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I'm photographer-shopping and I am having some sticker shock.
The lower-end packages I'm being quoted are in the $2000-2500 range. I'm having a small wedding (I expect the total wedding to cost 10k or maybe a tiny bit more), so this price feels like a ton.
Maybe I'm just out of touch and need to suck it up? I'm interested in what other brides are spending and what they are getting. If you don't mind telling me -
Thanks!
yeah, tell me about it. i was totally floored when i saw photography packages. you may want to try putting an ad on craigslist or searching through craigslist for up and coming photographers who are willing to receive a lower rate in order to build their portfolio.
meanwhile:
geographic area: san francisco bay area
cost: $1800
package: 6 hours coverage, disc with 200-250 edited images (no engagement shoot, no 2nd photographer, only 6 hours, etc.) and that was the lesser expensive of the final options i was considering!
however, i did consider some craigslist possibilites that were $1000 and under.
Location: Colorado
Cost: about $4,000
What I Got: 8 hours, about 400 edited shots from the wedding all on CD and edited, 2 shooters, $200 credit for albums or pictures, album with most wedding pictures, additional session (engagement, bridal, TTD)
EDIT: I can't vote on whether yours is a good deal because you didn't say what sort of things you get for that price.
This was the biggest sticker shock for me too but it was really important to me so I went for it!
Our package is $2300 for all the edited digital negatives and 5 hours of shooting with 2 shooters!
I did consider the cheaper options but photography was REALLY important to me and the quality was just not the same of the students/beginners that I found!
Oh, I went through that. I think that while $2000-$2500 can get you good photography, but if your budget is low, I think you can definitely find something lower. Like pp said, find new talented photographers who are trying to expand their portfolio. You can try posting a "looking" thread in the Classified section here on WB and post your budget and what you are looking for. I did that and I got tons of responses!
As for the photographer we are using, I am in the Boston area. We are getting 2 shooters, 7 hours of coverage, 1 hr. engagement session, and a disc with all the edited images in HD for $1995. We had to negotiate for a while to get the package we wanted, though and normally I think the package is normally $1000 more than we are paying. So, negotiate, if you can! We didn't get prints or albums b/c that's the most expensive part and we figured we'd print them later on as we don't have the budget for that now. I think you might have to skip those for now if you have a low budget.
I spent a LONG TIME looking for a photographer and I literallly went to hundreds of photographers' websites. Also book early as photographers who are affordable and good book fast!! My top 3 choices were booked when I contacted them. Another reason to book early if you find someone who's a good photographer and new is that their prices jump so fast once people discover them and you want to lock your price. Good luck!
Geographic area does have an impact, unfortunately, if your in Connecticut, your in a higher cost of living and therefore, those prices seem completely normal and to me, low.
Now, if you were getting married say in Salt Lake City, where there is a HUGE number of lower budget mormon weddings (in general, they don't do things as we do them. Everyone chips in, people get married really young, and it's just their culture not to spend big money.) I'd say that's really high.
That being said, right before Christmas I shot a last min. VERY tight budget wedding. I've also shot weddings where my commission was probably equal to everything else combined.... but because they hired a good pro, their $20 of daisy's looked like $200. Their homemade cupcakes looks like they came from a bakery, her smile in her portraits said she just had the best day of her life (which she did!).
You "can" find "cheap" photographers, but that's one of the things I kinda cringe on. I say get who you LOVE no matter what the price. The one that makes your heart jump when you look through their work. You can find cheaper but do you want to.
At the end of the wedding your food is gone, there's only the picture of it. That's usually about 60% of your budget right there, gone. The music ends. Drinks are gone. Flowers are already wilting and dying by the end of the reception if they even made it that far. Your dress will have another $200 or so spent on it being stuck inside a box never to be seen again and shoved into your attic. Chairs, linens, rentals go back. The cake is gone. Centerpieces have been stolen by your family.
At the end of the day, all you have left is your pictures. Everyone deserves to have amazing images of themselves, high quality ones at least once in their life.
Then there's this post. I don't know how much her photographer cost, but this bride wouldn't put a price tag on these pictures.
http://www.weddingbee.com/2010/01/06/weekend-mountain-wedding-a-dance-with-my-papa/
We're getting married on Cape Cod Ma, which is an expensive area, so to cut costs we decided to look for an up-and-coming photographer and found a great one! We researched a ton and I got first hand recommendations from brides that used her (from local boards and The Knot) and she was highly regarded. We also decided to cut down the time she'll be there and asked a relative who is a great amateur photographer to snap shots during the rest of the night. So we're paying $995 for four hours and we'll own every picture on the CDs. I wanted to do the editing and printing myself so although it's more work it saves a ton. I truly love her work and can't wait to see the results!
Honestly, the photographers I love that have the kinds of photo packages I want are looking to be about $4000. I am wishing I could get a photog. in your price range.
You really just have to decide how important photos are. Often, you get what you pay for. You can probably find someone with high quality work that costs less, but you'll have to really hunt for it. Otherwise, you may sacrifice quality; and you just have to decide how you feel about that sacrifice.
We're paying about $2000 for TWO photogs all day, full rights to all photos and a limited number of touched up ones. Since we have the hi-res proofs, we can always go back and get more touched up at a later date when we have more cashola
We paid $5K for our photog and it included:
- A second shooter
- 10 hours of coverage
- A DVD of color-corrected images
- An online gallery of our images to sent to people
Our photographer was based in Upstate NY, and that's also where we got married. She was our dream photographer, and was also by far our biggest splurge. We cut back on a few other things to hire her. I gotta say, it was worth it for us. Photographer was super, super important to both of us, and since we're both in marketing/design, we have specific taste in photography, and she met the requirements.
Ouch. I had a similar experience, but found that bargaining works wonders. We live in NYC and were initially quoted around $2,250.00 for an engagement shoot, eight hours of coverage, an album, an online gallery, a print credit for guests and a disk of all images.
We reduced our price to $1,750.00 total by cutting out two hours of coverage, and scrapping the album and print credit.
I’ve been doing heavy photog browsing/shopping in the Metro-Detroit area
For our list of priorities:
-8 hours wedding day coverage
-1 hour rehearsal coverage
-unlimited print rights/dvd of all images
-modern photojournalistic style with traditional poses for the ‘rents
-associate photog
-some editing
-online proofing/website
-free e-session
It’s been averaging the $2500 mark, with album options it’s at least $3500+.
Location: Seattle
Package Cost: $1650, plus travel expenses, total just under $2k
Included: Unlimited/all-day coverage with 2 shooters, dvds with high res images - about 3 hundred edited/retouched and about 3 thousand raw images and a slideshow, online gallery of images for 1 year
No engagement pics or albums. Our photog's rates have gone up about $800 for this same package since she is now more established.
Some of our family portraits didn't have the best lighting and were posed a little awkward, so that was dissapointing, but more experienced photogs in our area would have cost $3-4k for like 6 hours of time...we love the other photos, so it was worth the compromise it in hindsight.
Our photography cost is: $2830
We are in: Alberta, Canada
Our package includes: Engagement session
8 hours primary photog & 5 hours second shooter
250 fully retouched, high-res (printable to 16x24) digital photos with full release rights on cd
All proofs printable to 4x6 with no watermarks on cd
We can add-on a photobooth with all proofs on cd for $350
Location: Seattle
Package Cost: $1200 + tax
Included: 9 hour coverage with 2 shooters, dvd with full copy rights, 1-11x14 print, 100-4x6 prints, online photos for a year, all photos will be touched up and some will have creative/artsy effects applied. She will also take unlimited pictures all day. I am getting a better deal though because she has an off season special and then getting an additional $150 off because she shot my sister's wedding. Otherwise this would've come to $1500 + tax.
Location: Bend, OR (but our photographer shoots in Seattle, Portland, etc...) so definitely not small town
Cost: $2500
What it included: 8 hours wedding day coverage, 2 shooters, rights to the images, high res DVD with edited images (we ended up with just over 500, all edited) and a $400 credit towards album, prints, etc... This also included an engagement photo shoot. We can also pick 100 images to go into an online gallery for our guests. We also had the option to have them stay longer (I think it would have been $200/hour outside of the 8).
She had some of our wedding photos on her blog within 24 hours which was a great treat! We ended up with the DVD of the edited images about 10 weeks after the wedding.
That's pretty typical, and even low, for a good professional photographer with wedding experience. Sadly for us, right? But I wouldn't expect to be able to spend much less.
New England -- Boston-based photographer shooting a Bar Harbor Maine wedding
Cost -- ~$5000
Includes -- 7 hours of shooting, complimentary engagement session, proof book, digital proofs with printing rights, and $1200 album credit
Oh yeah, and we're paying for her travel and 2 nights in a hotel, so that actually brings the total cost up to ~$5500. A lot of money I know, but with the extras like the $1200 album credit and engagement session, she was totally worth it. Plus her pictures are out of this world, and I was really having trouble finding anyone this good for under $5k.
I"m in NYC and we paid $6000 for our photographer. That includes:
a bride and groom album, two smaller parent albums, 8-9 hours of photography, an engagement shoot, 600-800 retouched prints, a hi-res disk with the photos, an assistant (and second shooter), an online gallery for a year, and rights to the photos (not only can we print anywhere, but she can't do anything with them without first getting our permission).
I personally think that considering where we live, we got a REALLY good deal for everything. :) Photography is definitely a big expense, but it's worth it IMO.
Los Angeles
cost: $2200
Includes: 8 hours, 1 phtographer, with one shooting assistant, 200 photographers' fav. pics (4 x6), all digital images raw files, and a 2 hour engagement session, and on-line viewing for 6 months. Album was not included.
We looked around a lot, and he was able to give us a good deal since we paid it all up front too he gave us a discount and since we were referred to him he was giving us a break. Usually something like this will run about $2800 from him.
Since we are having a photographer for our Korean wedding, we didn't want full coverage for our 2nd wedding too. Our photographers are setting up their business, so the cost is a little lower. I think they've done about 10 weddings now, and will have several more before our wedding. I think if you want super high quality pics, 8-10 hrs. of shooting, full rights to pics etc, you have to go lower. However, if you want more of a documentary style shoot (what we are doing), it's totally possible to get someone for less.
Cost : $1000
Region: London, Canada - but our photographers are from the Toronto area
Our package includes: 4 hours with 2 shooters, full rights to pictures on CD, unlimited picture taking venues, coffee table proof picture book, and taxes.
Here in the south (which is cheaper) prices range from about 800 for traditional pictures up through about 5000 for very avante garde photojournalism. Most people chose a package that is about 1500 or 2000 on the high end. If you can find a newer photog with a few weddings under his/her belt you may be able to get a better deal.
PrettyFlowers, photography in this area is definitely expensive!! I def didn't want to spend more than 3000 on photography but it seemed like everything was way above my budget. You should try Photique photography though. They have budget packages starting at $800 ( they didn't have my days available)
Seems reasonable to me. We're paying 1800 for two photographers for the day in Western PA
Geographic Area: St. Louis, MO
There's a lot of differences between photographers (you can find really cheap packages if you hire someone looking to build their business or you can find 10K packages from a certain Robert George Studio...but, in his defense, he's shot some MAJOR names and has an AWESOME portfolio).
Anyways, on average, I would say the packages here run about $5000. And this is for the highest package including the following:
Hope this helps.
General Area: South Bay Area (Northern California). My photography was living in Ohio at the time we booked her, but she has since then moved to Southern California
Cost of package: $3400 for package + $400 for travel fee. We avoided having to pay an additional $400 travel fee for the engagement shoot since she was already in San Francisco for another wedding.
What we are getting:
Our engagement CD included about 200-250 digital negatives all basic edited (color correction, contrast, exposure, sharpness), and then 50 of which were "artistically edited". The wedding DVD will include something like 800-900 digital negatives, and I forget how many will be artistically edited.
Since we did not get to meet in person until our engagement shoot, we've had and will have additional phone meetings. One before the booking, one before the engagement shoot, one when I had some detailed questions about the day-of schedule a few weeks back, and an upcoming final details meeting 2 weeks prior to the wedding day.
Oh, we also get printing rights.
MN, $1800, 8 hours of wedding day photos, 600 photos digitally edited, copyright release of all photos right away, photos on dvd in both hi and low res formats, $200 print credit, 4 hour engagement session and 50 photos from that (which weren't copy right released to us until the wedding day photos were released).
Look on craigslist for deals. We found our photog on there when he was just starting out. He was fresh out of college with a photography degree. He really does great work and his prices have rose significantly since we had booked him due to his business taking off. If you can find someone who is just starting off but still has talent then you will most likely get a good deal!
We just booked our photographer for $1350. The wedding is in Southern Illinois, so everything is cheaper here than in the city.
The package includes 4 hours of shooting ($150 for each additional hour), 20 pg assembled wedding book, up to 300 edited images (but he said if he needs to shoot more he will for no cost), online gallery, and CD with images
We are getting engagment pictures also taken by our photographer for $150 extra.
Thanks for all the comments, it has been really informative! So right now it looks like the votes are about 2-to-1 that the prices I've been seeing are pretty typical.
For those who mentioned looking on craigslist or posting a "looking for" ad there - what section of CL specifically are you using? I'm not really familiar with the site.
St. Louis, MO
Total- $1500
What we got-
Photography is, in my opinion, the best investment you can make for a wedding. We're paying $5,500 and that includes an engagement session, 4 hours of rehearsal dinner shooting (we're having a big party that night, too, wanted shots of everyone in a more relaxed atmosphere!), and 8 hours the day of the wedding. Unlimited shots that are 100% retouched with full rights and both hi res and web-ready sizing of every shot on customized DVDs, and an online slideshow.
We are getting married in San Diego but live in Boston - we are flying our favorite Boston photog to San Diego, because her work is out of this world, and she is still cheaper than the San Diego photogs of her caliber, even WITH travel expenses!
When you have sticker shock, remember that an 8 hour wedding shoot means 20-30 hours of retouches, not even counting investment in equipment, software, travel, meeting time with you, etc etc. I'm also a photographer, so I know - especially for someone good - $2,000 to $5,000 is a remarkably good price. A DSLR camera back that is worth it's salt is $2,000+...lenses are typically $1,000-$2,000 each, battery grips are expensive, bags are expensive, the computer equipment you need to deal with the workflow is insane. The website hosting and professional albums are very expensive as well. Wholesale, most albums that are worthy (read: not a blurb book but amzing quality) are $800 +. So, the labor for that is really cheap when you consider the layout time they spend.
It is a lot of money. But if you pick someone who loves what they do, it will show, and it will be worth it. I promise!!
We spent about $1500 and this is because we went with a photographers' package that basically includes all the pics on disc and no prints. so yes, it is possible to get a lower price, but the one you quoted is about average, most likely.
ETA:
We're in Orlando, Florida and had 7 hours of coverage.
I too had major sticker shock when I first started looking for a photographer (well, everything wedding related), but I also thought I had to book the photographer early, so I ended up going with a lower cost package for a photographer I thought would be okay but I wasn't in love with. Price and package was very similar to krissycake's. My pics ended up being a huge disappointment and I do feel that if I had waited a little longer in the planning process, I would have been more used to the idea of how much a good photographer costs. If you have a photography budget you have to stick to, then really. really do your research and make sure the photographer can deliver good pics. If you think you might have some room in your budget, consider going higher to get the photos you really want.
Just checking back in to this thread... I ended up booking a photographer a little more expensive than I'd hoped but who seems really nice and is quite talented.
For $2,500 I'm getting engagement pics, 6 hours the day of the wedding, and a disc with final images and copyright release. All photos will get basic touching up (lighting/color etc) and ~100 pics will get a little extra fixing. I'll probably DIY an album on mypublisher or one of those sites.
The other photographer I interviewed was around $2,000, and I would get a little more (including a second shooter, a proof book and a few prints) but their pics just weren't quite on the level of the photographer I went with. At that price, I figured what's a little more to get really great quality.
The feedback I got on this thread was really helpful, thanks guys!!
I think that you should splurge on photography and get the exact wedding photos you want. The pictures are the only thing you have left from the day! (Other than the marriage and the rings of course :)
I'm glad you are at peace with your decision!
Time and time again I see discussion posts about photography and the cost thereof. As a photographer i understand why photographers charge so much....there is a lot of expensive equipment, skill needed in both photo composition and post processing of the photos as well as time post wedding sorting and tweaking photos. What can I say...you get (or you should) what you pay for.
In saying that there is definitely photographers out there charge a LOT of money and they really can't justify it (i have seen their photos :)
There is something to be said for trying to find budding or student photographers because their passion and enthusiasm for photography will be there...just make sure their skill is there too.
Remember when is all over and the flowers are dea and rellies gone home all you have left is your husband and your photos so invest wisely.
We got a "nice deal" on our photography and it cost us $3,500 I think its a lot but i've seen his work and it is amazing. But as @MelissatFresh said their is so much work that a photographer has to do and how much time that they put in... Its totally worth all the money.
We were lucky. A friend of my husband was just launching a photography business and gave us half-off because we were friends. So:
Location: Toledo, OH
Cost: $250 (SERIOUSLY! :-D)
What we got:
- About 5 hours of coverage (I don't remember exactly -- she was there from the formals before the wedding until we left the reception)
- 2 Phogographers (her and a friend)
- 3 8x10s
- 50 4x6s
- Every single image (edited and unedited) on CDs with permission to print them and play around with them.
But that was an unusual good deal and only because we knew her. Looking at photographers in our area, the average was at LEAST $1000 for the most basic packages, often more.
I guess you have to decide how important the quality of photography is to you. If it's a priority, then you may have to pay that much. If it's less a priority, you could probably find a cheaper photographer for less (but perhaps less quality). Your best bet may be to find a beginning photographer who's just starting a business and wants to build their portfolio. Often they're very good quality, but can offer you a deal.
I have heard a good rule of thumb is 10-15% of your wedding budget on photography. My wedding is a few years away : ) so I'm not really shopping yet, but since I am a photographer it will be really important to me and I'm sure I'll spend more like 25%. That's just me.
One thing I can add about pricing is that with so many people in the industry it can be hard to determine what the standard is, because it's a service based on how one or two people see and record your day. Some new photographers are talented and priced lower because they are trying to build their business. Some people have been around a long time and aren't as amazing as their prices might indicate. I was once a newcomer and having years of experience has made me a much better shooter. I am more in touch with the experience of the day because it has become second nature to me, so my photos have become more distinct and at the same time more natural. And I'm having more fun thatn ever. ; )
My best advice when shopping for photography is whatever your price range, look at complete weddings (plural!) by the person you are considering. If you are interested in an art student, and their portfolio is creative, will they remember to photograph you with your mother? How do the indoor photos look compared to outdoor?
Good luck!
I am in Central Wisconsin and my package cost was approximately $2800. It includes:
- 2 Phogographers (married owners of the company)
- 10 hours of wedding day coverage
- Photo images on cd with rights
- Engagement session w/photos on cd with rights
We kept our package simple because we didn't want to have to rush with choosing which photos we wanted to print and when. Our main priority was an e-session and full day coverage of the wedding.
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