Hi there,
I'm due to get married in 2016 in Tunbridge Wells and we are currently looking for a wedding photographer (only - no video).
I'm aware that they can be very expensive and had budgeted accordingly. We had not looked at many when we can across one at a recent wedding fare. He appealed from the minute we started speaking and we were very impressed by his casual (non-pushy) and knowledgeable approach.
As part of his offer we have a 'free' photo shoot this Sunday, for us to get use to each other and for us to see and appraise his work afterwards. After this we can walk away minus the £10 deposit (to cover his petrol) and go our separate ways, or we cab book him up.
I have checked out his reviews and they are very good (I guess people don't show the bad ones anyway).
My question is on the cost - £1,650. Now this did not seem (relatively) too bad to me from what I have heard and expected about wedding photographers, but since talking about it a few people seemed shocked at how much.
Now are we paying way over the odds here for something that we could get of the same quality elsewhere? Is there a big difference in quality between these providers? And IF anyone wants to divulge, how much did you pay for yours?
To me it seems a lot (obviously) but everything is when weddings are concerned and we can afford it, but I don't want to pay more than I need to if that makes sense. That said the photographs are a lasting memory of the day to keep forever and I'd rather 'over' spend on that than something like a cake etc that will be gone after.
For clarification are package includes:
* A complimentary fun and informal pre-wedding shoot (as mentioned above)
•Bridal preparation through to and including your first dance!
•80 photographs from your wedding selection included within your fabulous 14×10″ storybook wedding album.
•Your chosen album images will be provided on DVD or USB (both hi and lo-resolution) with the Photo Licence ensuring that you can reprint your images whenever you like.
•All photographs are professionally edited to ensure outstanding quality
* Wedding fare offer - free photoboard (an alternative to a guest book) that we were quite impressed with.
Storybook-Albums
•As many pre-wedding consultations as we need
•A private post wedding gallery of your photographs for you to share with friends and family (typically around 300-600 images)
•Use of my gift vouchers scheme allowing friends and family the option of contributing to your wedding photography. A personal and meaningful gift!
•My personal guarantee ensuring that your wedding photos will be available for viewing within 4 weeks of your wedding day
Any advice or thoughts appreciated.
Cheers.
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Comments
Am also in the same boat as you and in my opinion the Photographer price is a joke, have been looking round at some Photographers in the Bexley area and they're charging under £1000 just dont offer the albums.
Trouble is if you Google; Photo Books you can create your own for less than £100 with good quality products produced... Dont know if you wanna go budget or go all out though
Our guy did a good job of selling how important a good quality album is to be fair and I could see his point. Decisions decisions eh.
Venue
Photos
Rings
Flowers
Cake
Etc
Personally for me I didn't give two hoots about the cake or flowers. Didn't even eat any cake on the day or after I don't think. Flowers my mum sorted as she likes that sort of thing.
Photography for me was so important as its something to keep forever. (Like the rings!) We paid about 1400 for ours which included a pre shoot which were made into cards for the table with the link to where our pics would be once done, online gallery of over 200 images, massive coffee table sized album with hundreds of pics in some big some small but to capture the whole day and evening.
it was a 2 person team which was important to me to get 2 angles of the ceremony of bits I wouldnt ever see myself. They divided up on the day and one did the getting ready pics and one did the arriving at the venue pics. Then they stayed until about the 4th dance I think.
We did love our pics so much we paid an additional £500 after for the cd of all the images so friends and family could print. If yours is included then that's great.
You could also commit to the photographer and have a follow up meeting to discuss album types after the wedding if not convinced before.
Hope this is helpful.
What many people don't factor for is work outside of the actual day.
I normally consider every 8 hours shooting a wedding I will do 4x that work and time again on post processing. You literally look at every image, process in the lightroom, perhaps make small adjustments etc. It takes a long long time.
So one wedding day is effectively 5 days work.
Plus factor in the actual cost of equipment (thousands) insurance, website, marketing, advertising, (when a wedding photographer prob does max 2 a week, and really only for 2/3 of the year at best then you should be able to see where the cost comes from. Plus attending those fairs aren't cheap.
I guess he's also got the cost of the album he is producing plus the additional time with that.
If you like him, he's also taking his time to do a seperate shoot which means a day he cant cover another event, then I think it's more than fair.
There are plenty of budget photographers out there. If they can charge £400 for a wedding good for them, but the business logic of charging those prices doesnt stack up and frankly damages the entire industry.
On an ever nerdier level I even wrote a blog post on the subject.
talkinginwhispers.com/cheap-kent-wedding-photography-kent/
and also a post about choosing your photographer
talkinginwhispers.com/which-wedding-photographer/
I'm sure not everyone would agree with all this information but hopefully it will be of use to you
Greg
-All day photographer from getting ready at home until the end of the night
-Pre-wedding shoot with book/album
-Selection of best photos in book/album and cd of all photos
- Website logon for friends and family
- Pre wedding consultations including tour of church ane venue
We're also having a videographer for £880
Of course being in Norfolk it's bound to be cheaper than London prices although we did get some quotes between 1k - 1.5k
Blackheath - great insight and greatly appreciated.
Norfolk - that seems a very good/competitive price - he presumably has good reviews etc.? We're Kent (as opposed to London) so not sure the price would be much different to Norfolk.
We were lucky other couples had their photos stored on the computer and had not received them. got a photo:video deal for about 1250 but maybe that was cheap as lady minute and they had no other booking.
Do you want a reportage style versus classic wedding stuff or a bit of both? You'll get varying degrees of quality on either, with equally varying costs.
Books are not as important as they once were.
I got a cheesy pre-shoot,
all day photography, from bridal prep to first dance
and literally hundreds of photos on a memory stick.
Got some absolutely cracking photos, all really good quality and captured everything my missus asked him to get. Would definitely recommend.
paid £500 quid
http://www.nathanjmphotography.com/
Matt is top draw. Take a look
http://www.mattjamesphotography.co.uk
Only joking darling if you read this.
Really helps getting everyone organised and in place.
Anyone else looking in future, well I've pretty much told you how much I cost further up the page although I'm sure I can do a charlton life discount. I'll also happily pick apart/ tell you what I like about any photographers you are potentially signing up with.
Remember. The front page is meant to show their best work. If they have 5 photos on a loop and 2 of them are a bit naff then run for the hills. Especially if weddings is all they do. Also remember that a beautiful bride is a beautiful bride. Get a decent camera and anyone can make her look good. So be wary where the ladies on the front page are all beauties.
Also someone mentioned videographer as well. If you do, MAKE SURE THEY ARE COORDINATED. Set your priority. Is it more important that the photographer has free reign of the venue or the videographer? Nothing worse than them both moving around the whole time, getting in each others way, and ruining each others shots. Decide who takes precedence and understand that if it's not the photographer then they may have a lot of shots where the videographer is in the way.
1 days work on day of wedding
1 days work for pre-wedding shoot
4 days work post processing above
Time at pre wedding consultation at church and venue
Cost of album
Cost of petrol for several journeys.
Not to mention wear and tear on equipment. All cameras have a shelf life.
That's effectively a weeks work for £600. Dont forget the taxman will probably take £150 of that.
No idea how a photographer that does the job full time can afford to offer that service. Maybe they don't have a mortgage. Maybe he doesnt have insurance, or pay tax.
It's so easy to see a big number and think that photographers are expensive. But really when you break it down if you have a mortgage, bills, mouths to feed etc could you afford to take that home when you may not even have jobs for 1/3 of the year.
Everything connected with a wedding has a premium added. Not doubting the work involved and I do think photography is one of the things you need to get right.
Gonna bookmark this page for future reference, I'm guessing people pay a deposit to a photographer and the rest closer to the date?
Really good, great photos from the day, and a nice bloke who fitted into the crowd at the wedding
https://www.facebook.com/christine.zarb/media_set?set=a.10150930500670212.757266.593490211&type=3