Photo + Video budget

That photography price seems very reasonable. I didn't look too much into videography because I knew it wouldn't be in the budget. What does the $4k for video include? In my area, video and photography cost about the same so $4k may be a little high.

4k for video is a lot on a 20k budget. We spent 20k+ on our wedding and didn't even have a videographer. If it's very important, go for it, but make sure you think of your overall budget when making that decision.

I paid $4600 for photography but didn’t have a videographer. 30 percent of your budget on photos/video is a lot so you might have to cut corners in other areas.

It sounds like to much for a videographer specially if you want to keep your wedding under 20K.

We weren't sure if we were going to be able to afford videography (though it was something I really wanted). I searched for months and found a company I loved, but they were a bit out of our budget. I was honest with them and told them I loved their work, but thought they were unfortunately out of our price range. They worked with us and we are getting 8 hours of coverage plus drone footage for $1500. I had a specific style in mind too and wanted a cinematic type of film. Our photos ended up being the same, $1500 for 8 hours plus an engagement session.

View Quoted Comment - Up to 9 hrs Coverage
- TWO Cameramen, FOUR Cameras for Ceremony
- Multi-cam edit of entire ceremony and reception (so you can watch the main events from multiple camera angles)
- Pro sound recording for ceremony/reception
- Digital deliver of videos via MediaZilla (similar to a DVD with menus, but HD streaming instead of on discs)
- additional $200 for vows

they do have a promo on wedding wire for a free drone so hopefully they’ll include that as it will be another $200 if not free. Which area are you from? We’ll have our wedding in NoVa. There’s not a lot of good videographers under $3k here.

View Quoted Comment Wow that’s a great deal! Which photographer and videographer did you get?

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North Alabama. For 2 cameramen and 4 cameras for the ceremony, $4k doesn't seem too unreasonable.

View Quoted Comment The photographer that I really like cost just the same but I had to look for another since I also wanted to hire a videographer.

View Quoted Comment Totally get it, but I would look at your overall budget and decide if you can afford to hire a videographer. Generally 50-60% of your overall budget goes to venue/food/drinks so with 30% of your budget going to photos and video I’m not sure how much you’d have left for DJ, officiant, attire, decorations etc.

I found a photographer that does professional photography for a living, but for the videographer I just asked someone who does it more as a hobby (but is still extremely talented) so he's only charging me $800 to be at the venue from 3pm to about 10pm and then edit everything afterwards too. Professional videographers were just too much for me considering I want more money leftover to spend on things like my dress and the food for our guests. Buuut our budget is also a lot lower than $20k, so I personally wouldn't say you're too bad off as far as spending especially on the 2 things you're gonna have for memories when it's all over. Photos, videos and having our family and friends included are really the only reasons we're having our wedding, because we already eloped in 2017 and couldn't have everyone there because we were out of state (military couple) so I definitely want mine as perfect as possible

Where are you getting married, Rachel? The WeddingWire Cost Guide can give you info on national averages, as well as regional averages if you enter your state

We have chosen not to use a videographer, but the photography was the most important part for me when we started laying out our budget. For the full day, we are paying $3500 and our photographer is worth every penny!

View Quoted Comment At Elegance Estates in Stafford, Va.

Too much for what you’re getting, no. Too much for your budget, maybe? As the others have mentioned, think about what else you want for your day and how this might impact your ability to include those things.

Video was important to me too, but I knew I wasn’t going to get everything. I wanted. Make a list of your “must haves” and see if you can negotiate. My top 3 were full ceremony, all speeches and raw footage. Then first dance and an “teaser edit” with some audio for the day over the top. Cake cutting fell into “would be nice”. I ended up booking only 5 hours because it will get me my most of my list.

Another idea, see if you can book them for the hours you want and if they can include the raw footage (it’s a good idea to push for this anyway) and then come back and get an edit later.

We also have a budget of $20,000 and good photos and videos were a non negotiable for me. we are spending about $6,000 on photo/video combined. it is the same company doing both. we have 2 photographers for the day, 1 video ogropher, and 1 video assistant. i cut the budget in other aspects. we invited less people, i was able to go with a smaller budget for flowers, cheaper invitations, and we're diying our centerpieces.

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Stafford falls into what we'd consider the DC region, so here in the cost guide for that specific area. The Cost Guide will do a good job explaining what makes up these costs and why they may seem high