Step into the rarefied world of luxury weddings, as Pat Miller uncovers the real formula for high-ticket artistry with elite photographer Chris J. Evans. Think “luxury” is just a price tag? Think again! In this episode, Chris reveals that luxury is a paradigm—an immersive experience fueled by earned confidence and masterful service.

Episode Highlights 🎤💡:

(04:30) - Why luxury is more than just price

(05:55) - Adapting your brand for high-end clients

(19:15) - Real example of luxury client experience

Connect with Pat Miller ⬇

LinkedIn | Website

Connect with Chris J. Evans ⬇

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. The luxury brand, the luxury market, this opportunity to make gigantic bucks doing what you love. It sounds really attractive, but like anything, it's a lot harder and much more work than it seems. The payoff is great, but to earn the opportunity, well, it takes a lot of effort. So how can we learn exactly what it takes to do well in the luxury market? Well, on today's Industry Trends series, we're going to sit down with Chris J. Evans, and he's going to talk to us about the luxury wedding market and what it takes to give them a product that they are thrilled to pay gigantic bucks to receive. The work that goes in, the way you maintain your brand, heck, the way that you show up and present yourself, what your gear looks like, what the experience is all about. He's going to spill the beans on all of it. We are live at Imaging USA 2026 in Nashville. We're inside the Sony Cinema Line Studios using their Monitor & Control app. The place looks great. The gear is set, and you're ready to learn about luxury brand marketing. Let's talk to Chris next. Chris, welcome to The Professional Photographer Podcast. How are you?

Doing great, Pat. Thank you so much for having me.

I'm glad you're here. And you've had a busy Imaging USA already. How's your day been?

It's been a great day. Been working the show floor, getting to show face with some of the great brands, making some new connections, and seeing how I can align with incredible companies that will help not only my business run smoother, but I can offer better experiences for my couples.

I love it. If someone hasn't met you yet, tell them who you are and what you do.

So I'm Chris Evans. I'm a destination wedding photographer. I serve some of the most incredible weddings around the world, just from the locations, the entertainment, the decor. It's, it's a pretty special little like niche of the industry I live in. And man, it sure is exciting.

It is exciting. And it's one of those verticals that everyone would dream of doing. Luxury, luxury wedding brands flying all over the world. But that's probably not something that started on day one. So how did you go from, I'm going to do this to now I'm actually doing it? Tell us the story.

You know, I think it's like on so many things, it's like you don't necessarily set out, you don't know what the end is when you start anything, right? So I was living in Maui. This was in 2010. I come out of fashion photography, and a girl friend asked me to shoot her wedding and it was in Kauai. So my very first wedding I ever did was a destination wedding.

Nice.

Just by default, right? They were all coming in. And then I put those pictures on Facebook. Instagram didn't even exist yet. This is like, you know, dating myself here. Yeah, but a girl I worked with at the restaurant was waiting tables. Of course, all great artists, you have to wait tables, right? So I put those on Facebook. Another girl I worked with asked me to do her wedding, and then all of a sudden, it was just like boom, boom, boom. And I was living on Maui. And it was before the fires and before COVID Maui was like 7 days a week, 30+ weddings a day, 7 days a week. So it was like the amount of possible jobs was huge. And I just, I started at the bottom, beach weddings, 1-hour bookings, then got into some smaller hotels and some bigger hotels, and just, it grew so fast, but so organically that just next thing you know, that's what I was known for.

That's so great. Yeah. So what does it look like today? How many do you do? Where do you go? Tell me all about it.

So today's a really great place for me. You know, I service usually between 18 and 25 weddings a year. I'll do more of course, but that's like usually my target. Like right now, I think I'm at about 15. So I'm really only technically accepting a few more, unless something great falls in my lap. And then I still have my team in Hawaii and those guys do 20 to 30 weddings a year for me under my brand, which is amazing. They get clients still get that experience. It's like the Chris J. Evans light experience, but it's still my guys that I've trained that really are good at what they do. Provide experiences.

We get to talk about industry trends in luxury, and I'm really excited to have the conversation because it's not really following your exact playbook. It's really talking about the idea of luxury because everyone would love to call themselves a luxury, whatever their vertical is, but it's not easy to achieve and earn that word. Why is that?

I think there's just a lot of misconceptions around what luxury is and what luxury isn't. Luxury is not just price. Luxury is not just location. It's not how much money you spend on anything. What luxury truly is, is a mindset and a level of service that you are willing to give someone and show them to ensure that every single penny was absolutely worth it on the price they paid. Now, to get that from me, there is a premium. But again, it is a level of how far are you willing to go to give this person an experience that they will never ever forget? And that, if you can harness that one key point, then, then you're luxury.

Hmm. It seems like everyone's using the word, like it's almost been commoditized. That must drive you crazy.

It's definitely a throwaway. You know, I feel like a friend of mine told me, she said that premium is a price point, but luxury is a paradigm.

Oh, whoa. Say that again. That's really good.

So premium is a price point, right? That's something you just pay for it. Something that's just expensive, but true luxury, it's a mindset and it's an experience, and it's something that you can put– you do put a price on it, but it's so– what it is is so much deeper than just a price point.

Do you find that people that want to live in that upper tier price point are willing to put in the service required to stay there, or is that something that they want to have but they aren't willing to do the work?

Once you're there, then that becomes your standard.

Okay.

Like, so, for example, all my other friends that operate in the same level as me, when they show up at events, they are dressed to the nines. They come in like all their gear is aesthetic, all their mindset, the way they communicate, the words they use, how they talk to clients, it's all very uniformed because we're entering people's lives that were raised very different than our own, right? Like, 'cause if we were born with the same means, we probably wouldn't be working in this industry, right? Right. We'd be doing something else. with that being said, I love this industry and I will do it for as long as I possibly can, but we've had different life experiences than our clients. So what that means is you need to be able to come into a group of people that have lived wildly different lives than our own. And instantly become one of them.

Which has to be hard because if you don't grow up that way, it has to be head snapping moment after head snapping moment when you first start saying, that just happened, or they said this, I can't believe, like if you don't know that world, it must be hard at first to understand there are people that live this way and I get the opportunity to serve them.

For sure. I think what it is too, it's, you know, this, a lot of times I'm going to these parties and this is the most incredible party I've ever seen in my whole life. Right? And yes, this is a special party for them too, but it's another one of the incredible parties that, you know, they're more used to it. Right? So if you come in and you're all wide-eyed and googly-eyed and just like over the top, like jaw to the floor, well, that shows a bit of immaturity of entering their space like that. So. You know, it's refinement. It's being calm. It's having this like earned confidence where you walk into every room and you're like, this is a beautiful event. Thank you so much for having me. You just go to work.

You talked about service, but it's also preparation. You mentioned something that may be subtle to you, but it's a big deal. I think that we should call out. If you are putting in the work into who you are, you're dressed the way that you should be. It's almost like a suit of armor when you walk in there, you know, you at least look the part. Is that true?

You know, I love that you said suit of armor because I've mentioned that too. So my suitmaker, Craig from Endeavored Threads, check him out. He's an incredible tailor, right? And what Craig does, the way I describe when I put on, when I first started doing custom suits, right? It's I'm a surfer, right? And in California, we have to wear our wetsuits. And when we put our wetsuit on, that's like, I'm going to do battle in the ocean. I'm going to go do the thing I love most in the whole world. And when I put on that first custom suit, it just like the way it slides on, the way it fits your arms, the way it's cut right to your body. I instantly felt so confident and so prepared to go do the thing that I do with this like level 10 personal confidence.

Yeah. Well, my suit maker, Cole's, gets me ready for this podcast. Perfect. I'm just kidding.

Perfect. Cole's great.

Cole's is great. That's fantastic. Okay. There's a preconceived notion, people who aren't in this vertical think, "Oh, you know, all those people are the same, that the luxury market is this one type of ultra-rich person." Is that true?

Wildly different people.

Okay.

I mean, we have– I have clients from all over the country, all over the world, clients that have made their money in textiles, in finance, in creative endeavors. Like, so with every single person. you have– they're individuals. They are unique. You know, no two people are the same. So it's the ability to find all the commonality. And where I find that most is in the human experience, right? Because no matter what, what does anybody want? They want to be looked in the eye and they want to be taken care of. And when you can do that as a service provider and be there, be exactly what they need, how they need it, then you're gonna excel.

And even in this market, there are different types of buyers. They're looking for different things. So what exists in the luxury space?

So, I think across the board, regardless of, of your economic space, you know, we've got drivers, we've got relators, we've got huggers, we got analyzers, right?

Yeah.

So each one of these archetypes is driven by different, they're driven by different things of importance and they also have different set of resistance, certain verbiage or certain ideas that will instantly repulse them. And on the opposite, depending on who they are, different ideas that will instantly pull them into you.

If you start talking their language, you can tell right away who you're connecting with?

For sure. Like if, if I'm talking to a bride and she's talking about like, you know, this over-the-top floral tunnel and they want to come in on a gondola, well, all of a sudden this person, she is a dreamer. She wants something big. She wants something exciting. So the only thing back outta my mouth is this is gonna be iconic, is incredible. Wow. Like, let's go. I'm gonna be in the center of that action. Right? If it's someone who's like, you know, it's just really important for my family and to connect with my family, I'm gonna lean into like, that connection is so important. I can't wait to tell that story. I'm gonna be on the lookout for all the interplay between your uncles and your aunties and the kids and like capture that love story with everyone there. Different sort of thing. 'Cause if I told that person, oh yeah, something epic and iconic. She's like, no, I just want like pretty pictures of the connection. You've repulsed that person or you brought that person in.

I can understand how you talk to them differently. You'll ultimately shoot differently because of that as well?

For sure. 'Cause I'll know what are the important things for them and what they value most. 'Cause at the end of the day, yes, I'm an artist, but I'm a service provider, and I'm being, I'm serving at the privilege of the client, right? So I have to understand what they want and then bring in my eye and my direction, my art to their vision.

You mentioned, were there 4 types? Is that what you said?

Yeah.

They buy different things when it's time to sell the materials? Like, are there any certain products that definitely align with each one of the types? Like, oh, this type, they always want this. Does anything come to mind?

So with like the driver types, right? So the drivers, they want peak action. They want, when it comes to their photography, they want to know that when that crescendo hits, that you are right there capturing that peak moment. That's the most important thing. When you've got like the dreamers, right? The dreamers, all– they want to know that you're gonna capture that beautiful space and that decor and like, you know, they want to know that that environment was so important to them. When you have the huggers, they want that connection. They want the love. They want those moments with their family. They want these like sublime little things. Now everyone gets everything, but these are the main things. And the analyzers, they want like, they want everything, and it's gotta be like, I don't usually take a lot of analyzers. Just because it's, they don't have the same level of direction and wants. And I find that while a lot of people are scared of Type A personalities, I love Type A personalities because they tell me exactly what they want and I know exactly how to give it to them.

Makes it a little bit easier because you're now teaching to the test. All right. Let's help our viewers. If they're trying to develop their luxury brand, they came to you and they said, oh my gosh, okay, Chris, help me. Where would you send them to review what they're doing to make sure they're living up to the luxury threshold?

I think the first off is, are your clients, are you creating rave, right? Are you creating fans? Like when you're finished with a job, are these clients continuing to like stay in your universe? Are they staying on your socials? Are they following you? Are they chiming in on what you're doing? If they do, then you've created a fan through that experience. And those fans are gonna, that's gonna reverberate. They're gonna tell more people, they're gonna bring in more people into your circle. If you're just doing a job and then it's like wash your hands and move on to the next, and you never hear from them again. Well, you become forgettable, right? And the true mark of elevating in this industry, I think in most industries is, but it's becoming absolutely unforgettable to every person at that event, not just the couple.

Let's talk about the luxury brand and what they want you to represent. Are you a chameleon with them, or do you have strong values? This is what I believe in. This is what I stand for. Do you see what I mean? Which one resonates more with the luxury market?

So again, every client is different. But why do clients invest in luxury brands, right? They invest in luxury brands because They have proven quality. They have trust. They have security. They know that this product or this service or this experience is going to be valuable today, tomorrow, and into the future. They also– you have to be selling trust, right? Because, you know, my clients are investing a lot of money on a once in a lifetime day, right? There's no, oh yeah, let's come down the aisle again, you guys. Take two. That's not going to happen. Right? So they're investing in trust and quality. So first and foremost, you have to be a master of your craft, and you have to be so— my wife calls it earned confidence where it's like the experience feels effortless, but it has taken years to perfect.

And that brand essence would have to have some zip to it. You can't say that you're a luxury brand and not be a brand worth following. So telling your story is probably pretty important.

100%. And if you– like, throughout my website and throughout all my branding, like I never use the word luxury because luxury products don't use the word luxury, right? Luxury clients, they're not Googling luxury anything, right? So it has to be perceived and implied and just honest that, and I do that through the quality of the work I show, the locations I show, the decor of these events I show. And then, and they know instantly when they go to my website, like, okay, this is a premium experience, a luxury provider. And it's just implied.

There's a word you haven't used that I normally hear when people talk about luxury, and it's probably by design. I mean, because you're killing it, but usually when you hear about luxury, people use the word scarcity right next to it. Now, maybe you're doing scarcity. You just didn't bring it up, but is scarcity that they own, like you only do so many a year, or you only have time to invest in this many brides. Does that sell or is that not a concept that works for you?

So that is a concept that does sell and works for a lot of people. For me, I don't like that. I don't use that word for my branding because for me, I've built everything I do around the luxury experiences at these amazing hotels that I get to go to around the world from the Rosewoods to the Amans to like these boutique hotels. And that building is there 24/7, 365, right? Now the scarcity is we're fully committed that week, or this and that, right? The scarcity creates what's the price of room for the night, but the building is always there, right? So for me, I want to be that building. That's when I'm available, I'm available. And my scarcity just comes from my schedule. That's why I recommend my clients book me anywhere from 12 to 14 to 18 months in advance. Like I'm already booking out for 2027.

Yeah.

Because there's going to be a point where, you know, I want to be off of all December to be with my family that December's closed. So we've got 11 months to play wedding. Right? So that's sort of the scarcity, but I'm not trying to tell anyone, oh no, I'm not going to do your wedding because I already have a full schedule. Especially if it's going to be somewhere amazing.

Yeah. Somewhere amazing. And it's another luxury gig, which is great money. There's nothing wrong with that.

You know, the money is great, but I don't do this for the money. This is truly like to bring joy to people and to experience things that I would never experience on my own. That is the joy, and that's my driver.

So I said we never talked about scarcity, so thank you for addressing it. But we have spent a lot of time on experience, so we'll end the interview here. Think of a time when you just went above and beyond for a client, like really did something spectacular. They didn't expect it, and you just nailed it. Like, I did this one thing for this bride once, and she still calls me about it. Can you think of a time that you just spiked the football?

You know, this just happened, right? Like literally like 3 weeks ago. And I like that you just, you just asked me this because I truly feel that every day I wake up, I feel my career is just starting for the first time every single day. And that is one of the things that drives me. So with this particular experience, I had sold a couple for a wedding in Hawaii, a small 12 people, very, very intimate. I had sold them on my team. I wasn't even supposed to be there. The day before, I send out the text to my team, hey guys, tomorrow's call time is so-and-so, blah, blah, blah. Well, one of my guys, my lead photographer, was like, hey, I'm so sorry, I had a family crisis. I can't come tomorrow. And I'm in Dallas. I'm in Dallas the day before. Okay. I'm like, oh, okay, great. I get on the phone. I don't have anyone available. So I literally, I fly home from Dallas back to LA. I land at 8 PM, I drive an hour and a half home, unpack, repack, drive back to the airport, catch the red-eye to Maui.

Oh, wow.

Now this is for a very small wedding. Okay, this is like a tiny elopement. I fly to Maui, get picked up, taken to the hotel. I've got a great connection with this hotel. It's the Four Seasons on Maui. They're like, Chris, we know what you've gone through. Thank you so much. We have a suite for you to freshen up and shower. So I had a little suite, I got ready, I did the wedding, 3 hours, had dinner, went back to the airport and flew home.

Wow.

Like the client, when I walked in the front door, the clients couldn't even believe it because they didn't even know I was coming.

Yeah, they didn't know it was you. They thought it was one of your guys.

That, like that experience, it kind of makes me emotional because when I see their reaction, to that, and I got to be there and do that experience for them. And it was something that was like, you know, I don't know a lot of people that'd be willing to do that. But that's for me going above and beyond and 12 steps beyond that.

Which is what it's all about.

For sure.

Someone wants to keep on learning from you, how can we do it?

Man, so I've got, my website, chrisjevans.com is a first place to start. Just email me. I've got a great education platform, chrisjevans.com/education. I got mentoring, I got presets, I got guides. All kinds of fun stuff. But follow me on Instagram and TikTok. TikTok has become my new, like, Comedy Central. Yeah, for the other side of me where it's like I might be dressed up, but I'm pretty silly.

Yeah, so that's great. We'll definitely check it out. I love the conversation. Thanks for coming by.

I appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Awesome. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of The Professional Photographer Podcast, live from Imaging USA inside the Sony Cinema Line Studios. A big thanks to Sony doing all the hard work to make us look good. Now, if you're still watching the episode, that means you enjoyed the show, which means you should be a subscriber of the show. So click subscribe on whatever platform you're on. Also, leave us a like and a comment so we know what the guest said that really resonated with you. The other thing is, if you're not yet a member of Professional Photographers of America, what's going on here? Because PPA offers terrific benefits. Like incredible equipment insurance, top-notch education, and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. Join now at ppa.com. That's ppa.com. I'm Pat Miller, host of the show and the founder of the Small Business Owners Community. I appreciate you tuning in. We'll see you right here next time. Take care.