General Planning Questions

Are you having a large wedding because I would say most photographers do charge that or at best start at $1800

It all depends on your venue and location. Does your venue allow you to do your own decorating? Are you buying or making everything? Keeping your decor simple will keep costs down if you can do it yourself. As far as photography, the average price for this can literally change per city. While my photographer package was $1200, others base pricing is almost $3000.

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Our wedding won't be too large. Probably between 85-100 people!

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I'm currently between 2 venues where one includes decor & one allows you to do your own. In the event that I do my own decor, I would likely buy most things, but I'm sure I could make small things. I live in Columbus, OH and it seems like $2000 is all I can find! I have friends in other states who paid a lot less, so I'm a little jealous

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For the venue that provides the decor, I would ask for what they provide and do some pricing research. You can buy anything off the internet but then you will be stuck with everything after the wedding so that is also something to think about.

Have you looked on Thumbtack for a photographer? We got our honeymoon photographer there and she was amazing and only charged up $125 for a honeymoon photo shoot and we got our photos back in 3 days and that was in NYC.

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Then that would be the average photographer rate because more people to photograph. My charge start $2000 but gave me a good rate because we are eloping with a few people so less work on their end. Check the knot or a wedding fbook group in your area as some photographers are not listed here and you might get a great rate. I would say for that size of wedding expect over $1000. If I go with both photographers then I will pay $1200 after tip.

I would check with the photographer and see if maybe they have a cash discount or if they can create a custom package within your budget. I did this with my photographer and she gave me a discount for paying in cash up front which saved me like $300.00

Yes decorating was stressful. I spent $2200 on my photographer.

The photography package sounds average to me. For decor, I wanna say that if you're keeping it minimal the way I did then it's fine but if you want it decorated then it would cost a lot more because either 1) you're hiring labor or 2) if you're setting up yourself you've got to devote the time to find the items and DIY and actually set up day of

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Got it!

Thank you a TON for recommending Thumbtack. I had never heard of this and when you responded I found several awesome photographers with great deals!

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Great! Glad to help. Hopefully you can find someone that will work for you.