Photography

Oops! *photography

We are paying almost 3800 on photography. That includes 8 hours of coverage day of wedding, one hour engagement shoot, and physical photo album and taxes.

Also i would just look at their work and read reviews and meet them to get a feel if you click. Our budget was 3k so we went over for the guy we wanted.

So we personally know ours so we are getting a great deal. I would look at their portfolio, packages, ratings, and comments from post couples. It does take a long time to find the one.

Photography was the single most important vendor to us (me, really). I first narrowed down what style I liked best (photojournalistic) then searched for photographers that fit that aesthetic. That being said, we're spending $4k for 9 hours of coverage, 2 photographers (husband/wife team), an engagement shoot (photos included), and a 10x10 album. Based on everything I've seen from my photographers and after seeing our engagement photos, I believe they're worth every penny we're spending on them.

I picked a photographer that did my friend's wedding. I love the photos she takes. She had three different price points and we went with the middle one. We paid $2,300. Her pricing changes every year though. So we got the pricing for 2018 even though our wedding was in 2019. We booked her services before 2019 so that's why we got the 2018 rate. Our package included an engagement session, up to 10 hours of services on our wedding day, 2 photographers, 400+ edited photos (we got almost 1,000 edited photos) provided on a custom usb, 30 (we got 35 because she was having a special for 5 extra photos for free), digital prints in a custom wooden box, and an online gallery with all of our edited photos included. We choose this package because it came with the 30 prints. The more expensive package was $300 for a wedding album, but we decided to hold off on getting an album. We can always go on her site and order one or we can use a different site for one. I would definitely recommend selecting an experienced wedding photographer who has amazing reviews. My brother-in-law and his wife went with a photographer who had very little experience and was very cheap and the photos reflected that. Half the photos included telephone wires as the background. They got married on a beautiful golf course, but the telephone wires in the background took away from the beautiful scenery. She also didn't pose anyone at all so there are photos with people not even looking at the camera. She also took certain family photos that were requested, but they were not included in any of the photos the bride and groom received.

Our photographer is $1800 for 7 hrs plus our engagement shoot. We don't get a photo book, but we get all of the digital files and right to print them.


I'm a photographer myself, so I'm pretty picky with photos. I noticed price correlates with experience and quality. Some may charge less because they don't have a lot of weddings under their belts, but are still great. They might not have timelines down perfectly, but you should still get amazing photos. Others have been doing photography for years but aren't as good or don't use the right equipment, so the quality suffers.
I notice a difference in photos from our photographer vs people that charge $1000 or $4000. In my experience, unless you get super lucky you won't find a good cheap photographer (you'd have to know someone who used them before or knows them or else how could you trust them?)
I love our photographer, our engagement photos turned out great and I'm sure the wedding photos will too. The difference between him and a $4000 photographer is very similar to going to a nice restaurant vs going to a 5 star one. You may be thrilled with the nice restaurant, but the 5 star one has superior customer service and professionalism. They have definitely fine tuned every detail so everything goes smoothly and they may be more unique.
In summary,Cheap = you just want to remember the moment, but no one will gasp over the quality of your photosModerate = quality is great, but they just don't quite have that sparkle as the expensive photographerExpensive = they'll blow you away with quality
Obviously, this all depends on if they are charging based upon their skill set,bso you'd need to do some digging. I saw some photographers that charged $2600 - $4000 that I loved, they were just too expensive.

Photography and videography were 2 of our top priorities. I researched tons of photographers in (and around) our area, viewed their portfolios, read reviews, and met with them either in person or via FaceTime. We ended up spending $2000 for 6 hours of coverage, 2 photographers, and an engagement shoot. I couldn’t have been happier with how our photos turned out.

Photography was a huge priority for us so we are spending $3600 on 8 hours, 2 shooters, 1 full engagement session, and 1 lingerie session with prints and a book for a present to my FH. Though my FH may have other opinions (🤣🤣), I definitely think it’s worth every penny. Just a couple of our engagement photos:

View Quoted Comment Omg you pictures are so gorgeous! Where are you based out of?

They did such an amazing job!

There’s definitely a balance. I really cared about photography but also couldn’t justify spending a fortune. Of our Venue’s recommended photographer’s, all were 5-7k except for 1. So we met with the 1, they charged $2k for 2 photographers for 5 hours. Super reasonable pricing and the photos were FANTASTIC. Like... I can’t imagine paying triple the price would’ve gotten us better photos?


But you have to do a ton of research and just find the right photographer. Because I’m sure there are many $2k photographers who may be crappy lol. But there are also many who are great. Just set a budget and look until you find someone who is good and who is in your budget.
Also super important to make sure you vibe well with your photographer... in addition to liking their photos you should also like THEM. You spend a huge portion of your wedding day with your photographer so you want to make sure you enjoy their company!

View Quoted Comment We will be having our destination wedding on the North Carolina coast! That’s where our photographer is based out of. Thank u!!

We are paying $3,200 for our photographer. This comes with a second shooter the day of and

engagement session. This is the one area I would absolutely not budge on and don’t mind paying more for someone I feel comfortable with who has amazing pictures!

We really lucked out on this - FFIL has a friend/coworker who does photography on the side - has an amazing portfolio and plus, I’m confident and comfortable with him - his gift to us is to be the photographer at our wedding (not fully free of cost) we are paying for his partner and extras so we are only paying $1500!!!! for engagement shoot - two photographers getting ready, ceremony and reception (total of 12 hours) our prints and copy of everything digitally. (Edited and unedited)

View Quoted Comment You’re pictures came out beautiful!

We are spending $2,100 for six hours and a second shooter. She's younger but has a beautiful quality and ability to capture candid moments. Everything looks natural. She also has a lot of experience despite age.

I looked at every single photographer on this site. I prefer smaller companies-and not just a bunch of freelancers. I spoke with home on the phone before deciding. He did an engagement photo for about $100 more. I did that so I could meet him and get a feel for him. I wanted to own my pictures, didn’t want an album and wanted video. He had a coupon for 10% off on here so my cost for 10 hours plus 8 video is around $1800. I live in Chicago and some charge for travel.