Awww congrats!! Do you have any tips how you have made your wedding "yours".. I'm so going to check out your wedding now.

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