As a professional photographer of sixteen years, I’ve gotten several hundred inquires being in the wedding photography business. Sometimes I get a comment in the online form, Great images! We were referred by so-and-so wedding planner who highly recommended you. I love hearing that there’s a trust and connection to someone we have in common. Many comments I get these days is a demand for a complete price list and no information about their wedding. I know there are lots of new photographers who are curious about others’ fees so they pretend to be a bride, but most inquires are legitimate couples who don’t know what questions to ask. One of the reasons I’ve never posted my rates on my website is that every event is so unique that I would be all over the board with price. Questions I ask my clients: It is a 250+ guest list with 3 locations? Then you probably need a second photographer (not just an student intern shooting a wedding for the first time, by the
way!) Is it a destination wedding we need to fly to? Travel expenses and logistics have to be estimated. Three day Indian wedding? Overtime coverage. Or an intimate group of your closest friends witnessing your vows at City Hall next month? You may not need a package at all but just a few hours coverage and then choose your a la carte post-wedding services.
I’ll end with the most asked Big Question: What does a wedding photographer cost? My answer: What does it cost you when you think you saved some money but really didn’t like your images or your experience with your photographer on your wedding day? What do you have left to show for it? I’ll leave you with a quote that I borrowed from celebrity wedding cake designer Sylvia Weinstock:
“There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse
and sell a little cheaper,
and he who considers price
only is that man’s lawful prey.”
– John Ruski
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