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So I'm not getting married for quite some time, not for about a year and a half. We figured we could start researching now, so then we could book everything 6 months from now to get the vendors we want :). We figure booking a year out from the big day would be a good idea.
Anyway, I'm about 45/50 min south of Chicago, and the city always seems to make things more expensive. We have budgeted $1,500 for photography, but that seems impossible. I thought that was a good amount of money, but after looking though tons of websites, it seems like most photographers start at $2,000 or $3,000. It's really frustrating!
I know we want to include a second shoter too, but I didn't think it would be too much to ask.
Anyone else super frustrated with photography prices?
I feel you on this! My biggest priority is photography, and I am SUPER picky about it. We actually met the person we plan to use at a bridal show. They were offering some great discounts, and we'll end up getting two photographers plus a cd of all of our EDITED images, for a little under $2,000. It's difficult, but just keep looking!! You'll find something you love eventually!
Hey ColorCoated,
I am 100% with you. We want hi-resolution versions of our photos on DVD/CD so that we can make more prints without having to go through the photographer and their ridiculously high re-print prices (I am not having the photographer make us an album, I can do that myself). I also want a second photographer. My friend just got married in July and had 2 photographers - a guy and a girl. Between the two of them, they got photos of the guys getting ready and the girls getting ready pre-ceremony, and a bunch of photos before and after, it was great! I am still talking to some photographers about instead of getting a 'package,' which a lot of them seem to want to sell me, I am telling them exactly what I want and then asking them what they can do for me. In this economy, they seem to be more willing to work with you than not (and risk losing your business). Also, our wedding is on a Sunday which gives us better pricing right off the bat with most vendors. If you are getting married on a Sunday, Friday... basically any day/time than Saturday night, you can probably get a discount. Even if you are getting married on a Saturday night you might ask if they have other discounts (maybe it's a slow time of year for them or something or a date that is hard to book usually). Never hurts to ask! I have asked multiple vendors (venues, photogs, DJ, etc) about discounts that they somehow 'failed to mention' but readily told me that I would qualify when I asked.
Good Luck! :)
-Bella
I know you say you're really picky... but have you considered going with a new or part-time photographer? I am a lawyer by day who does photography on nights/weekends simply because I love it. True, I do not have the equipment or experience of some photographers, but I still create really beautiful photographs. Truth be told, I don't need the money I make from photography-- I use it to reinvest into buying more equipment mostly. I also have no interest in gouging people on prints-- I'd rather just give them a high-res cd and charge them only for my time shooting and editing. I know that I"m not the only photographer like this.
Maybe give someone a chance and check out their portfolio? I know its a risk to not go with someone who does 75 weddings/year... but if you love their portfolio and were willing to try it you could probably save a TON of cash.
Have you thought about cutting down on the hours you'll need a professional photographer? Do you need one for 6-8 hours or could you hire one for 4 hours instead and use an amateur for the dancing/party shots? The professional could get the key moments & detail shots in a 4 hour period. :)
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Hey ColorCoated! When I first starting looking at photography (as a researcher for a friend of mine getting married), I was pretty shocked at how expensive photography was.
Then when I became a photographer myself and first began charging what I felt were more "affordable" rates, I realized just how much work AND money I had to put into the business - equipment, insurance, taxes, internet and website costs, travel, education, software, the material cost of prints, just to name some off the top of my head - and that an average wedding for a photographer is at least a week's worth of work in editing. A desk job that pays $1,500 a week is great, but a photographer who charges $1,500 a week is running a company by themselves and a lot of that money doesn't get to them, and no sane photographer could do 52 weddings without dying of exhaustion (most professionals I talk to book 15 - 25 at most).
You book your photographer not just for the hours you hire them the day of, but all the work and planning they put in before and after, and their artistry and experience in not being a screwup vendor. To be completely honest, I barely made any money in my first year, Boston is an expensive city to live in, and I still hold another job to pay the bills.
Also, including a second shooter is tough because not only are you paying for the second shooter's time, you have to pay for the photographer's time to edit all the photos the second shooter has taken - in some cases it is double!
That being said, for $1,500 I think you can still hire a photographer - maybe not the best one or the most experienced, but look for a part-time one who can meet your needs. Look for a photographer who lives in surrounding Chicago but not the city itself. You should let them know about your budget and see if there is anything they can do to customize for you - either restrict the hours of the second shooter, cut hours altogether, cut the album, and see if you can find a photographer willing to sell you the disc of photos. Have him/her spend a good 4 hours or so shooting the most important parts of your wedding that you want to capture. Hopefully this helps! I don't think the majority of photographers are out there trying to gouge you brides (a lot of us were once brides/grooms too), but we have our limitations, too.
Oh I totally hear you. We lucked out because my FSIL's best friend was a photography student and is currently working on building her portfolio, so we're using her for a fraction of actual rates in our area. If we didn't have her, I have NO idea what we'd do - we're paying for almost everything by ourselves and there's no wiggle room in our budget! Yipes. I know they're doing a lot of really beautiful work and it takes a lot of time etc, but our budget is around 10k, and spending 2k on a photographer would NOT have worked for us.
@ bella luna, I think at the end of the day you will end up saving/getting more if you go with one of the packages. a la carte is expensive...at least that is what I've found in my research.
We found a photographer on Craigslist who wanted to break into the field. She was charging a super low price (under $1000) so that she can use our photos as advertising. Also, she is not including the prints or albums or anything. She will just give us a cd so we can print them wherever we want. We booked at the beginning of the wedding season, she had a wedding every weekend this summer, and by the time ours rolled around she was a seasoned pro!
We have gotten some teaser images, so far we are incredibly happy with the results. I am going to post images as soons as I get them!
I was going to suggest craig's List too. You never know. Also, the idea of booking at a bridal show is a good idea too. You may talk to other wedding vendors - they may know of someone really talented and cheaper.
I ended up thinking "no more than $4K" for photography and ended up agreeing to pay $7,800! Yikes!
$7800!?! Holy Monkey Balls! I hope your pics turn out to be fanfrickintastic!
this was by FAR the most frustrating thing for me. i actually just put down my deposit yesterday and feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders! good for you for researching to book so far out. i researched a little too long, and found that a lot of the good photographers in my price range were already scooped up!
Keep looking - you will be able to find someone fabulous within your budget. You may have to spend a lot of time doing legwork....but in the end it'll work out. It helps that you're starting so early. I agree that a photographer who is newer to the business will be able to give you better prices in order to build up portfolio shots. We ended up going with a fantastic husband-and-wife team who've only been shooting a couple years, and we feel we got a great price for all of their services. Don't hesitate to email several people while you're looking - perhaps a shorter amount of a la carte time or a custom package can bring the price down for you.
I think it is totally doable but it requires work. I was very lucky and found all my photographers (I had 3 - one for my engagement pics, one for my shower and rehearsal dinner, and one for my wedding) all on craigslist and I was over the top happy with all of them. I had the same budget as you and I think for all three we winded up paying ~$2600. What a great deal. And the quality of work from all of them were excellent!!!!!
Just so you can see the quality of a craigslist photog
Here is the link to my e-shot pics
http://onadaphotography.net/Engagements/NicoleandRoosevelt/
Teaser shots from my wedding at the Four Seasons my planner bloggered about
http://blog.theweddingfactor.com/
You don't have to compromise quality for price
I live in Milwaukee and we're using an independent photographer, Trisha Faber (www.faberphotography.com) I love her work and she is more than reasonable-in fact the most bang for your buck that I could find out there. She is so nice and willing to do what you want! She does go to other locations and I know I have seen pics of her's of a couple from Chicago, so maybe she's a good possibility for you.
Trust me, stalk craigslist!!! I am very picky when it comes to photography because I like a really modern style. I found two AMAZING photographers on craigslist, one was only $800 for 6 hours & two photographers!!! They were building up their portofolio so that is why their prices were so amazing, and the weddings that I saw that they did were so my style. We actually ended up going with someone else, who had and even better eye, like seriously his pictures are friggin breathtaking and he was only $1100 for 6 hours!!! I'm so excited and can't wait!!
Good pictures were like.... my #1 priority after the getting-married-to-my-favorite-person-in-the-world part... but after working through our budget, the ones I loved (and stalked even before I was engaged and learned about photographers) were out of our price range. A friend of a friends happened to be a new, up and coming photog who gave us a big break. I don't necessary LOVE his work but... I have hope that it'll all come out alright.
So maybe you can look into some new photogs working to build their portfolios. They may not be as polished but there is a lot of potential out there!
And I will also send inserts to all my friends to bring their fancy pants cameras and hopefully a few will catch a few good shots :)
We're having a friend do our engagement shoot, and I'm going to try and get her to do my bridals. I'm paying her 200$ for the engagement and likely the same for the bridals. If I can I'm going to try and get her for our actual wedding day as well. We haven't made a photography budget yet because 2000$ seems to be the norm around here, and I don't want any editing done to my pictures and photogs don't want to have it that way.
Best of luck finding a reasonably priced photog!
I felt the same way UNTIL I looked around and found a young phtographer whose work I liked and was working to build his business and portfolio. He does weddings for $800 - 1K. Since this was not the first wdding or either of us, I bargined for just 2 hours of photography for $200. This included 120 edited pics and the DVD with all 400+ raw pics. We didn't get any fancy albums, but that's ok by me!
Have you tried looking on Craigslist or your local college for photography majors? Try going to a bridal show in your area, that's what I did and I got a great photographer with a $300 discount just cuz I met him at the show. I get unlimited locations, the enitre day with him and another shooter, an engagement session, full rights to the pics, and our fav epic blown up into an 11x14 to display at the reception. Go to the local boards here on WB and see what others in your area are doing.
<h4>Try this one I read about it on a blog. http://www.alixklingenberg.com Prices start at $1600 so close to your budget and has a lot to it. I hope this helps.</h4>
I have to add my two cents here...
I know that I live in SE Georgia where prices tend to be lower bc we're not in a big city (still-an hour from Tally, so not quite the total boonies!), but we are using a photographer who has her own legit business and is a full time teacher and part time photographer. Hold on to your britches gals because our photography price is $400! Yep! That is for 4-5 hours of coverage on our wedding day (including my raw shots and an edited album) we elected to add on the CD(s) for $100. We're not doing any more than that, but the rest of her packages go up incrementally (sp?) depending on adding hours of coverage, engagement shoots, rehearsal dinner coverage, etc. I just got an email yesterday that bc our photographer is pregnant, her assistant will also be coming with her, so we get double the coverage for the same price! I'm also super excited bc we are doing a "first look" and with two photographers, they will be able to get this shot from both angles. I've seen albums that she has done & know people who have used her-
My advice is to check out young, starting out, or part time photographers for some more budget friendly pricing. Of course, I'm also understanding "you get what you pay for", but in this case, she does beautiful pictures and that is all that matters at the end of the day! We are also getting married on a Saturday morning at 11 am, so that didn't change our photography price, but it did affect the cost of some of our other vendors bc some of them have another wedding later that evening & with a morning wedding, they are able to do two in one day during what would otherwise be down time. Saturday evening weddings tend to raise your prices bc it is prime wedding time. I consider us "lucky ducks"! :)
from the beginning, i have told my FI and parents that my splurge will be the photographer. i can deal with everything else being of lesser quality, but the dress and photos must be mind blowing. a photographer i really like at the moment is about 3k.... *sigh* even as a 'splurge' it seems a lot for 6 hours of work. and because FI and i are both part chinese, we want to do the chinese tea ceremony in the morning. so if we hire a photographer, we will need someone for the full day. meaning even more money...
My photographer is 950 for 6 hours, plus 100 per additional hour or max 1500/day. no prints but gives you a CD with all the pictures. You would have to pay a travel fee from Ohio.
Just another piece of advice to throw in - see if your photographer can work with you on some sort of a payment plan. My fiance and I found a photographer that we love, and she has great prices, but we can't afford to pay the 50% deposit that she usually requires right now.
We ended up working it out and we're only going to have to pay about $150 a month - which is something we can definitely afford, and we're still getting the photographer we love!
As a (part time) photographer I agree, keep looking!
That being said, both my sister in law and myself advertise on Craigslist, especially when we are offering specials. As do several other photographers that I know and sometimes work with. (I'll help them out if they need a second). I am by no means the most experianced photographer in the world, nor do I claim to be, but my pricing is reasonable and I work with every client to give them the most for their money, while not short changing myself.
I agree with the previous poster who said that you need to remember you are hiring them for more than just the time the spent at your wedding. They spend HOURS retouching and editing your pictures. Again, I agree about checking amature and part time photographers. Sometimes you will find a really talented photographer who doesn't charge as much simply because they are part time, or need to expand their portfolio.
Good Luck!
Try contacting photographer's from a newspaper in your city. The main newspaper here, I know several of the photographers do wedding photography on the side. And because they use the equipment from the newspaper, and they don't have to invest in that, they are much less expensive. They also are more than happy to just give you images on a disk, and don't try to sell you albums, prints and all that. I have a demo disk from one actually, and the pics are amazing. And because they are used to shooting in a photojournalistic, candid style in their job, that really comes through in the wedding photos too. I would say all of their emails should be listed somewhere on the newspaper's website. Good luck!
I think if you're willing to go with less than 8 hours of coverage and you talk with the photographer about putting together a package that works for your needs, you should be able to get a fantastic photographer for about $1500 -- I really recommend Steve Koo (Mr. Stiletto!) here, since he's in Chicago. I think his prices have gone up some since we booked him (and he's worth it!), but he was really fantastic about working with us to figure out a package that was in our tiny budget (way less than $1500) for photography. We got 4 hours of photography and an engagement session, and we are so incredibly happy with the results. I actually think it's better to get fewer hours of coverage from a photographer you love, because a pro will be better at herding everyone around for the posed shots and should be able to get more quality pics in less time.
I was so frustrated with this too! Then I posted about it on weddingbee, and the woman who turned out to be my photographer responded to me! I LOVE her work, and I can't wait to see what she does with our pics. Also, because she was relatively new, her prices were below our budget ($1900). Since we booked her, her prices have almost doubled, so I'm guessing that other people have noticed how awesome her pics are, and have started filling up her calender.
I guess my point is that it was a good thing we booked the photographer first, because we saved a bundle for a really good photographer. (We actually booked her before our venue.) So it's a good thing to be looking this far in advance, because it should allow you to cherry pick for a decent price, but it does take some time. I looked for weeks before finding ours.
I totally hear your complaint! My fiance and I have been struggling to find someone we could afford and we liked their work. I think we found them. We're turning in our contract tomorrow. http://www.tietheknotweddingphotography.com/
Their pacakages start at only $995! They are based here in Milwaukee, but maybe they are willing to travel to South of Chicago for you? They're a very nice couple and the albums they showed us at our face-to-face meeting looked nice.
Good luck finding someone you love and can afford!
For me, photography was the one thing that I did not want to have a budget for... it was a huge priority. I wanted to find a photographer I loved, and then work out a way to afford it. So that's what we did. And it's costing WAY more than I EVER thought I would spend (it's about $8000), but that's ok. We're putting away money each month to be able to afford it.
It really comes down to priorities. Some people spend that much on a dress or a ring or a honeymoon, and we decided to spend it on the photographer.
Normally I'd agree with you, but since I'm a photographer and I like nice things like going out to eat, vacations and funding my retirement, I can't on this one. But if you would have said $1500 for a dress, I'm right there with you. Why spend that much on something you'll wear once and will soon be horribly outdated (my wedding dress has sleeves, imagine that).
But I do understand how frustrating it is to want or need something you can't afford. That's why I've banned myself from watching HGTV. But that doesn't make the price unreasonable. Shangchenphoto touched on why it's so expensive, but brides don't care. Nor should they if they don't earn a living through photography.
Less experienced, less talented photographers or students can be a good way to keep costs down. But you risk dealing with an unprofessional that might disappoint you, or worse not show up. Just keep that in mind.
If you're really brave and want to save some money, try waiting until the very last minute. If someone offers me $500 to shoot their wedding in 6+ months, no way. If someone offers me $500 to shoot their wedding this weekend, maybe.
I agree with some of the other posts that recommend finding a part time photographer. They don't live off of their photography, so the price won't be so bad. My FI knew a part time photographer, so we went this weekend to see his work, and he is great! And best of all he only charges $500 including the CD.
Our first choice was friends of ours who were booked. We ended up going with a friend-of-a-friend (who is also an old friend from high school's twin brother!) It's only going to be $600 (CAD) for unlimited day of shooting from getting ready to dancing at the reception, all photos edited and unlocked for printing, a pro book and an 11x16 framed picture. Plus we are paying $100 travelling fee. Have you tried looking outside of your immediate city? Some photographers outside a big city have lower rates including their travel fee. Our photographer has only done about 14 weddings so far also.
Oh man, I totally hear you!
What I would do if I were you is to absolutely SCOUR wedding blogs for photography give-aways. Somebody has to win!! Figure out a way that makes you and your fiance special, something that makes you stand out and share it in these give-aways!! Not even kidding. There are wonderful photographers out there that will give away one wedding session for free. You live near a big city, you might be in alot of luck!
Good luck!!!
Ugh, yeah, I haven't started the process of looking for one but this is what I've been dreading.
I found a person on craigslist who was just started doing weddings on the side (he had done 4 weddings before) that would do a whole day of shooting for $600 (and could get a 2nd shooter for $200 more). I met up him and looked at his portfolio and liked his pics and style. So it's definitely possible to get some great deals off craigslist! (and I live in Philly, which is not a cheap city)
I ended up booking with someone else who I also found on craigslist who had more experience and who had great reviews and I liked a little more. She negotiated with me for 6.5 hours + an engagement session for $1400, which I think is still a good deal and still in our budget.
My suggestion is to definitely look at craigslist, but make sure to look through the people's pics! Most of the people I found on craigslist said they had the style of shooting that I liked, but it definitely didn't feel like it looking through their portfolios.....
I agree wedding photography is way over priced!!! most places where i live dont do more then an hour of your wedding unless you pay $1000
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