To splurge or not to splurge

View Quoted Comment Tampa, FL is where I am.

View Quoted Comment Thanks, hoping to find similar pricing here in CA!😏

We are in Denver and paid $3,200. This included an adventure engagement shoot with 100 edited images, 8 hours of wedding day photography with 800+ edited images plus all unedited images, and a print release.

Photography is a place we splurged a little on. We also found a local person we fell in love with. Our packages includes 8 hours coverage, 5 hours 2nd shooter, engagement shoot, digital rights to pictures and a $50 print credit. The original package price is $3800, but she gave us a holiday discount which ended up around $3,000. She was also willing to work with us and set up a payment plan. It doesn’t hurt talking to the photographer and seeing if you can get a discount or work out a payment plan. But that price does seem fair compared to similar packages I saw when researching.

In my area, $3000 is pretty much the starting price for a decent photographer. I am a photographer myself, and having the right photographer shoot our wedding was super important to me. I reached out to 15 different photographers that I was considering, and of them only two had starting prices below $3000, and both were young and new to the business.

You can definitely find cheaper photographers in our area, but they were not up to my standards. The good ones generally ranged from $3000-$6000, many had starting prices closer to $4000, and a few had package options in excess of $8000.

Oh, my advice is definitely invest in a photographer you are excited to work with. Those photographs are going to last long after the food has been eaten, florals have died, the DJ stops spinning, and your wedding cake is stale in your freezer. You want photographs that you are going to treasure forever.

What city are you in? $3,000 is a lot for only 5 hours. Do you receive any prints with that or at least print release to be able to print else where? Does it come with video? What makes her photography different than more affordable photographers? I agree with having a good photographer but it depends what all you’re getting for that price.

In So Cal, daughter's photographer was $2700 for 12 hours (1100+ edited photos), an album, an engagement shoot, etc. He and the pictures were awesome (but that price was also discounted because we paid in full at booking). I'd also add that I think the cost of each vendor should fall within a reasonable range given the total budget. To me, there is a big difference between spending $3000 for photography when the total wedding budget is $25,000-30,000 vs. spending $3000 when the total budget is $5000 and the couple is asking guests to "potluck" their reception. Almost all calculators will suggest that venue/food/beverage will likely be at least 50% of the total budget, and the remaining 50% has to cover everything else (e.g., attire, decor, flowers, photography, videography, DJ/music, etc.). If you go too far off of those guidelines, you'll end up having to cut back significantly on something else -- or will need to increase the budget. Only you and FS can decide how the cost of your potential photographers fits in your overall budget and decide what's reasonable. Good luck!

I’m paying $4,200 for 2 photographers for 9hours with a minimum of 50 edited pictures per hour plus a free engagement session. (Also we get 10% for all future photo shoots with her since we booked her for our wedding)


My FH and I always agreed from the beginning that we would splurge on our photographer. If you can afford it I’d say splurge!!

My photographer is only $500 I booked when it was a black friday offer last yr but my wedding is july 11 2020. With that being said they orig price is $1500. It was a steal for me. so yeah 3 grand is alot for only photography. I will have her the ENTIRE DAY and up to 3 locations. Good thing for me my ceremony and reception is at the same place we will go to take photos at the park. All unlimited photos , 1 yr access to online gallery, edited and delivered on USB drive and DVD. With a small guest list like mine (30 people) again it was a steal. This is in NJ btw

Have you reached out to the photographer yet to see if she has your date available? Photographers can book years in advance. It might be worth reaching out to her to see if she's even available before beating yourself up deciding over whether or not the price is worth it.

That's not high if this photographer has professional experience, exceptional work, and great service. The fact that you get that much time + engagement shoot is actually really great.

It is a lot of money, but definitely a pretty normal price for a photographer.

I’m following bc I was wondering if a videographer was necessary. I’m splurging on my dress, the caterer and DJ bc I feel that they’re the priority. I want guest to have a great time.

We’re paying $2,900. That was pretty much the standard for where we live.

View Quoted Comment Look here and also check Instagram and the knot. A lot of photography isn't listed here.

Weddings are very expensive in general but based on the multiple photographers we looked at, I’d say $3000 is pretty standard any less and they are probably just starting off in the industry. You also have to take into account the length of time on site the day of, if there a second shooter (which you mentioned there was), do you get a print credit (some are willing to negotiate this out), if engagement photos are included (most seem to include this), and if they shoot digital, film or both. Film photographers tend to cost more. It all depends on the look you want. I agree with other posts that photography is the one tangible thing you get to walk away from the day with besides your husband of course. It was very high on our priority list and we are paying $5,800 plus one night hotel. I hope you are able to get the photographer of your dreams!!

View Quoted Comment We looked at many videographers and were torn to spend that extra money or not, as we already invested a lot into our photographer. What was wild to me is that many videographers are more than photographers (even high end photographers) and we were not willing to spend that more than our photographer. With a lot of searching, I feel we found a great team that will deliver what we are looking for. They also are going to provide all the raw footage from the day on a hard drive not just a flash drive. That sole point is what helped seal the deal for us because there is so much we won’t see and if we get the raw footage, we will have a lot to look back on in the future.

I would not spend 3k for photos. I think it's important to have a photographer for memories, but not to that extent. I went through so many photographers until I found mine. I was very picky. I'm doing 4 hours on the day of and an engagement session for $950 after tip.

Does her quote include a second shooter? If not, it’s a little high for 5 hours of shooting. I would agree with other posters that $**** seems to be about the average depending on your location. Definitely check out what is all included in the package and see how other photographers compare to your area.