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We have the ceremony and the reception sites chosen, so I feel like my next highest priority is photography. Our wedding is not until July 2011, so we pretty much have our pick of any photographer we want.
The question, of course, is how much to spend. At the moment, we don't have a specified budget (not that the sky is the limit, but we havent nailed down the budget for the rest of the process yet).
So, if you don't mind telling me, how much did you spend on your photographer(s)? Did you have more than one? And for how many hours?
How much is appropriate to spend? I know that everyone says that the photos are where you should splurge because they last forever....and I really agree.
Thanks!
We spent only $200, but it was the third marriage for both of us and we decided we really didn't need thousands of shots. We found this nice young photgrapher that was trying to get his business started and his portfolio built up and he was very accomodating in regards to price and his time.
HOWEVER, in retrospect, I wish we had spent more money and had gone with a more experienced photographer. The actual wedding day was so rushed and I think someone more experience would have gotten more frameable/traditional shots, along with the casual ones. Also - since we were NOT your traditional bride and groom, I am not sure he knew quite what to do with us, when it should have been an outstanding opportunity for some really artisitic shots. It is very disappointing to go to his web site and see no pics of us in his portifolio.
I guess I am trying to say that maybe recommendations and examples of the photographer's work should be your guide and yes, plan on spending some bucks. In our case, I think we definitely got what we paid for and we shouldn have spent more than we did.
I'm spending 4,000... but its way over budget. I'm only spending that much because he was literally the only thing I KNEW I wanted for my wedding
We spent about $3,000 on our photographer (I think) for 8 hours of time and an engagement session. He is amazing though and I loved him muchly!
I would like to spend no more than $1500 for 5-6 hours of coverage and edited images on a disc. Unfortunately I think that puts me at the low end of what's available around here. I may go with someone who comes recommended but is newer to wedding photography. A lot of the "leading" photographers advertise packages more in the 3k-5k range.
I'm spending around $4,000 which includes 3 wedding books and 8 hours of coverage. It is over my budget but I'm going to cut back on flowers I think. My photographer is amazing and there aren't many who have her style in my area.
Our photographer's proposal was $4,800...includes 7 hours of coverage, engagement sesh, all digital negatives on disc, 10x10 amazing wedding album, and a few other things...I think they are expensive but they are an awesome couple that we meshed well with.
We spent about $1100. We got 6 hours of time, the digital proofs, an 11x14 of our favorite photo, and this also paid for the travel for the photographer and her assistant.
We spent $3500 and that included FULL rights to the 1200+ images. This is very important. A lot of the really expensive photographers retain the rights to your photos so you can't print them as you wish, you have to buy through them which will cost you dearly. We wanted to make albums for parents, grandparents and friends so this was our dealbreaker. 8 hours of coverage which included an assistant for "his getting ready pics" while the main photog did mine.
We also got a professional album with 30 hard pages, approx 75 images and a free bourdoir session which I gave the album to my husband as a wedding present :)
We spent $4150 (discounted down from about $6500 because Ive worked with them through my job before). This included 2 photographers all day for the wedding day, rights to all the pics, a DVD of the pics, an 11x14 (32 hard page) magazine style album, 2 mini parents albums, an engagement session, an 8x10 photo of the engagement and a DVD of the engagement images. They also gave us free photo sessions (1 per year) for a lifetime!
reallllllly do your research. we were very lucky in finding a photographer who started out doing it as a hobby and now does this "on the side"... I actually found my photographer's business card downstairs in the cafeteria at work. her mother works here (and actually she does too, now) and I went to the website on the card, fell in LOVE with her work - met with her and signed her immediately. Thing is - for unlimited photos, unlimited time - we are only spending $1500!
her work is awesome and she's got about 5 weddings under her belt now, as well as some other photo shoots she's done for high school portraits.
all the other "professional" photogs here in indy - for what I wanted (unlimited all day + unlimited photos) would have been $3,000 or MORE.
Do your research and I'm sure you'll find the right one!
also - we are getting all the rights - that's extremely important to make sure you get! we're not getting a book from her (one reason why she's cheaper) - but obviously with us receiving all images on disc + the rights, we can do with them as we please!
ours is $1100 for 10 hours, and we're going to pay $500 for the dvd of the images so i can make my own album. this seemed very inexpensive compared to others i researched, which surprised me because i loved his pictures.
$5600...BUT he has two Pulitzers and is INCREDIBLE!!! (Yes, I am justifying this any way I can ;-)
It includes:
Proof CD(s) containing low-resolution digital files of all proof images.
<p align="left">Online proofing via Pictage.com or comparable service.
<p align="left">Fine Art album containing 30 5x7 photographs.
Photographer shall deliver additional CDs/DVDs containing high-resolution digital images after album is completed.
Ours is coming in at $2900, after 9.5% tax. This is what we get:
two photogs
all day coverage
e-session
dvd with high rez wedding and engagement photos
online hosting for as long as we need
thank you cards
It's something FI is handling, but I believe our quote is $2,000 for rights to our digital photos and 7 hours of coverage. We'll probably spend more because we'll want extra time, albums, etc.
We spent $5K, and that included 8 hours of coverage, two photographers and a DVD of all the images.
Photography was actually our No. 1 priority (even over venue). We set an overall wedding budget, but didn't really set a photography budget. We knew we were looking to spend around $5K for the right photographer, but we would have paid probably $1K more if the photog was right.
It really depends on your taste. The one we found shared our overall style of photographs and edited them how we like them as well. It was a perfect fit. She was also very high-end (as in, we called her 15 months in advance to book her, and she only had one weekend available in the month we wanted).
But, I'll also say that our second-choice photographer was only $3800 for the same package, which is a pretty big difference. On a scale of 1-10, we thought the photog we hired was a 10, and our second choice an 8. So yeah, it really, really depends.
@MissChapstick - we've had the same experience! Our photographer was the first vendor we booked - before the venue. We did interview others who were slightly less expensive, but felt that the photographer we selected is just hands-down the best we've seen.
Where are you from? I think that really changes things
$3,200 for 2 photographers plus 1 photobooth photographer
digital rights/dvd
album
10 hours of shooting, as many locations as we wanted (we chose the salon, then the makeup place, then my house, then the location)
Engagement shoot
Bridal Shoot
It looked like a lot and we lked her style. She wasn't the most professional even though she's been in the biz for 4 years. Her life definitely got in the way and she let it. But costwise, that's what we went with.
$1500 for:
all day coverage
2 photogs
2 engagement sessions
album
any prints
DVD with copyright
photog "photobooth" for reception
BUT, this was an incredible deal. The photographer deeply discounted our package. This package would normally run around $4000-$4500.
$5000: all day coverage and RD coverage, a 40-page art album, all proofs, DVD of all images, engagement session, $750 in print credit, online hosting/galleries, day-after session.
We're over-budget on pictures, but under almost everywhere else. To me it's worth it.
$2500: 2 photographers (husband and wife team), 6 hours' coverage, edited images on disk. They normally don't even offer packages below $2950, but they didn't have much else going on in December, so we got a good deal.
Our package is typically about $4,500. We got a reduction in cost, but we are having all day coverage, 2 photogs and upgraded albums.
Ours is $2500 (including all taxes) and includes:
-all day coverage (contracted for a minimum of 10 hours) for wedding day
- e-pics (which were 2 hours of time and about 50 “final” color corrected shots)
- about 600 shots, with the best 300 hand color corrected, on disks
- we have the copyright to all the pics (excluding using them for commercial purposes)
-DVD of our final best 300 or so shots
- password protected online gallery where people can order copies of the prints, although we have the disks so we can make copies wherever we like.
Yeah i think where you're from makes a big in the price.
I was willing to spend major money on photog but then it came down to it I couldn't part with the money because everything else creeped up but I found an awesome deal! ^_^
1800 (this includes tax) for 12 hours, 2 photogaphers, unlimited pictures, rights to pictures on high res DVDs or usb drives, 3 albums and an engagement session.
what was important to me was someone sticking with me all day.. it was hard to find that for less than 3k just b/c of the area I live in... the second closest i found was someone for exactly 3k, no second photogahper, no albums, no prints, just the digital imagines.
Hi! As a photographer... I personally range between $1900-$3300 to give you an idea... but I agree with all the posts, do your research, find a style you like and go from there. Price will vary from stae to state.
Also on the digital images, that is true if you want to have the disc be sure that's included and my 2 cents, be sure that what you are getting on the disk is edited images and not straight out of the camera...that makes a huge difference when you are going to print photos on your own...
good luck! :) Marirosa
We spent a little over $4500...as a matter of fact I think I booked the same photogs as Ms. Min Pin? At least that's what it sounds like as we got the same package items that she outlined above. Min Pin...did you book with Hinkley?
We spent $1500: 1 photog, 8 hours coverage, no prints/albums but rather a disc with (unedited) images. Since we booked, our photog's prices have gone up 25% so we are lucky in that respect. But I wish I had known a little more before we booked... I'm nervous about this "unedited" images thing.
I too didn't want to cut corners on the photographer. It's so important.
After reading everyone's posts I'm not feeling so bad about spending $3,000 on our guy. That price included one assistant, full coverage of the ceremony and reception and one photo album.
After ordering more prints and some digital downloads the final cost may go as high as $4,000 I'm guessing. Maybe more.
He did a great job considering what little room he had to work with at our reception venue too (a very crowded Italian restauraunt).
Photo's are priceless. Good luck and congrats!!!
$5600 for all day, 2 photographers, over 700 proofs, the digital rights to the pictures (a CD with them all on it), a coffee table book, $400 print credit and album. So after the photos were taken, I didn't pay a dime for prints or my album. So very worth it.
To answer part of your original question (as far as nailing down the rest of the budget), when I started out wedding planning, I had no idea where to start with cost. We looked at what things cost in our area, figured our highest priorities, and then got a calculator & compared that with the amount of money we are able to spend.
We are spending above-market in some areas and will be nickel-n-diming some other things. We spent a very long time comparing things, deciding what we wanted, and we came up with our budget based on that.
You can find a photographer at any price point you like, but it's a matter of taste & personality. Photography was priority 1 for us. We went with the photographer we liked most and then worried about cost later; I was willing to pay someone good for just a few hours than have mediocre pictures with all-day coverage.
As it turned out, we didn't have to compromise; we ended up picking a guy and then when we went to book him, we found out 1/3rd of the package price is due *after* the wedding!
Our package includes: engagement photos, rehearsal dinner coverage, 10 hours wedding day coverage, 4x6 prints of every proof, a cypress album... and then the standard online proofing & print ordering and high-res files. He also includes a "free" ipod touch loaded with our wedding photos, which we are going to give to my mom in lieu of a "parent album."
Ours is just under 2k..1 photographer for 6 hours, CD of images with rights, no album. I may add an album, but we haven't decided yet.
I am paying $450 for 6 hours of time, all images on a DVD, and 3 parents albums. I found a great photographer through Craigslist that wanted to update his wedding portfolio, so he was offering great deals!
This is my first full year in the wedding photography business. My prices have quickly crept up from $400 to $1250. I charge $1250 as my base price w/high res DVD (and copyrights) included. Then the rest are add-ons. $200 for e-session, $100 for second shooter, $700 for photobooth.
My goal is to get to $2000 and settle there for a while.
Mid 2010 I will raise my prices again in prep for 2011.
$2800 for 2 shooters (husband & wife team) 8 hours coverage, engagement and bridal sessions, & high-res DVD
We spent $2000 for wedding photos but we were able to get it down that low because we were willing to pay cash. We wanted all pictures on a disc (where we got a total of 1000 that we could get printed out in a Costco album).
I think a lot of it depends on where you live. Since we had our wedding in San Diego, CA most of the quotes were in the range of $4000 to $6000, but we really lucked out by doing our research.
We are in LA and are paying $5500 for photography. To us, it's one of the most important elements in our wedding so we're willing to cut back in other areas. Our package includes:
Engagement session, 10 hours on the wedding day, second photographer, all high-res images on DVD, 800 prints in keepsake box, and choice of high-quality leather album.
We love the work of our photographer so to us it's worth the money.
I'm a photographer. Most couple are spending about $1500-$2500 right now with the CD and $2000-$3000 with the CD + album. My packages with second shooter and lots of extras are $3500-$4800, but during the recession, I'm not seeing a lot of those being purchased. Depending on your location , rates can vary. If you are in a major metropolitan area, prices are usually a little more.
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