Dubsado handles the workflow.
Claude handles the reply.
Dubsado's auto-responders are templated and couples notice. Writing a real personal reply to every new inquiry takes 15 to 30 minutes during the busiest months of the year. This recipe adds Claude to the front of your existing Dubsado workflow. You don't replace anything. You just stop writing every reply from scratch.
The problem with inquiry replies.
Dubsado's automated workflows are genuinely good at what they do. The contract goes out, the invoice follows, the payment reminder fires on schedule. That part runs without you.
The inquiry reply is different. It comes in before any workflow fires. A real couple just told you about their date, their venue, their budget, sometimes the thing that made them reach out to you specifically. The reply they get in the next hour sets the tone for everything after it. A form-letter response (even a good one) reads like a form letter. They're comparing you to three other vendors. The one who replied personally and quickly wins the call.
The problem: during peak season you have four inquiries sitting in your inbox and a wedding on Saturday. Writing four personal, specific, well-paced replies takes two hours you don't have. So they wait. By Monday two of the couples have already booked someone else.
Claude doesn't replace Dubsado. Dubsado's workflow still fires after you book. This recipe changes only the part before the workflow: the human reply that comes first.
The recipe. Set it up once.
Set up a Claude Project called "Wedding Inquiries." Paste your packages as a plain text file in the Files panel (one row per package: name, price, what's included). Paste the prompt below into the Project's Instructions field, filling in the bracketed placeholders. Save once. That's the setup.
When a new inquiry comes in: open the Project on your phone or laptop, start a new chat, paste the inquiry as plain text. Claude returns three labeled sections. PARSED gives you name, date, venue, vibe, and any package they mentioned. FIT names the best match from your packages. DRAFT REPLY is the actual reply, in your voice, under 180 words, ready to fix one line and send.
Copy the draft reply into Dubsado (or your email, or wherever you send first replies from). Read it once. Fix the one line that needs fixing. Send. Dubsado's normal workflow picks up from there when you book them.
- 01Write out your packages as plain text.
One row per package: name, price, what's included, any key differentiators. Not the marketing copy. The way you'd describe it on a call. Five minutes the first time.
- 02Create a Claude Project named "Wedding Inquiries."
On claude.ai: New Project, name it, drag your packages text into the Files panel.
- 03Paste the prompt below into the Project Instructions field.
Replace the bracketed placeholders with your service type, area, voice description, and name. Save.
The prompt. Copy it, paste it, fill the brackets.
Paste this into your Claude Project's Instructions field. Replace every bracketed placeholder with your actual details. The prompt is yours to edit.
I'm a [WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER / PLANNER / FLORIST / DJ / VIDEOGRAPHER] based in [SERVICE AREA]. My packages are in this Project's Files panel. My voice is [WARM AND SPECIFIC / your description]. I sign off with my first name, [YOUR NAME].
When I paste a new inquiry, do this in order:
PARSE:
- Name (if signed)
- Event date (if mentioned)
- Venue (if mentioned)
- Vibe / any details they shared
- Which package they asked about (if any)
FIT:
- Best package match from the Files panel
- Notes if it's ambiguous
DRAFT REPLY:
A warm, personal first reply. Under 180 words. Open by greeting them by name (or "Hi there" if unsigned). Acknowledge one specific thing from their message. Mention the relevant package using my exact package name. Ask one or two discovery questions. Suggest a next step (20-minute call, booking link, in-person consult). Sign off with my first name.
Rules:
- No em-dashes (couples notice -- it's an AI tell)
- No "Just following up" or "Hope this finds you well"
- No "unforgettable," "elevate," "perfect day" or similar
- No emojis unless I asked
- Zero exclamation points
Output format: three labeled sections only. PARSED / FIT / DRAFT REPLY. No preamble, no commentary.Copy it, paste it, edit the placeholders. The prompt is yours.
Honest tradeoffs.
Claude doesn't have Dubsado access.
You copy-paste the inquiry in and copy-paste the reply out. That's two minutes instead of twenty. Claude won't automatically pull inquiries from your Dubsado inbox. The workflow is manual. It's still much faster than writing from scratch.
Dubsado's automated workflows still fire as normal.
The proposal, the contract, the invoice, the payment reminder: none of that changes. This recipe only affects the one thing that happens before the workflow starts. The personal reply that you send as a human, before the couple is in the system. Once they book, Dubsado runs everything else.
The draft needs one line of your attention.
Claude drafts in your voice based on what you told it about yourself and your packages. It doesn't know this couple personally or anything that happened on a referral call. Read the draft, fix the one line that needs your specific knowledge, and send. The point isn't to remove you. It's to get the blank-page hour back.
Keep your packages doc current.
If you change your pricing or add a package, update the text file in the Project's Files panel. If the file is out of date, the FIT section will recommend the wrong package. One minute to update when things change.
Book a Scrappy Hour.
60 minutes on Google Meet. Bring your real packages and one real inquiry. We set up the workflow on your Claude account live. First one's free if you've never worked with me. $150 after that. No subscription.
Book a Scrappy Hour →