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Hmm to me that price seems pretty reasonable. We paid more than that and we didn't live in a huge metro area.
Seems pretty decent to me too. My package is the equivalent of $4k, but he gave us a massive discount so we're only paying $1500.
oh and the other wedding photographers in the area, though great, are not what we are looking for and would be WELL within our budget.... we're talking top price including tax around 2900
I cannot believe photography costs 4. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.
Seriously? You can't be serious. SERIOUSLY????
I'm not getting married anytime soon, but my best friend is a photog for National Geographic so yeaaaah. He's gonna be doing the photos for us :)
I don't even know where I would come up with 4K.
@Miss Topsiders- Luck? lol. Well, we got part of it from a military discount and the rest from our wedding date. We're getting married on Halloween (well, day before) and having some very nerdy/horror movie type things going on. Our photog told me that he has always wanted to shoot a Halloween wedding, so he gave us a huge discount so that we would be sure to pick him.
You will only have one thing to remember your day with, the photographs. (unless you have a video) I think a photographer is worth their weight in gold. It is the one thing I have spent the most time on is picking the shots I want. I say go for it.
Hmm... honestly if you are an award winning photographer you are perfectly justified in being picky; you will look at these photos differently than most clients and you will have many chances to second guess them as you do your own work. The bad news is that the photographers likely to meet your expectations will probably be outside your budget.
Can you hire a great photographer, but for a shorter time period? Can you contact some other photographer friends and see if they know any talented unknowns? Can you bring someone in?
@oyster: i am not from the area and the man is not "artsy" so we don't really know anyone who has the talent level and experience we are looking for. we are trying to move funds around within the budget to accommodate this expense, but i am still hoping to be able to pull it off within our previous budget of 3500 (which, like i said is ridiculous within our current city! we'd have WHOEVER we wanted). we have agreed that since we are having a "smaller" wedding it is important to capture the moment in exactly the way we want.
I'm in VA and if I know where in VA I can try and point you to a few people. One way to cut the cost is to forgo the album for now. That (from a very talented photographer) will likely take off at least 4 figures....
Maybe you can do some of the post-processing and all the album design to lower the cost?
If it's that much cheaper where you live now, can you fly someone you like into VA?
I say forego the album/engagement shoot and maybe have the photographer of your dreams around for less time??
Also have you contacted the photographers and told them your dilemma? I had really good luck when i contacted photographers and explained who were were, what we were looking for and how much we had to spend! It was actually surprising how willing to work with us and our budget my favs were (and LA photogs are crazy expensive too!)
Hi MissTopsiders, I'm a photographer and I can completely empathize. I'm half way across the world but I know Natalie Gibbs is a Virginia Photographer and she has some gorgeous photos.
You can always hold off on the album. I'm not saying not to get an album, but you could always have it made a few months after the wedding when you perhaps have a bit more money saved?
And unfortunately, with photography, you may just have to decide which is more important—quality or price. We had this trouble, too, and ended up choosing quality. We're scrimping in other areas (invitations) so we can pay a bit more for the photos).
Good luck!
If it's really your area that's driving the prices up, might it be cheaper to pay someone travel fees to come in from a less expensive area?
One way we found was to have only one shooter for our really small intimate shooting. Plus we booked her only 2 months in advance and we are getting married on a Friday afternoon.
Photography was really important to us and I think it is for you two. The photographs are one of the things that you keep from a wedding.
Good luck!
Oh! I almost forgot! Emily Porter lives in Virginia (west Virginia? I'm on the other side of the world sorry), http://emilyporterphoto.com/blog/ again, just gorgeous photos!
If you're a photographer, then I would ask about about a DVD of images only--then you should be able to purchase your own products, albums, etc. at cost. Still not cheap, but you'd save *some* money. (Any chance you're having your wedding at any other time than Saturday afternoon? You'd probably have more success with this type of arrangement if that were the case.)
AND/OR try to barter--does your photographer have kids? Would they like a family shoot in exchange for a portion of the cost? Do they need promotional shots of themselves? Could you offer to do some design/editing work for them in exchange for a discount?
Good luck.
I agree with postponing the album until later, or making it yourself. That's what I did and it saved me almost $1k. Also I would consider flying a good photographer from your hometown to your wedding.
@bluebook I just wanted to tell you that your avatar/profile photo on here is absolutely gorgeous. I bet the rest of your pictures are just perfect also. Great for you!!!
when i spoke to photographers and met with them, they told me their price, and i told them how much i could afford.. i had one really good photographer offer to knock almost a grand off his price so that i could afford a nnice photographer for my wedding.. so telling them what you can afford, maybe they will budge for you budget.. lol
@Gemstone Thank you!!! I really lucked out with my pictures. Had an awesome photog (Alex from www.candidlyelegant.com/blog) for the wedding and Ashley from 13:13 (www.1313blog.com, she did Mrs. Quiche's pictures) shot an engagement session and a post-wedding session for us. My album is going to take me a few months to do but I'm in no particular immediate rush and I'm looking forward to designing it myself.
@bluebook Thanks for sharing the link! And so fun that you're making your album yourself. :)
Maybe you can get someone from outside VA? My friend had these photographers shoot her wedding in Greece and they were spectacular: http://www.gatheringlightphoto.com/ -- doesn't hurt to email them for a quote.
I feel your pain girl! I too am a Virginia bride (in metro-dc area) and people not from this area have no idea how expensive this area is to get married in. I'm going to reccomend our photographer to you: Moshe Zusman at http://www.moshezusman.com/.
He is amazing, award-winning, very-well known, and within your budget. For $3500, we got an engagement session, 7 hours at the wedding and 2 photographers (him, and his assistant) and you get your wedding photos the week after, and you own all the rights to them. The bad news is this does not include the album at all. In this area, expact to pay an additional $2-3 thousand just for the album. Since we don't have the budget for this, we are going to save up for a year after the wedding and buy the album then.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Wow, and here was me thinkin 1300 wasn't cheap for pics! Thank God! Best of luck with it!
We met with the photographers we loved and told them our budget. They were able to mix and match things for us so that we could still work together. You might consider chatting with them about flexibility with their packages. Good luck!!
Where in VA? It's a big state. If you are getting married in Northern VA I could recommend a few.
I think you are justified in being picky (i'm also a photographe,r so it was a big deal to me too!), but those prices are a STEAL where I live. So, I'd say maybe your price range is unreasonable. The wedding albums wholesale are the better part of $1000, I can't imagine a truly gifted photographer like what you are wanting asking less than the prices you've given for a full day of shooting, all the post processing time, plus overhead. (our photog was $5500 for 14 hours of shooting over two days and en e-shoot, NO album, and that was standard for a kick-ass photog in our area).
Your best best is to get as many hours as you can afford, and leave the album out of it when you frist book. You're then making the most important investment up front, which is the photography, and the album can come later. Maybe purchasing through your photographer AFTER the wedding when you've recovered from the wedding expenses, or sourcing the album elsewhere. As long as you have the disc of images as a part of your package, you're all set.
Also, plot out your timeline as much as you can before you book. A lot of people book their photog before they know what their day will look like, so they end up with not enough hours.
If it's significantly cheaper to book someone outside of the area that you live, you could approach other photographers who are on the cheaper side but whose work you like, and find out what their travel costs would be. Some photographers want to get established in different areas, and may or may not be more flexible.
Good luck!
another suggestion is to design your own album through blurb or if you have Adobe InDesign-- it will cost around $50 to print and a few hours to design if you're into that
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I have issues... i have come to realize... How to do i reconcile these and move on??? The man and I are going to VA in Aug to plan the wedding and I and have been furiously stalking wedding photographer blogs in the Virginia area.... the issue is that I am an avid photographer (actually award winning though it's weird to say about myself) and I have really high expectations. We set aside twice as much as the average package here costs us because VA is sooooo much more expensive wedding wise and it's still not enough. I have only found two photographers that I want and they are both at the top of our budget (one STARTS at 3500 and the other at 3250, we budgeted for 3500 including album and trading E-pics for an extra hour at the reception). Photography obviously means A LOT to us, any ideas or recommendations???