To splurge or not to splurge

It depends on the package and your area, but $3k is average where I’m from.

View Quoted Comment It comes with her and another for 5 hours. Along with a free engagement shoot ahead of time for our save the dates and invitations. (I probably should have mentioned that)

Not sure where you're from. But that's probably not a terrible price. I paid $2,200 for engagement and unlimited time on the day of. But I also live in a smaller market.

Hi Nicolette, I agree with you, $3,000 is expensive, but mine is going to cost $3,800 in Feb. of 2021, so I had to spend less on my dream dress.

That's a lot of money in general, but around average. Can you negotiate? We did with our photographer. Like, you could cut the engagement shoot if it isn't that important to you.

Hi Nicolette, I agree that photography can be expensive! But my philosophy is the band/food is what your guests remember, but the pictures are your memories! My most expensive purchase for my wedding is my photographer - I paid 3500 - which included engagement shoot, 2 photographers, all day access, a photo album. We are also opting to not do a video - so I feel like my price is consistent with what a lot of people spend on their day.

View Quoted Comment $3k is high for 5 hours. We paid $2750 for 10 hours in the Cincinnati area.

If you’re going to splurge, I always say to splurge on your photographer. $3k is around average in my area. I’m paying $1000 more than you to have 4 more hours and a 10x10 album. If you love her work (and make sure you’ve seen full albums and not just highlights on social media/her webpage), I’d go for it.

If photography (and this specific photographer) is that important to you, then book them. Will it shift your budget? If so, are you willing to spend less in another area?


We found a great photographer at a nice price. But I know that we’ll only enlarge 1-2 wedding pics for our home. So the rest will be in an album that’s rarely viewed. Therefore photography wasn’t within my Top 3

Hi Nicolette!
I really think that it is personal preference.. and it also has to do with your overall budget and what parts of your wedding are most important to you. $3,000 is not terrible. I will say, there are photographers that do amazingggg work that charge less. Don’t rule out a less expensive photographer just bc they are less expensive (our minds sometimes make us believe that talent is ranked by how much someone charges for their service and sometimes that’s not the case). I learned that when I was looking for my photographer. 🙂 Ultimately, pick the photographer that you like and you can afford. If $3,000 is in your budget for photography then what the heck, hire them! It’s YOUR wedding !
Good luck ! 💕

$3k was around average for what we looked out. Ours ended up being $3900 I think because we added a second shooter and extra time. We splurged on that area and I definitely don’t regret it. The pictures are something we’ll have forever.

Different I would say a lot of average photographers charge $2,000 to $3,000. However there are three photographers I'm checking out for 4 hours and all of them would be 800 and under. One would be only $395. However two of these photographers were photographers for two of my friends other weddings and when I look at the pictures they came out very nice. The one that I'm probably going to go with has five star reviews here and I've seen their pictures of other weddings on here as well as the knot and for 4 hours would only charge me $500. I feel like you might still be able to find very good photographers at half that price. Because a couple of others that I liked and we'll consider booking we're right over $1,000. I would say before you decide to book this person to look around a little bit more. Check out the different Instagram pages and their website and see if you like their pictures but also if you know some Brides that got married in your area ask them which photographers they use because there are many photographers out there that are not listed on these wedding apps that still do very lovely work.

Don’t take this the wrong way but I believe photography is where you SHOULD splurge. You will be so upset if you go with someone of different or less quality and you don’t like any pics and you wasted your money. You would rather say “we spent 3K but it was well worth it”. I had a photographer who I convinced myself did great work and 2 weeks later cancelled and went with someone else. Yeah I’m paying double but I know my pictures will be everything I want. 3K to me is average, I’m in the south. For only 5 hours though is a bit much. You can try reasoning with them but if you’re getting 2 people that’s not all bad.

For wedding photography, I’d say $3,000 is average, even though 5 hours is a pretty short amount of time. That being said, if you really love her work, it’s worth the splurge. We spent a lot of money on our photographers and videographers and it was the best money we spent! You won’t regret it!

That seems pretty average to me honestly. We only spent $2k on our photography (also for 5 hours) which was actually way less than I was expecting to have to spend lol. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad we had an amazing photographer and only had to spend $2k, but I would’ve been prepared to spend $3k if it was a photographer we loved.

I agree that photo and video should be splurged on for your wedding day, since it's really the only thing you get to take with you after the day is over. If her work is awesome and you have a gut feeling that she's the right one -- go for it! $3000 is pretty standard for wedding photography.

I’ve heard people say a photographer is half the price of your wedding. Now my photographer is not she was 1200 and she is doing so many extras! Including an engagement session, my invitations, thank yous, save the dates, and there will be an extra photographer the day of the wedding and she’s there for the whole thing! Now her prices are 3500 to 3k but we booked her two years In Advance when she was just starting! I say if you love it enough go for it!

My photographer/ package was 3200. We were looking at others who had packages that included a lot more for much cheaper: ****. However, her photos and energy were amazing and in my opinion worth every penny. We went with a cheaper dj to offset the costs too, but we have not been disappointed so far. We got our engagement pics back and they were so much better than we ever could have thought. I can’t wait to see how our wedding pics turn out.

I think 3000 is a lot for 5 hours! We got our photographer for 1,900 with includes: engagement shoot, 8 hrs the day of, a second shooter, 11x14 wedding album, a usb with all images including day of and engagement pictures, online gallery to share with family and a $100 print credit. We also have an all day videography team with all day access for 1,000. I would shop around for other photographers and if you cannot have anyone that compares to the one you like, then splurge!!

View Quoted Comment Where are you located?