We had a small wedding with just the bride and groom. We spend $1700 CAD ($1,275 USD) for ours and that included the photographer and his assistant. The agreed time was only 60 minutes. However our wonderful photographer spent probably 2 hours with us. He kept taking us other places at the venue for more pictures on his own. He took amazing pictures!
If you have a larger wedding party, or are planning on having travel time necessary between pictures, your $3000 sounds reasonable to me. There is likely a large regional pricing variation though.
Wow, that sounds expensive to me. Might depend on what exactly you book for the pictures. We also had a friends rate, but with like 250€ for the 2h shooting and 800€ for the rest of the wedding day. From what I have seen before, without a friends rate we would have been between 1500 and 2000€. That was 2024.
Is it that much more expensive in the states?
My ex from like $10 years ago was charging that amount at the time. You want someone with a book of clients and references you can call up.
She was spending a lot of time in reviewing the 15+ photos taken for every “shot” and doing a lot of work in Lightroom. Then working within the printing service website.
There’s also the time spent driving to/from the event, working with the planner, lots of waiting around, convincing guests to get into the right spot, etc
By the time it was all done it’s close to minimum wage work for something that takes a lot of skill.
One of the reasons I roll my eyes at people aghast at wedding photography prices. You’re not just paying for their work on the day of the wedding - you’re paying for experience, their time editing, and for insurance.
You should absolutely be getting a decent photog with that budget, even in high cost areas.
Ask to see their portfolios and keep a close eye on the shots from the reception and those in not ideal lighting conditions. If their photos are good even in those circumstances, it’s a good sign.
By not being cheap about it. The professionals have a portfolio, recommendations and a price.
If some guy tells you they have a Nikon D3100 and they can do it for 50$, run away.
We were thinking about a $3000 budget, does that sound decent?
We had a small wedding with just the bride and groom. We spend $1700 CAD ($1,275 USD) for ours and that included the photographer and his assistant. The agreed time was only 60 minutes. However our wonderful photographer spent probably 2 hours with us. He kept taking us other places at the venue for more pictures on his own. He took amazing pictures!
If you have a larger wedding party, or are planning on having travel time necessary between pictures, your $3000 sounds reasonable to me. There is likely a large regional pricing variation though.
i think we’re still at about 80-90 people, kinda hard to visualize how big its gonna be tbh
Sorry, I have no idea. I’m on a different continent and have no idea about the rates over there.
That still feels on the low end. It’s what I paid for my photos in 2018 and I got a friends rate.
Wow, that sounds expensive to me. Might depend on what exactly you book for the pictures. We also had a friends rate, but with like 250€ for the 2h shooting and 800€ for the rest of the wedding day. From what I have seen before, without a friends rate we would have been between 1500 and 2000€. That was 2024. Is it that much more expensive in the states?
Thats what i keep hearing, but after some research i think its a regional thing. Where i’m at the median seems to be $2500 after all fees
Fair. It was the California Bay Area
Ooof im so sorry, yeah rural illinois here
My ex from like $10 years ago was charging that amount at the time. You want someone with a book of clients and references you can call up.
She was spending a lot of time in reviewing the 15+ photos taken for every “shot” and doing a lot of work in Lightroom. Then working within the printing service website.
There’s also the time spent driving to/from the event, working with the planner, lots of waiting around, convincing guests to get into the right spot, etc
By the time it was all done it’s close to minimum wage work for something that takes a lot of skill.
One of the reasons I roll my eyes at people aghast at wedding photography prices. You’re not just paying for their work on the day of the wedding - you’re paying for experience, their time editing, and for insurance.
You should absolutely be getting a decent photog with that budget, even in high cost areas.
Ask to see their portfolios and keep a close eye on the shots from the reception and those in not ideal lighting conditions. If their photos are good even in those circumstances, it’s a good sign.