Here’s a roundup of our favourite software for wedding photographers! We’ve also included all of the other apps and educational tools that have saved (and made us) lots of money and time!
Today we are sharing all the goods, from a YNAB promo code, to Square discounts, to door dash promo codes! These are all of the entrepreneur hacks that help us to work smarter and outsource when we can! Over the years, these and other life and business resources have made our business and lives better. Keep reading for referral codes for the best life (and wedding photography!) apps and programs to experience a more balanced and streamlined life.
The following is a comprehensive list of our favourite programs, apps, and education. Bonus: Many of the resources below include discount codes and promotional offers. Enjoy!!
Out of all the software for wedding photographers, after your editing software, your CMS is the most important one to invest in. Running a photography business efficiently relies on automation and workflows. We got grandfathered in at an awesome price with 17hats and it has kept our client communications running almost effortlessly. The 17hats developers work really hard at staying relevant and adding new features on an ongoing basis. There are no perfect content management systems, but 17hats has been an oldie and a goodie for us!
Click here to get 10% off of a 17hats annual plan or longer subscription, or add in the 17hats coupon code hkvgsczwbs into your account settings to get the discount!
We own Macs so we definitely make use of Time Machine. Which if you aren’t using, do it! Backups are super important. We also have a RAID storage hard drive for all of our client photos, also super important.
But on top of all this, it is also very important to have a backup off site. The easiest way to do this is a cloud based system. Enter BackBlaze. Backblaze runs seamlessly and continuously in the background and you don’t even notice it is happening. This way you always have the piece of mind knowing that all your files are backed up and safe.
Get a free month of backblaze by signing up through our Backblaze referral code link!
We have tried *many* photographer galleries for sharing images with clients! The one we have landed and always returned to is Shootproof because it has a great interface and connects with Canadian printers for print fulfillment (not all do!) in addition to all the major US printers!
Click here to purchase a Shootproof subscription (no discount available but one of the best)
Square is a standard must for any business. It’s a definite plus to provide clients with the option to pay by credit card. For the times that clients need to pay by credit card, Square does the trick and the payouts are really fast!
Click here for a Square referral link to get free processing on up to $1000 within the first 180 days (applicable for new accounts only).
This one may sound like off software to recommend for wedding photographers, but it’s helped us really make the most of our income. If you have read our previous blogs, you have likely learned that we LOVE Dave Ramsey! Dave Ramsey’s financial principles have helped us multiply our finances and create safety nets for the future (especially helpful when your income as a photographer can be variable!). Out of all of the budgeting software programs we have tried, YNAB has hands-down been the best one, and it works hand in hand with Dave’s approach to budgeting! If you are into saving money, then you’ll like that you can save even more money with a YNAB promo code 😉
Click here for a YNAB promo code and automatically get an additional free month of YNAB once you sign up for the paid program!
By far the most convenient service for album design is the Kiss D49 service. Their designers will have a design back to you within 24 hours. Once you receive the design you can provide any feedback or send it to your client to revise directly with the designer. They take care of the process and then ordering through them is also seamless!
A simple user-friendly program we previously used to design our own albums was AlbumStomp, you can purchase that program here (no discount available but it is a one-time price!)
We use Blogstomp on almost a weekly basis if not more often! It quickly and conveniently resizes images for Facebook, Instagram, Blogs and more.
Click here to purchase BlogStomp (no discount available but it is a one-time fee that is so worth it!)
SpaceSaver is an amazing piece of software for wedding photographers. It smushes the file size without losing the quality of the image. It saves us & our clients a lot of storage space and downloading time without losing the quality in prints or on the screen.
Click here to purchase SpaceSaver (no discount available but it is a one-time fee that is so worth it!)
Culling in Lightroom, Bridge, or (gasp!) photoshop? Stop the bleeding! Photomechanic just makes sense. The money you spend on this incredible piece of software for wedding photographers will save you so much time and frustration. This program is fast and was designed for speed in selecting and tagging images. Definitely worth the cost.
Click here to purchase Photomechanic to make your life easier (no discount available but they do provide a free 30-day trial)
We LOVE ImagenAI! When we took Kyle Goldie’s Book More Weddings Course, (click here for our review on the course!), one of the first things he encourages is to outsource whatever you can. It all comes down to your systems and saving time to do more of what brings in leads. Editing is one of those things that very quickly eats up the lives of photographers worldwide. We have tried multiple companies in the past with moderate success, but have absolutely loved ImagenAI! We adore them!
This link will get you an extra 500 free edits to test it out!
Showit is one of our most favourite wedding photographer resources. We could not live without Showit. It’s the easiest dummy-proof drag and drop WYSIWYG website designing platform for the prettiest website! Showit is used by the majority of big players in the wedding photography world! Although it’s can feel like a large fee, it’s a worthy investment to have a beautiful storefront. Some of our favourite companies that make clean, modern and minimalist Showit templates that complement the Showit Platform include Davey & Krista and Tonic Site Shop!
Click here to join Showit (there is no discount available for this one)
UPDATE Jan 2024: Currently our affiliate link is only working as a discount towards Kyle’s Showit Templates and Presets, if anything changes we will update this here! Use this link for the discount (Jan 2024): Click Here
Kyle Goldie Elevate Business Mastermind has changed our life and business. And the benefits don’t stop. The value Kyle Goldie is over the top and the best investment we’ve made in our business to date that just keeps paying off. His course is geared towards all wedding professionals as well as portrait photographers, and out of all of our favourite wedding photographer resources, his ranks number one for us. Read about our review of his course here.
Click here to join Kyle Goldie’s Elevate Business Mastermind and enter coupon code ROCKSTARMARTIN to get 10% off any payment plan and anything he sells. The course comes with a 14-day guarantee.
Amy & Jordan’s courses were some of the first courses we ever invested in, and we still use that education to this day! Their posing system is incredible and the easiest we have come across, while still being able to achieve a really natural and candid feel and throw in our own feel. Learn more about Amy & Jordan’s Posing Course.
Get an Amy & Jordan Posing Course coupon code through us! The Friends & Family discount code for Amy & Jordan’s Posing Course is applied automatically using the link above and the course also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee!
We have traveled the whole spectrum of photography edits (like most photographers!). We started out dark and moody with Mastin Portra presets, then bright and contrasting, and now we shoot with a more fine art appeal with our own presets we have made (we really enjoy the life in bright and airy edits!). Amy and Jordan teach photographers all of the tricks to always achieve a bright and airy look in their course. Bright and airy photography requires some strategy, but once you know the guidelines, you’ll be shooting in this style in no time! Learn more about Amy & Jordan’s Shooting & Editing Course.
Get an Amy & Jordan Shooting & Editing coupon code through us! Click on the Friends & Family discount code link for Amy & Jordan’s Shooting & Editing Course discount. We also love how the course also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
It would be just wrong if we didn’t give a shout-out to food in our list of important photographer resources… If you are a photographer, you know that freshly run-over feeling that you get the day after a wedding. It’s a thing, and that’s why the day right after a wedding is called a “Starfish Day” for us! The term “Starfish Day” was coined by Sandra’s sister to describe a “do-nothing” kind of day where you just float on by. When we can, we cook a bunch of food in advance so that we get to chow down on leftovers. But when that doesn’t get done, you know we’re going to be ordering some Pizza and wings, sushi, or Indian as our reward the next day! Enter Door Dash. It’s been very good to us! Door dash is known for giving you access to more restaurants outside of your neighbourhood, and is a little pricer, so a Door dash promo code definitely helps!
Get a Door Dash promo Code for the nights when you just. can’t. cook. Click here to sign up for a Door Dash discount code for $5 off your first four orders. Yay!
Keep exploring by checking out more of our best photographer tips.
"Dylan & Sandra were incredible! We're not naturally comfortable getting our pictures taken, but they made us feel at ease. They captured the feeling of our wedding... When I look at the pictures it transports me right back. It's been such a precious gift!!"
meet your photographerS
We are so blessed we get to do our dream job for a living. Capturing the authentic beauty of your love story so long after, you and the generations to come have a timeless reminder of just how significant it is. We live for real moments, serving our couples with light-filled, elevated imagery and an experience that is customized and centred around you.
Suckers for a good love story, we believe the classics will always trump trendy, and definitely consider donuts to be a staple of the good life.