If there's one thing that I learned in all the years that I have been in the wedding photography business, it is the power that word of mouth yields. Before delving deeper into that, let me go a step back to the formula which I think works best for anyone who's trying to start a build a wedding photography business from the ground up.

Basically, these are the ingredients that I used to make my wedding photography business take off despite having a shaky start:

On the business side of things, what makes a wedding photography business click is personalized customer service; using word of mouth to build up your reputation quickly and successfully; and the challenge of obtaining referrals from customers who do not use your services at all.

I cannot stress enough the importance of word of mouth in the wedding photography business. The benefit of using this to build your reputation as a wedding photographer is that it is 100% free and it is extremely effective. Let's say that you have a client bride who has a couple of other friends who also plan to tie the knot soon. As long as she is satisfied with the work that you did, you will get a glowing personal referral through word of mouth, and one or two clients are instantly obtained.

Aside from brides, their relatives, friends and other family members can also pass on the information about the wedding photography services that you are offering to other possible clients. Make sure that your very own set of friends and family members will active tout the services that you are offering as well.

In addition, you should build a network of people who are directly involved in the wedding industry: the wedding coordinators, owners of wedding venues and halls, florists, DJ's, limo drivers, caterers, musicians and everybody else.

By yielding the power of word of mouth advertising, you can use your startup capital in other, more important aspects of running a business while letting your network – and your work – speak for itself.