Too expensive? Desperately need your advice! Wedding photographer and videographer cost

It really depends on how important the photos and video will be to you. My brother and sister-in-law at first decided that it was not important and ended up having a 300 person wedding and let family take photos. In the end my sister-in-law was devastated as there were very few useable photos. She has nothing to really remember her wedding by. I took heed of her advice and I have secured a photographer for $4,500. It includes two photographers on the day off, my main shooter who I hired, and a backup shooter. My total coverage is 9 hours on my wedding day. It also includes my engagement photos and my bridal session. As a side note I had it written into my contract that if I was not happy with the engagement photos or relationship with the photographer at that point that I could walk away just for the engagement photo price. This was even though I signed a contract for the wedding day. I really encourage everyone to consider asking their photographer to do this, since it gives you a chance to get out if things go badly at the first session.

For me it is worth spending 25% of our budget on the photography, because the pictures will be extremely important to me. In fact the photographer was the first thing I booked 16 months out, since quality photographers in my area get taken very quickly. The girl I have only does 25 weddings a year maximum.

That being said, I would also consider the quality of the photos you sign up for. Don't just choose a photographer because they are a great deal. The idea, you get what you pay for is really true when it comes to photography. Another, of my friends who got married hired a friend of a friend for 800 dollars to do her wedding and ended up with very blurry pictures. If you want to do it right, I'd evaluate several photographers in your area and find the style you love best within your budget. That's what I did and it worked out for me.

A big bonus is I'm now friends with my photographer! She ended up being an amazing person who has kept me sane throughout the wedding process.

I want to thank you all for taking your time to reply. I didn't think that I was going to get any feedback, but you have all been very helpful. I'm going to continue to keep looking for something more reasonable but I'm still willing to go a bit over my budget to make sure that I'm going to be happy in the end. Although our wedding is not until 2017, I live in Las Vegas one of the top wedding destination locations and vendors book quickly. So I would like to have this figured out by the end of February 2016. I'll keep you all posted. Thank you again! @livelovelearn Thank you so much for the advice about requesting to add in their contract that if I was not happy with the engagement session or the relationship that I could void the contract.

Don't let the high prices scare you too much. There are different prices for wedding photographers/videographer. Its important to find the vendor that capture what YOU want and works well with the other vendors. Ron & Joy

Yikes, that seems really expensive!

Ours is $400 per hour: http://susieandwill.com/ but they do whole day packages too and the work is amazing.

I've found it difficult to find cheap videography but got there in the end for $275 per hour (Imagine Studios).