How much did you pay for your wedding photographer?

2850 for 6 hrs coverage, printing rights to photos, a 10x10 album, $300 print credit, and an engagement session.

Though...the package Im getting is actually worth $3600. Hes a friend, and he gave us a free package upgrade

Wedding photography can be expensive since a very high-end flush-mount album can easily costs the photographer more than 1k itself to design, print and bind from the pro-lab. Wedding photography can also be cheap if you are looking for someone from CL who just start taking photos and offer a burned DVD and some low-quality prints from Walmart.

Our photographer is absolutely amazing. Photography is important to us so this is one area we did not want to skimp on. I'm really excited to have him! He does have more "affordable" packages but our package is 5k and includes:

-3 hour engagement session

-10 hour wedding day coverage

-2 photographers

-10x10 30 page leather album

-Minimum of 500 edited and hi-res images on DVD

-and I believe a $500 print credit but I may be wrong?

These are from his blog. The middle one is actually my FBIL/FSIL. He's shooting their wedding in a couple weeks.

Hi Jlam,

Your photographer did an excellent job!

Wedding photography is an important investment and I am glad that you made the right choice.

Dave

Ours was out in CA and was $3500, including 5 hour engagement session, 2 photogs, 8 hour wedding day coverage, no album. I was happy with the engagement session but not the day of coverage. Best advice is to shop around and interview a number of photogs, read all reviews, and don't make hasty decisions.

$3180

-8 hours coverage

-engagement shoot

-free 11x17 of favorite portrait

-2 shooters

-online hosting

-album is extra

I paid 995 for my photographer for five hours of coverage. This price included a discount because the wedding is off season

So many factors to consider when comparing prices! Geography, coverage, engagement and boudoir sessions, prints, albums, rights...

We're in the MD/DC/VA area, and are pretty competitive in our pricing: $1,500 for two photographers, all day coverage, engagement shoot, and some details that differentiate us. For digital rights, we charge $1,500. So $3,000 gets it all. Prints and albums are separate - so many options there!

A lot of brides (or MOBs!) may not recognize how much goes into photographing a wedding, driving up the cost. For example, we typically have about $500 in expenses just to cover a local wedding. And as David said above, the costs for album design and production can really jack up the total price. We spend in the neighborhood of 40 hours culling, retouching, etc. for each wedding so when you add it all up, there's not much left. Not whining, it's just what it takes to stay competitive at a professional level.

Star, sounds like you made a wise choice!

Mine I know through family and she is charging us about $350 which includes my bridal portraits, her time at the site for the wedding and all the photos on cd with rights to them.

I tweaked one of the packages (got rid of e session and added time)and am getting a 20% discount since I talked to her at a bridal show. We are getting 1 photog for 8 hours, 500 pic disk with personal printing rights, leather album and 8 x10 canvas print for 1999.00 (I told her I wanted to spend less than 2000). Her personality matches well with mine and her photos are great.

I would suggest to look on craigslist and browse everywhere. I found my photographer on craigslist. She does it as a hobby pretty often but doesn't count on it as an income so her rates are pretty cheap. We are paying $700 for full day coverage from getting ready to departing, engagement session, and all images on a CD with actual full rights, not just printing rights. I think it also includes an album but I can't remember at the moment. It took me a long time to find the right photographer with my style and what I like.

@Brian, we really did have full rights to use the pictures however we wanted, not just for private use. I know that is unusual, but I insisted on having that in the contract.

For others, I think what we are seeing here is the disparity between people who want their pictures to help them remember their day, and those who want photos that are beautiful art in their own right. For the latter group, photos in unusual locations, with striking effects, maybe even a TTD, are important, and it is worth paying top dollar for a photographer whose artistic style matches their own.

We were in the former group. We wanted a professional photographer rather than an amateur so that we would have someone who could work with low-light conditions inside the synagogue, who would be focused on taking pictures at the right moments (e.g., the kiss) rather than getting so emotionally involved that they would forget, etc. We wanted someone who could make us look good in those photos. But that was about it.

jlam, if you don't mind, I will use your middle photo as an example of what I'm talking about. I love that photo. I'd love to have it on my wall, even though I don't know the people involved.

At the same time, that is not a photo I'd particularly care about having in my wedding photos. The reason is that it does not depict anything that happened at the actual wedding, and indeed the people in it would not be particularly recognizable in it. So as a way for us to remember our wedding years from now, it would not be particularly helpful.

(cont.)

So the fact that we went for a photographer who was ridiculously inexpensive from Brian's perspective does not mean that I think that paying thousands of dollars for photography is silly. The top photographers can get effects that are totally marvelous, and if you have the money, it may well be worth it. However, if you are on a tight budget and want photos that help you remember what happened on that day, there are ways to get someone to do that for you who will not cost thousands.

Wow, I booked mine on Monday, $350 for 6hrs, $75 for add hrs.

@virnell what all does your package include besides the photographer? That's a great deal!

I would agree that it was most likely a "green behind the ears" situation. Plus, I'm a lawyer, and hit the photographer with that request unexpectedly, and I think he just accepted my language.

As a practical matter, I have no interest in using our wedding photos commercially. What I wanted to be able to do was to post them online (either on Winkflash or Facebook for our guests, or in places like this to illustrate something I was saying). And I wanted us and our guests to be able to use the photos for prints or albums at places like Walmart, rather than having to pay the much higher prices typically charged by photographers.

(cont.)

The closest we've come to a commercial use is that one of our photos (the one on which my icon is based) is now on display in the Science Museum, London. Our "payment" for that is a book of all the photos chosen for that exhibition. When I got the request, I notified our photographer, just because I thought he might want to use that fact in his own advertising. While I didn't specifically ask his permission for that use, he volunteered that he was fine with it.

Contrary to general perception, not every lawyer gets language into the contract for the purpose of taking advantage of the vendor. ;-)

Oh, I wasn't feeling attacked, Brian. It's just that as a blonde lesbian Jewish lawyer, I get familiar with all the jokes! ;-)

We are a video production company but have worked for years with many different photographers. Most great, some not so great. Here is some advice. Higher price doesn't always mean higher quality. However, we would recommend looking at quality first and then going to price. Also if they are a lower price, they are probably doing alo of weddings to make a living or run a company. Great if they have a system, bad if they don't. A professional should have the proper insurance and a contract. If they don't they are a hobbyist. After over 5 years in the industry covering a wedding is sort of like flying a plane. Sure when things are going smooth anyone could probably pick up a camera and start clicking/filming, but when things start going awry a pilot with experience is what you want. Especially on one of the biggest days of your life.