Breaking Into the Luxury Market

If you're trying to break into the luxury market, it can feel super overwhelming to try and book your first job. It’s hard to know where to start: do you focus on elevating your portfolio to show you’re capable of luxury design work? How do you adjust the number of jobs you book to account for the added work of luxury weddings? Should you work on streamlining your workflow to take on more complex jobs?

Ultimately, all of these things are crucial when it comes to breaking into the luxury market.

But if I had to give a single piece of advice on how to start booking luxury jobs, it would be to increase your pricing.

I know this is scary, but luxury weddings take at least twice as long to plan as your average wedding. So if you are going to have the time to work luxury weddings consistently, you need to book less and charge more. And when you think about the number of hours you’re working, it makes sense that the costs would increase – your time is valuable and you should never be working for free (or putting in so many hours that your hourly rate is well below what you charge for less complex jobs).

And if you’re still nervous about raising your prices, I promise you that once you’re in the luxury market, people will look at your pricing and make judgements if the cost feels too low. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve had potential clients walk away when my costs were too low, because when you have the money to spend, you tend to trust names – and cost – as your decision-making tools.

Bottom line: raising your prices is an unspoken "must" when it comes to booking luxury weddings.

Don't be afraid to send off a proposal with the highest cost you've ever written. If you stand by your work, and you know the amount of hours you're going to be putting into a luxury wedding, lead with confidence and your prospective clients won't bat an eye at that price tag.

There are so many steps you can take to break into the luxury market. And we're talking about all of this and more in our July Mae&Co Monthly Luxury Market courses.