$4,000 for a photographer? Really?

What all is included in the $4000 price? Depending on how long they’re going to be there, how many pictures you get, if they do retouching, etc. that’s pretty standard. You’re mostly paying for their time both at the event and processing the images after. The more experienced the photographer the more expensive it will be. Also if they have an assistant, which most professional photographers do, your paying for their time also. We’re doing photography and videography and I was shocked at the prices at first! After talking to one of my friends who is a photographer and having her break it down for me I was able to understand it a lot better though. But for that price you should be getting quite a bit!

Photography and videography is something in weddings that cost a lot. But like PP said see what they include in their package

Not to mention they pay subscriptions, insurance for equipment and liability, taxes, take time to consult with you and prepare contracts int he first place. Not to mention the talent and time it takes to be able to learn how to properly execute capturing photos is various lighting conditions and edit/produce everything and back it up, etc, etc., etc.

That's what we're paying for our photographers. Ours is 9 hours, 2 photographers, an engagment session, and a 10x10 album after the wedding. It's not only pricing for the day, but the hours put into editing after the fact, business costs, and years of expertise, which is not as easy as simply pointing a camera and clicking. I think it's worth every penny to have a qualified, professional photographer shooting your wedding.

You have to decide if photography is important to you, and if so, what amount you are willing to invest. For example, with flowers -- I'm doing the bare minimum, because while I like flowers, they're not the focal point for me; we're spending around $1k.

Now photography is another story for me personally. It is extremely important to me to capture our wedding day memories, and I spent a lot of time researching photographers.

As PPs mentioned, in general, photography is expensive because not only are you paying for their time during shoots, you're also paying for hundreds of images to be individually edited. They have equipment, backup equipment, insurance, etc.

But the cost will really come down to location (areas like DC, NYC, Cali, etc. are going to be more expensive), skill level, and what the package includes.

I found a photographer that I absolutely loved, but she started at $5k+, and that was just not doable for us. I did more research and found our photographer and couldn't be happier.

For reference, we're in Ohio, our package is $2,700 and includes:

- 10 hours wedding day coverage

- engagement session

- 2 photographers

- 12x20 page linen bound heirloom album

- 11x14 print

- 1 year access to online gallery with full size files

That's an average price in larger cities (NY, L.A.) where the cost of living is higher so services are more expensive even if what is included in the package is the same regardless of where you are.


That is why you have research prices specific to your area, not rely on what someone 1000 miles away is paying. The vendor tab at the top of the page will be accurate to where you are located.

The median income is around $60,000 for a full time wedding photographer according to google. They are making a perfectly normal wage. We paid our photographer $3,200. That included a 1 hour engagement session (she had to drive 1 hour each way to get there and edit for 6 hours after), our 10 hour wedding day (also had to drive 1 hour each way to get there and back), her assistant on our wedding day she had to pay for their 10 hours, and another several days of editing. So for the $3,200, she worked 40+ hours. That's not including gas cost, education, cost of her equipment, editing software, investments in things like drones for drone photography, website expenses, insurance, other normal business expenses, etc. so it's a pretty comparable wage to lots of other professional fields. We are in Denver and got married a year ago, this was very fair pricing (the market sets pricing - if people are willing to pay then it's a fair price and what they should be charging).

I found mine for 2,700 two photographers for 8 hrs and a photo album included.
In Oregon.

Lol. Ours didnt cost $4,000 it was more like $3k. But I guess its like anything else, theyre providing a service and should be compensated for it. They also have to buy equipment, put together a digital album for you, etc. But if thats too steep for you, its not the norm. You can find photographers for less

Between my videographer & Photographer we paid 2,500. I definitely think 4,000 is way too much

Our package is $4400, and the most expensive quote I got when researching photographers was $7100. It is definitely expensive, but to me it’s one of the most important aspects of the whole day.

I live in AZ and that is fair here. You can find cheaper ones if you don't mind compromise. To me it was the most important thing and I can skimp on other things and I am fine with but photos are my priority.

It depends on your area, package and hours. My photographer and assistant (extra photographer) was $1400. I think $4000 is a lot. Do your research to see who offer the best price for what you want for your wedding.

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This.

In fact, I got my photographer for $4k, and considered it to be a MASSIVE deal. Especially since he came highly recommended, flew in from Canada for us, did the rehearsal dinner, had a 2nd shooter, and had *all* of the digital proofs back to us within a month.

Oh, and we also have *all* the digital proofs... and the rights to them. (He does this because a bride once lost her FIL very shortly after the wedding, and most of the pictures they had of him were from the wedding.)

So, really, it depends on location and quality.

Same thing with venues, catering, and so on. We found a venue that charged $150/head, and we were *thrilled*. Why? Because we got married in NYC, and that is considered affordable to cheap, here. From what I understand, that's the swankiest wedding you could throw in other parts of the country. (Probably why we consider 80 person weddings to be not that small.)

We're paying almost 4k for our photographer. That includes 8 hours, 2 photographers and an assistant plus an engagement shoot. We met her and loved her personality and she takes amazing pictures. You really can't redo the wedding pictures so it's important to us that they come out amazing. And another 2k for the video which is completely separate from the photographer lol. Like the ladies before me said, you can definitely find cheaper ones and it depends on the state you live in.

In our area $3000 is pretty much the starting price for a quality photographer. I'm a photographer (semi-pro, I don't photograph weddings, I do photos as a side gig and work full-time doing something completely unrelated) so probably a bit pickier than the average person but I did a very thorough comparison and search and of the 15 photographers I sent inquiries to, only two of them were under $3k and both of them were younger and just starting out. On average, a full day package with a decent photographer cost $3,000-$4,000 and some were more than that (and some much more than that).

Do the math. If on average a photographer shoots one wedding every weekend for the entire wedding season (let's say May-October, so six months, roughly 1/2 the year which is 26 weeks) and then maybe does one wedding a month in the off season (Nov-April, so another 6 weddings), that's 32 weddings every year. Keep in mind that many photographers do less than this and some will do more, but we are using these numbers as a ballpark estimate for a well established photographer who manages to fill their calendar. If they charge $3,000 a wedding that's $96,000 in revenue. That sounds like a lot.

But then factor in the expenses. For every single wedding, the photographer pays travel (transportation, and possibly lodging and meals) and wages for a second shooter. Let's say that equals $600 per wedding (this could range from under $50 to over $1000, so again, a ballpakr number). All of a sudden that's nearly $20k worth of expenses, and their net revenue has dropped to $76,800. For their business, they are annually paying for equipment, software, insurance (equipment, liability, business), web hosting fees, commissions to PayPal or whatever service they are using to process your payments, and advertising, as well as production costs for prints, albums, etc. And, since many wedding photographers are self-employed, they are likely carrying the burden of their own health insurance (and possibly providing for their family as well), paying a much higher amount of taxes due to self-employment tax (in general, double the taxes a company-employed individual pays), and solely contributing funds towards their retirement. Medical coverage, taxes, and retirement easily chips away at the bottom line and it's possible the really successful wedding photographer charging $3k per client and filling up their schedule isn't making much more than the person who serves you at a restaurant or picks up your garbage.

Photographers are also doing A LOT of work behind the scenes. For the 8 hours they spend at your wedding they also spend 3-10x that in communicating back and forth with you ahead of time, meeting you before the wedding for a consultation, doing an engagement shoot, editing your photos afterwards, building out your wedding photo website or delivering images to you via USB stick, and then possibly designing albums for you and proofing your printed products. So while it may seem like a photographer charging you $4,000 for a full day of wedding coverage is making $500/hr the actual hourly rate after all of their expenses and all of the extra time they are putting it is generally not ridiculously unreasonable.

Keep in mind you get what you pay for with photographers. More experience comes with a higher price tag, bigger packages come with a higher price tag. Our photographers are costing $3,200 but we get 10 hours of service for my photographer, 6 hours for my FH’s photographer, the rights to all of our photos so we can print them elsewhere for cheaper, and a keepsake box for our day. My best friend chose to go the cheaper route with photographers and her pictures were not touched up at all, the angles and all weren’t the greatest, and just overall you could tell the difference that her photographers didn’t spend the extra amount of time after they took the photos to edit and make them look nicer. That’s a big part we DON’T see and it takes quite a while to edit those photos.

Yeah photography is expensive. When I was looking into it in my area I was seeing similar prices. I'm not sure if you booked any other media vendors yet, but if you haven't, have you considered looking for a media company that has more to offer besides just photos? We went with a well known media company in our area and we're paying $8K for photography, videography, DJ, and a photo booth. This includes our engagement photos and an engagement video, as well as a team assistant at the wedding who acts as a second shooter. We just found that going through a media company was cheaper than going with a different vendor for each of these services. And we got to pick our photographer and DJ and see/hear samples of their work.