About the author:
In 2007, Leila launched the world’s first full-service wedding PR agency, Be Inspired PR. Through her experience, she recognized a gap between the industry’s dazzling talent and the lacking media coverage spotlighting those business owners. Be Inspired PR pioneered the explosion of media interest in wedding professionals and bridal brands which helped grow the wedding space to the $60 billion industry it is today.
With the amount of time that goes into wedding planning and design, getting it published on a major press outlet can really make it all worthwhile. But, while every wedding is beautiful in its own unique way, getting a feature is never guaranteed. After working in the wedding industry for 15 years, we’ve had quite the experience with pitching and submitting weddings for our clients. We’ve found a few tips and tricks that tend to separate a beautiful wedding from a submission – worthy one.
From a publication’s perspective, their goal of a feature is to inspire readers to use their ideas, whether future brides or vendors. It is important to always keep this in mind when creating your submission.
First and foremost, having a gallery full of detailed photos is extremely important. That includes photos of the stationery, the flowers, the fashion, the table settings and anything else that you put effort into displaying at your wedding! We always recommend communicating this need with your photographer before your wedding. If you’re a photographer, make sure you’re getting as many detailed photos as you can throughout the day. These extra shots can really make the difference when it comes down to getting it published.
When it comes to submissions, you have to keep the reader and the editor in mind. Think of what the reader wants to see on a wedding blog. Then, think of how to make the editor fall in love with your wedding. An easy way to do both of these is with a good story. Every wedding has a good story and the best wedding submissions always have those stories behind them. If you make the editor fall in love with your story, the chances of getting your wedding featured goes up significantly. Don’t know where to start? Start with the couple. How did they meet? How did they get engaged? From there, dig deeper. Did anything crazy happen during wedding planning? How did the details of the wedding tie the day together? Were there any fun traditions or surprises? Get creative.
Lastly, no outlet wants to continue posting the same type of wedding over and over again. You can have the most perfect wedding gallery with the sweetest love story but could get turned down by an outlet because they’ve already published the same type of wedding. This can be the hardest thing to do when traditions are such an important part about weddings. So, what makes your day so unique? We always suggest that vendors and their clients try something different each time. Use a fun color palette, set up your tables differently, pick a fun venue or any details that people haven’t seen before. These slight changes go the extra mile to ensure you have a submission-worthy wedding.
We hope this was helpful as you work on submitting more of your work!
If you ever need help managing your submissions, ask us about our Petite PR packages. Let us handle the galleries, the story and pitching to the best editors. The best part is, each Petite PR package comes with a guaranteed number of features. Get in touch with our team for more information. We can’t wait to work with you!
