How much to spend on a photographer?
Posted in photographer by: adminI am planning on getting married in March next year and have been astounded by how much many photographer’s are quoting on their websites.
What is a good price for a photographer without going over the top? I want a photographer there for the ceremony, reception and the first dance, what should I expect to pay?
This is all relative … it depends on a number of factors: the area of the country you live in, your overall wedding budget, what else you may need to pay for, etc.
I would say that a good price would be anywhere from 7-15% of your total budget, but that’s just a general guideline. Don’t forget that photos last forever … you might splurge on an awesome limo or a fancy cake, which is fine if that’s what you want, but those things only last one day. The photos are really the only material things that you will have once the wedding’s over.
Here’s a tool that breaks down your budget for you if you enter your TOTAL wedding budget. You can always play with the numbers … for example, if you don’t care a lot about flowers, take some money out of that category and put it toward photos: http://weddings.theknot.com/budgeter/Budgeter.aspx
And if you want to look for photographers in your price range, try wpja.org – this is a listing of wedding photojournalists and you can search by state. They list basic starting prices on this website, so you can get a start there. Of course, remember that this info may be out of date, plus some vendors only provide their rock-bottom price to this website (which may be a smaller package than you were hoping for), so don’t assume that that will be your final price. Another suggestion would be to check out Craigslist for up-and-coming photographers, but remember to check references and their work VERY carefully to be sure you’re not being scammed. Also try contacting local newspapers and ask if you can hire their photographers … sometimes you will save money with vendors who don’t specifically cater to weddings.
Talk to good photographers and say, "I only have $abc to spend, and I’m hoping you can provide me with XYZ. Can you work with us?" Most photographers will be willing to at least talk to you about tailoring a package to your needs and budget. Remember that they need to make a living, too, so be prepared to tweak your budget a bit so that it’s fair for both of you.
For reference, I am going to meet with photographers pretty soon, and they’ve quoted me around the $3500 mark for the coverage and services that I want. I live in the New York City metro area, so this price may be higher than non-metro areas of the U.S. I know for a fact that other couples in my area have paid lower rates than this, but some have also paid much higher than this, so I think we’re paying an average price. We’re also cutting back in areas such as flowers and limos and attire, but photos is the one area where I want to hire the absolute best person we can because photos are important to me.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:06 am
This is all relative … it depends on a number of factors: the area of the country you live in, your overall wedding budget, what else you may need to pay for, etc.
I would say that a good price would be anywhere from 7-15% of your total budget, but that’s just a general guideline. Don’t forget that photos last forever … you might splurge on an awesome limo or a fancy cake, which is fine if that’s what you want, but those things only last one day. The photos are really the only material things that you will have once the wedding’s over.
Here’s a tool that breaks down your budget for you if you enter your TOTAL wedding budget. You can always play with the numbers … for example, if you don’t care a lot about flowers, take some money out of that category and put it toward photos: http://weddings.theknot.com/budgeter/Budgeter.aspx
And if you want to look for photographers in your price range, try wpja.org – this is a listing of wedding photojournalists and you can search by state. They list basic starting prices on this website, so you can get a start there. Of course, remember that this info may be out of date, plus some vendors only provide their rock-bottom price to this website (which may be a smaller package than you were hoping for), so don’t assume that that will be your final price. Another suggestion would be to check out Craigslist for up-and-coming photographers, but remember to check references and their work VERY carefully to be sure you’re not being scammed. Also try contacting local newspapers and ask if you can hire their photographers … sometimes you will save money with vendors who don’t specifically cater to weddings.
Talk to good photographers and say, "I only have $abc to spend, and I’m hoping you can provide me with XYZ. Can you work with us?" Most photographers will be willing to at least talk to you about tailoring a package to your needs and budget. Remember that they need to make a living, too, so be prepared to tweak your budget a bit so that it’s fair for both of you.
For reference, I am going to meet with photographers pretty soon, and they’ve quoted me around the $3500 mark for the coverage and services that I want. I live in the New York City metro area, so this price may be higher than non-metro areas of the U.S. I know for a fact that other couples in my area have paid lower rates than this, but some have also paid much higher than this, so I think we’re paying an average price. We’re also cutting back in areas such as flowers and limos and attire, but photos is the one area where I want to hire the absolute best person we can because photos are important to me.
References :
January 16th, 2010 at 3:11 am
I think it probably makes a difference depending where you live. We are paying about $1,500 (Canadian) for ours, and he includes 2 or 3 albums, plus he will give us a cd with all the photos. Try to find someone that does that, cause that way later you can go to Walmart or somewhere and print out more of whatever you want on your own.
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January 16th, 2010 at 3:42 am
My fiance and I are paying the cost of our wedding ourselves mostly. I initially searched craigslist and other low cost sites for either student photographers, or photographers who work part time. I was contacted through a wedding website by a photog. who works full time and does weddings part time on the weekend. For her most basic package we will be spending about 240 this covers about 2-3 hours of coverage at about 100 pics per hour and we will get the final cd of our pics to total 100-150 of the best shots along with 1 photo…as previously mentioned theknot.com is a great tool for which to get an idea based on your actual budget of how much to spend on a photographer i have used it and continue to use it as a reference. hope this helps.
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January 16th, 2010 at 3:50 am
I am a wedding photographer, you first need to know not just the price but what is included in the price, a photographer does many different things on the wedding day which all take time, some of which you may not like or feel necessary so you may be able to haggle the price down, be wary of photographers on a time limit, it’s your day and the photographer should do what you want no matter how long it takes.
For example you need to know the photographer will stay for your first dance even if your running late, no matter what time it is.
An example of what we do is we would come to the brides house in the morning to take photos of the preparations and any visitors etc, we stay there until about an hour before the wedding so we can drive to the church/registry office and start taking pics of the groom and guests arriving whilst we wait for the bride, we then take pics of the bride arriving, bridesmaids etc, next we take pics of the ceremony if we are allowed in or we wait until the end and have a mock ceremony where we will get more pics and also the usual group photos etc, we then follow you to the reception where we are there all night taking pics of everything and everyone until you say so, we arrived for our last wedding at 10am and stayed until 11.30pm but charged no extra, some do.
We take an average of 2000-3000 photos between 2 photographers and 2 cameras (fully digital), photos are put on disk for bride and groom to choose there favourites which are then put in a wedding album for them, the bride and groom also keep the disk, we charge £600 for the lot.
That’s a rough idea of what you should be able to get for £600 anyway
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Wedding photographer for 8 years.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:58 am
I’m not too sure where you live but where I live we have colleges with students in photography!! If you know of a school go there and see if you can get a photography student to photograph your wedding most of them will only charge you for the film they will use and if maybe a fee?? But up here it’s usually just film and then you can give them money if you want!! It’s a really great way to get the pics you want but spend a lot less money!! Most students will do it..but some do ask if they can put duplicate pictures in a album book I forget the actual name of it but pretty much to show there teachers and future employers there work!! It’s a good thing for you and it helps them with there school what could be better!!! Another thing you could do at the reception is put the one time use cameras on each table so people can take pictures then put a box for them to drop them in when they leave so you get the pictures!! Also, if you have a really good friend who’s not in the wedding have him or her take some pics too especially like bloopers and stuff because you will look back at them and laugh!!
My blooper was my husband,his dad and 2 brothers were pretending to pee in the lake where we got married and some caught it in action..LOL It’s something I will never forget!!! I hope this helps you a lot money is tight these days!! Good luck and congrats on getting married soon :0)
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