Marketing Strategy for Wedding Professionals & Businesses: The Evolve Your Wedding Business Podcast

Hosted by Heidi Thompson | Wedding Business Coach, Marketing Strategist, & Consultant

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Episodes

384

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

As a wedding professional, you're incredible at what you do but when it comes to marketing for wedding pros, you're stuck playing the social media game and hoping the right clients find you. Whether you love or hate the constant hustle, I've got news for you...there's a better , more sustainable way to get more wedding clients and book more weddings without burning out. This show delivers actionable wedding marketing strategies to help you attract dream clients, increase your wedding bookings, & (finally) get your questions about growing a profitable wedding business answered! We'll cover questions like: Getting More Clients: How do I get more wedding inquiries from my ideal clients? How do I book more weddings as a photographer? As a planner? At my venue? How do I turn wedding inquiries into booked clients? Marketing Strategy & Channels: How do I market my wedding planning business to stand out? Should I focus on Instagram, Pinterest, Google, or paid advertising? Is it worth it to advertise on The Knot and WeddingWire? What wedding planner marketing and event planner marketing strategies actually work? Sustainable Growth: How do I market my wedding business on a budget? How do I know if my wedding marketing strategy is working? Can I build a successful business without being on social media 24/7 or working 60+ hour weeks? After helping tens of thousands of wedding professionals around the world build sustainable wedding businesses, wedding business coach Heidi Thompson knows exactly what it takes to attract dream clients without the overwhelm. Through Evolve Your Wedding Business, she's on a mission to help wedding vendors create marketing strategies that work without working 60+ hour weeks. Heidi consistently makes wedding business marketing approachable and exciting! With a mix of solo episodes and guest interviews with successful wedding vendors and wedding marketing experts, you'll hear exactly how to grow your wedding business whether you're a wedding planner, DJ, officiant, florist, venue owner, or any other type of wedding vendor so you can spend less time chasing clients and more time doing the work you love. Ready to take your wedding business to the next level? Press play and visit evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/podcast for show notes, guest info, and even more free resources to grow your wedding business! 🎧

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 12, 2026Episode 3731 hr 6 min

How To Get Wedding Clients Without Relying On Instagram

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You post consistently. You get likes, you get comments, you even get shares. Then you open your inquiries and there's nothing there. If your whole plan for how to get wedding clients is Instagram, and Instagram isn't producing, that gap will wreck you. That was Elyse Stokes in July of 2024. She ran a ten day birthday promo, made the graphics, boosted the posts, ran Facebook ads. Plenty of engagement. Not one inquiry. Five days after her birthday she broke her leg, and she spent that summer in a recliner doing the math on whether she'd have to go back to a job and put her son in daycare. Two years later she's booked a year and a half out and turning couples away. She's a live wedding painter and wedding stationer in Georgia, and she gets specific in this one about what she cut, what she kept, and what actually changed. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/373 ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

August 5, 2026Episode 37211 min

3 Things Wedding Pros Tell Me (And Why They're Wrong)

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You book weddings. But booked how? At prices you actually love, with couples you actually like, or booked despite your marketing, not because of it? There are three things wedding pros tell Heidi all the time about why they haven't fixed their marketing. She's heard all three, more than once, for 14 years straight. Each one has a grain of truth in it. That's exactly why they work so well at keeping people stuck. This episode walks through all three, the fear underneath each one, and why the busiest, most "successful" wedding pros are usually the ones with the most to lose by not fixing this now. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/372 Get your free ticket to Book More Weddings Summit: https://bookmoreweddingssummit.com/ ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

August 1, 20266 min

Your Invite to the Book More Weddings Summit

Want to know what's working to book more weddings with couples you love? Join us for the FREE Book More Weddings Summit! It's happening Aug 17th-21st and you'll learn from 34 wedding industry experts. Get your free ticket at https://bookmoreweddingssummit.com/ ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

July 29, 2026Episode 37111 min

The Wedding Marketing Fix No One Talks About

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You don't have a visibility problem. That's the thing nobody wants to hear when their inquiries have slowed down. The instinct is to post more, chase more followers, show up in more places but more wedding marketing doesn't fix an unclear message. Here's what's actually happening. Couples are finding you. They're landing on your website, scrolling your Instagram, walking past your booth. And then they close the tab because they can't tell if you're the right fit. That's not a reach problem. That's a clarity problem. In this episode, you'll hear why the wedding pros with smaller followings are often the ones booked solid, and what one Wedding Business Collective member did to get so specific about her ideal client that couples started repeating her own marketing back to her. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/371 Get your free ticket to Book More Weddings Summit: https://bookmoreweddingssummit.com/ ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

July 23, 2026Episode 37015 min

The 5 Booking Patterns Costing You Wedding Clients

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. Your inquiry calendar is full. You're posting, you're networking, you're answering every message the second it lands. And your bookings still don't match the effort. Somewhere along the way you probably decided that means you're the problem. You're not. There are five specific patterns behind why the wrong wedding clients find you (or why the right ones go quiet), and once you can name which one you're in, the fix gets a lot less confusing. This episode walks through all five, plus the one shift underneath all of them that most wedding pros never make. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/370 Get your free ticket to Book More Weddings Summit: https://bookmoreweddingssummit.com/ ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

July 15, 2026Episode 36912 min

You Already Know What To Do. Here's Why You Haven't.

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You already know your messaging sounds like everyone else's. You already know which clients you'd clone in a heartbeat and which ones make your stomach drop when their name pops up in your inbox. You're not confused about what's wrong. You're stalled. This episode isn't another rundown of strategy or messaging tips. It's about the thing that happens after you already know what to do and still don't do it. Why "I'll fix my marketing after busy season" never actually turns into fixing your marketing, and why that's not a discipline problem. There's a reason later never comes, and it's not because you're lazy or you don't care. Once you hear it, you won't be able to unsee it in your own business. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/369 Apply for Perfect Fit Clients: https://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/fit ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

July 8, 2026Episode 36817 min

The Wedding Marketing Mistake That Attracts The Wrong Clients

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You redid your website for the third time. You posted more, showed up more, hustled harder. And somehow you're still fielding the same price objections from the same wrong-fit people. Here's the wedding marketing mistake nobody talks about: you don't have a visibility problem. You have a foundation problem. And no amount of Instagram strategy, Pinterest boards, or SEO can fix messaging that isn't speaking to the right person in the first place. In this episode, I break down why more marketing actually makes a messaging problem worse, not better, and walk through a real story of a photographer who kept rewriting her pricing page when pricing was never the issue. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/368 Apply for Perfect Fit Clients here: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/fit ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

July 1, 2026Episode 36715 min

Why Your Marketing Isn't Attracting The Right Wedding Clients

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You're booking weddings. You're making money. And you still wrap up almost every project thinking "I wish they were all like that one." Then the next inquiry rolls in. Someone wants the same thing but cheaper. Someone ghosts the second you send pricing. Someone books and spends the next six months making you question why you do this job at all. Here's the thing nobody tells you: that's not a lead problem. You don't need more wedding clients. You need the right ones, and that's a completely different fix. In this episode, Heidi breaks down why "post more, be more consistent, run more ads" makes a fit problem worse, not better, and what actually changes when your marketing starts speaking to the person instead of describing the service. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/367 ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

June 24, 2026Episode 36648 min

The Instagram Strategy Wedding Pros Need to Book More Clients

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. You're posting. You're trying to be consistent. You know your couples are on Instagram and you know you're supposed to show up there. And yet somehow none of it is actually translating into leads or bookings. If that's you, you are not alone. And it's not your fault. Nobody taught you how to make Instagram actually work for your business. They just told you to post more. In this episode I'm joined by Elizabeth Marberry, Instagram marketing strategist and host of the Strut It podcast, who breaks down exactly what's missing between showing up on Instagram and actually getting couples to reach out. We get into why one piece of content can do three jobs at once, how DM automation works and why it's a game changer for busy wedding pros, why your Instagram Stories are where the warm leads are hiding, and why the leads and sales are happening in the DMs, not on your website contact form. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/366 ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔

June 17, 2026Episode 36517 min

Should You Go After Luxury Weddings? Here's My Honest Answer

👉 Want to finally break free from The Knot and WeddingWire without losing leads? Save your seat for this free training. There is a narrative going around in this industry that luxury is the goal. That if you're exhausted, undercharging, or working too hard for what you're getting paid, the answer is to move upmarket. Raise your prices. Get better clients. Go luxury. I get why that sounds appealing. And I'm here to tell you it might be one of the most misleading things we say to each other. Going after luxury weddings isn't a promotion. It's building a completely different business from scratch. And if you do it for the wrong reasons, which a lot of people are, it's going to make your situation worse, not better. This episode is my honest take on the luxury market, who it's actually right for, who it isn't, what really changes when you move into it, and what to do instead if your current business isn't performing the way you want it to. Get all the links from this episode: http://evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/365 ——— I’m hosting a free live class : Break Up With The Knot & WeddingWire (Without Losing Leads) We’ll cover why many wedding pros feel their directory listings aren’t delivering like they once did, what’s actually working for bookings right now, and how to create a marketing system that puts you back in the driver’s seat. Grab your free seat at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/breakup ——— Find Heidi: Instagram (send a DM!) The Wedding Business Collective 🩵 (get your first month for $1) Ghosted Lead Booking Wizard 👻 Wedding Business Shop 🛍️ Free Training: Break Up With WeddingWire + The Knot Without Losing Leads 💔 Free Audio Training: Inside Profitable Six-Figure Wedding Businesses: What They Do That You Don’t (So You Can Grow & Scale Too) 👀 Case Study: Wedding Planner Marketing That Works – How Katie Sautter Booked 15 Weddings in Her First Year 🔍 The Knot & WeddingWire: Are They Worth It For Wedding Vendors? 🤔