← Case studies/Case 05 / Photography

Raised prices 40%.Booked out 11 months.

A solo wedding photographer with a 6-figure income and a Squarespace template that hid her best work got a brand-first portfolio rebuild — then raised prices 40% and booked out a full year in advance.

Client
Harbor Light Studio
Industry
Wedding & Editorial Photography
Location
San Antonio + Hill Country
Year
2024
Engagement
Brand refresh + portfolio site · One-time build

+40%

Average package price

11 mo.

Booking lead time

from 6 weeks

0

Discounts given

since launch

[ the situation ]

Where they started.

Sarah has been shooting weddings for 11 years. Her work is genuinely beautiful and she's well-known in the Texas wedding industry. She was making good money but felt cheap — clients were haggling, asking for 'just the digitals,' and she was working 38 weddings a year and burning out.

Her site was a Squarespace template every photographer in San Antonio seemed to use. Galleries were thumbnail grids. Pricing was a PDF you had to email for. Inquiry form asked for 14 fields including budget — and 70% of people abandoned it.

[ the problem ]

What was actually broken.

  • Visual identity indistinguishable from 200 other Texas wedding photographers
  • Portfolio buried — galleries hidden 3 clicks deep
  • Pricing PDF gating leads, killing momentum
  • Brand voice was generic 'love stories' copy with no point of view

[ our approach ]

How we thought about it.

01

Brand voice first

Spent the first week on positioning. Sarah's actual point of view — film-leaning, editorial, quiet — got buried under generic wedding-industry copy. We rewrote everything from scratch.

02

Show the work like it matters

Full-bleed image-first design. No thumbnail grids. Each wedding gets a long-form story page with the couple's actual narrative, not a gallery dump.

03

Pricing on the site, no PDF gate

Three transparent packages with starting-at pricing. Inquiry form cut to 4 questions. PDF replaced with an instant 'investment guide' page.

[ execution ]

What we actually shipped.

Week 1

Positioning + strategy

Two days on-site in studio, brand voice workshop, ideal-client interviews with 4 past brides.

Week 2

Identity

New wordmark, full type system, color palette built from her actual photographic palette.

Week 3–5

Site build

Custom Next.js + Sanity CMS, image optimization pipeline, 6 story pages built, inquiry form + Honeybook handoff.

Week 6

Launch + training

DNS, 301 redirects, CMS training, launch announcement creative for Instagram.

[ deliverables ]

  • Full brand refresh (logo, type, palette, voice guide)
  • Next.js + Sanity CMS portfolio site
  • 6 long-form wedding story pages
  • New 4-question inquiry funnel
  • On-site investment guide
  • Launch campaign assets for Instagram
  • 6-month bug-fix warranty

[ the results ]

By the numbers.

MetricBeforeAfter
Average package price$5,800$8,150
Inquiry → booking12%34%
Booking lead time6 weeks11 months
Weddings/year3824 (by choice)
Annual revenue+22% on fewer jobs

[ after launch ]

We handed them the keys.

Status

○ Engagement complete

Cadence

One-time engagement

Scope

No ongoing retainer. Client self-manages on a Sanity-powered CMS. Included a 6-month bug-fix warranty.

I haven't given a discount in nine months. I've stopped explaining my pricing. The site does the work I used to spend hours doing on email. I genuinely got my evenings back.

Sarah Lindquist

Owner, Harbor Light Studio

[ keep results compounding ]

Add a Care Plan and we keep the wins coming.

Edits, SEO upkeep, and conversion work — from $50/mo.

See Care Plans →

[ your turn ]

Let’s write your case study.

[ 30-second start ]

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→ Inquiring about: Wedding & Editorial Photography