The Wedding Industry Awards 2014
The Wedding Industry Awards 2014 are known as the best in the industry, and this is down to both how they are run and how each entrant is scored. Rather than having a system where it’s down to highest number of votes, The Wedding Industry Awards 2014 only accepts votes from eligible voters, so what this means is that it’s only couples who’s actual weddings I’ve shot who can vote, and it’s only one vote allowed per couple. This means someone shooting 60 weddings per year has no advantage over someone shooting 20, so it’s a really fair system.
The other great thing about these awards is that they take customer experience during the process of working with the wedding supplier into account, as well as the finished product. So, it’s not just about an award on a stunning photo, a gorgeous cake, or a cleverly crafted bouquet, the awards reflect the whole start to finish experience of working with that wedding business.
I’ve been thinking about entering for a couple of years now, I knew the standards are really high and it’s notoriously tough to get shortlisted. This is good though, as when you see any supplier that has made it on to the shortlist, you can be confident you’re dealing with a supplier that is one of the best.
I entered the awards this year, and you can see my detailed scores below.
Wedding Industry Awards 2014 – Scoring
Each voter was asked to score me out of 10 in each of 7 categories, this was then compared to the regional average to compile a regional shortlist. The regional shortlist was announced today, and this is how I got on…
1. ‘Ability of your photographer to understand, interpret and realise your vision and ideas.’:
My score: 9.571 Regional average: 9.864
2. ‘Quality of expertise, advice and guidance received from your photographer.’:
My score: 9.762 Regional average: 9.871
3. ‘Quality of customer service and communication received from your photographer.’:
My score: 10 – which is ‘outstanding’ Regional average: 9.868
4. ‘Your photographer’s personal presentation and their ability to understand and fit into your wedding.’:
My score: 9.81 Regional average: 9.942
5. ‘Quality of your photographerís web presence (web site, facebook etc).’:
My score: 9.905 Regional average: 9.87
6. ‘Coverage, delivery and quality of the finished photographs etc (including online and ‘real’ albums etc). ‘:
My score: 9.857 Regional average: 9.865
7. ‘Value for money.’:
My score: 9.857 Regional average: 9.827
Overall:
My overall score was: 68.762 out of a possible 70 points
The regional average I had to beat to be shortlisted was: 69.107 points.
So, sadly I missed being shortlisted for an award for the wedding industry awards 2014 by a teeny tiny 0.4 of a point, however, that score I received is equivalent to 98.23%, and I am also celebrating officially being ‘outstanding’ in the area of customer service! Woop! Woop! So I am really pleased with that, and will be looking at where I can improve things so that I can make it to the regional shortlist next year. 🙂
Wedding Industry Awards 2014 – Main comments
In addition to a score out of 10 for each question, voters are encouraged to leave comments and feedback, so I wanted to share all the lovely comments left by my couples. I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to my couples to take the time to write such lovely feedback. It means so much to me! 🙂
‘Karen Julia was just perfect from the day of meeting her and until now- where we are still in contact organising our wedding album. Karen is committed to her work, gets back to you so quickly! perfect on the day, even our friends and our sister have booked her! We love all of our photographs!!’
‘If anyone can take a decent photo of me, they’re either very lucky indeed or a genius. Karen is most definitely the latter. I can not overstate how happy I am with the results. Karen was a joy to work with and I will be recommending her to anyone I meet who is getting married.’
‘We loved the personal service and Karen was a great help to us on the day. She was highly organised throughout and really went the extra mile on our wedding day by helping me with my wedding dress and getting me some curling tongues for my hair.’
‘Karen was incredibly approachable and friendly but worked with such professionalism! Would certainly recommend her to others and would choose her again for other types of shoot!!’
‘Karen Julia was very professional from the initial enquiry to well after our wedding. She always went above and beyond to help and get the photographs that we cherish so much. She is a lovely person and a fantastic photographer.’
‘From start to finish Karen understood exactly what we wanted and went above and beyond to make us feel at ease with the process. She was always ready to listen to our ideas and helped us understand what would work best at our wedding. Our wedding pictures blew us away and made us very happy.’
‘I couldn’t have asked for anything more from Karen!! From start to finish she was so helpful including having extra button hole pins! Everybody at the wedding commented on how fab she was! She captured every little moment of my day, and has left me with the most amazing photographs and memories.’
‘Karen was brilliant in every respect and couldn’t have done more for us. She spent a lot of time with us prior to the wedding and helped us to be as photogenic as possible! She stayed well beyond her leaving time (actually to the end) and really enjoyed her work; nothing was too much trouble.’
‘I am an older bride and was a bit daunted about posing for photos and things like that but at some point, I even forgot Karen was there, she put me at ease all the time. I couldn’t have Thanked her more. Plus she stayed as long as I wanted to her stay in the evening till about 10.30/11pm.Lovely person.’
‘Karen Julia photography really captured the day, and Karen’s knowledge of the venue meant we’ve got really great photographic memories of the day!’
‘From the initial meeting, Karen was very clear and precise with what the end result would be. Clear communication throughout from start to finish and she not only advised on photography but helped and advised for timings of the whole day to which we truly grateful.’
‘Karen Julia was extremely organised and managed to get us and the guests attention to the photos. Due to having the engagement shoot she knew the style in which we wanted our pictures and made us feel comfortable taking pictures in front of her along with guiding us in order to get great shots.’
‘Karen was absolutely fantastic as a photographer, the quality of her photographs was simply stunning. After seeing her photographs of my friend’s wedding we knew we had to have her photograph ours. We were not disappointed. Fantastic service, value and communication Karen is the clear winner for us.’
‘Karen was an absolute joy to work with. She was very knowledgable about our venue and the best places to shoot. We also had 2 amazing pre-wedding shoots with Karen which taught us both how to be comfortable in front of the camera. The final pictures were stunning & she captured our day perfectly.’
‘Karen really went the extra mile for us. We were having a low key wedding, but still wanted a record of our special day. Karen understood this, advised us and tailored a package for us. On the day, she spent longer than planned with us to ensure that we had a unique variety of photographic memories.’
‘If I could give 101 out of 100 I would. Karen is simply outstanding, artistically and personally. Her flexibility, creativity & patience knew no bounds. We loved her so much, she is now booked to cover my Mum’s wedding next year. I cannot praise her work enough.’
‘Karen is so professional and so very friendly. She felt part of the family. she understood my needs for our small and intimate wedding. she has a great skill.’
‘Karen did a fabulous job on our big day. Very appreciate.’
‘Karen’s friendly approach and total dedication to her customers shone through, as did her passion for weddings and photography. It was a real pleasure working with Karen and she really made the whole thing an experience to remember from start to finish.’
‘I can not recommend Karen Julia higher; she is a lovely individual with a wealth of knowledge about photography and will do anything for her customers. Both the engagement photos and wedding photos are perfect and she has made us, our family and friends very happy and provided beautiful memories.’
‘Karen was great during the run-up and an absolute star on the day. She got everyone organised when we were all over the place and had the weather to contend with as well which she used to her advantage to get an incredible rain shot. She captured the feeling of the day perfectly.’
Wedding Industry Awards 2014 – ‘Why Book?’
When couples were asked why they booked me, here’s what they said:
‘Just loved Karen Julia’s wedding website, easy to see and understand. Loved the idea of an engagement shoot and meeting with Karen- great idea. Good value for money. Photos are a big thing for us and we just wanted them to be as natural as possible- which suited the beautiful mountains of the lakes! So the photographer was a massive thing for us as we wanted to make sure we capture everything at our favourite place, and Karen did!’
‘When we met Karen Julia she was friendly and showed us some of her work, which we really loved and her price was very reasonable too.’
‘Initially, we were working to a budget and Karen’s costs came in very competitive. We also loved her portfolio online and style of photography.’
‘We spotted Karen’s work on Facebook and also on her own website, and saw that she was experienced with the venue, so we knew that she would know the best places for the photographs. Her work shone out.’
‘Because she is very professional. She took amazing pictures on my wedding day. Me and my husband are so pleased about that.’
‘Karen’s photographs have such a natural feel. This is exactly what I wanted. She captures all the special little moments. Upon meeting her she was so down to earth and really listened to what I wanted. I knew I wanted somebody who I would feel comfortable around and Karen really put me at ease.’
‘We looked at hundreds of photographers online and Karen’s photographs caught our eye over anyone else’s.’
‘I had seen her work and how she operated on other weddings… her prices were also excellent and her willingness to meet us at our budget too.’
‘After being at the wedding with Karen Julia as a photographer, seeing her work, and the married couple explaining how Karen was throughout the whole day and the extent of the effort she made for their wedding, we met with Karen and never looked back. She is warm, professional, understanding of the customer’s needs, and is also a great laugh! She has loads of recommendations of suppliers from her previous weddings and is just brilliant!’
‘I did a lot of research on the Internet and narrowed it down to three local photographers, Karen was always my favourite from her website and once I’d met her I knew she was the photographer I wanted to work with. She was straightforward, her portfolio was great and her prices very reasonable.’
‘Word of mouth was an important part of our decision and after an initial meeting, we knew Karen was the right person – She clearly understood the differences between a Civil Partnership and a Wedding which was also very important.’
‘Recommendation from a family member.’
‘Very professional attitude, very flexible and good value.’
‘We liked her photos, her style and she was very approachable and organised.’
‘She took amazing pictures of my friend’s wedding.’
‘The quality and vision of her photographs are fantastic.’
‘My daughter recommendation as she used her the year before and i loved the photos.’
‘On meeting Karen we were instantly struck by her personality, creativity and enthusiasm. Her interest in the huge number of tiny details in our wedding was as neverending as our ‘Can you try and get pictures of this?’ list. Examples of her work proved we would not be disappointed – and we weren’t!’
‘She was recommended by our venue when we chatted on the phone to discuss what we wanted, we knew Karen understood what we wanted to achieve!’
