Anyone Plan a Wedding Recently?

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

I have been asked many times to shoot people's weddings and the only one I officially did was last August for Jim H.

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/f813536781

As long they knew not to expect traditional wedding photos I agreed to shoot their wedding for them. Their wedding was not to be traditional in the first place so it worked out great !

I now have a couple that are jammed up. Literally 5 weeks away from their wedding day with no photographer. This will be her 1st and his 2nd wedding.
With such short notice and apparently the prices they have been getting are sky high.

It is still my off season so it won't conflict with any of my events.

My wife has full confidence that I can do it, but being as this would be the woman's 1st wedding, I sort of feel additional pressure should something not come out right.

I certainly could use the income so I am strongly considering this now.

Has anyone planned a wedding recently and have any ball park numbers on what the photographers wanted to charge ?

I look back at my 1996 invoices on what we were charged for our wedding and found it funny for what they charged for our 16 x 20 wedding print is what I charged today for a race boat print...

Any thoughts would be great !

Thanks in advance!

 

[Perlmudder]

what about just calling around and talking to a couple photographers and seeing how much they charge? then base your numbers on something like that...

 

[Audiofn]

Depends on a LOT of things. Remember when they are looking at the photorgrapher there are TONS of fees that you can do. Some photographers charge you a flat fee for the "package" and they give you so many photos at the end. Others charge for the day then they charge for each picture and they always retain the pictures. My photorgrapher for our wedding cost about 3K for the "package" and after 1.5 years we got the negatives.

I have shot two weddings. Back in the film days so IMO it was a little harder because you did not know if you "caught" the shot. Now you know. What we used to do was sit down with them and ask them if there were any pictures that they KNEW they wanted. Things like a group of people, family group, friends, certain poses that they want, sunset....... Then make sure you get them. We tried to blend as much as possible. I have been to weddings were the photographer keeps the couple for almost the entire thing and that sucks IMO. It can be VERY stressfull as you have a lot ridding on it. It is their big day. With good planning it works out well. We always had 4 camera's there I had two and the guy I was working with had 2. Camera's breaking is not acceptable so you need the back ups. He would take all the photo's of the couple and I would do the "crowd", with some cross over. If you need any more info let me know.

 

[catastrophe]

Depends on a LOT of things. Remember when they are looking at the photorgrapher there are TONS of fees that you can do. Some photographers charge you a flat fee for the "package" and they give you so many photos at the end. Others charge for the day then they charge for each picture and they always retain the pictures. My photorgrapher for our wedding cost about 3K for the "package" and after 1.5 years we got the negatives.

I have shot two weddings. Back in the film days so IMO it was a little harder because you did not know if you "caught" the shot. Now you know. What we used to do was sit down with them and ask them if there were any pictures that they KNEW they wanted. Things like a group of people, family group, friends, certain poses that they want, sunset....... Then make sure you get them. We tried to blend as much as possible. I have been to weddings were the photographer keeps the couple for almost the entire thing and that sucks IMO. It can be VERY stressfull as you have a lot ridding on it. It is their big day. With good planning it works out well. We always had 4 camera's there I had two and the guy I was working with had 2. Camera's breaking is not acceptable so you need the back ups. He would take all the photo's of the couple and I would do the "crowd", with some cross over. If you need any more info let me know.

Exactly

Most photographers sell the package with 15-20 pics in an album....flat fee that makes them money and covers the day.
They'll take 100 pics and the couple cant leave the next 80 with the cameraman and voila ....thats his big bonus.

 

[Buoy]

I had a digital camera that I handed to the wife of the JP, and two disposable film camera's that I handed to two of the barmaids.
Picked them up at Walgreen's about 2 hr's before the wedding, broke them out of the foil package right there at the bar.
Got married on the beach, and it was great.
The reception was at the bar, and then ordered a pizza back at the hotel room.
That was over 5 happy yrs. ago, and still going strong.
Like I've always said, I'm probably the most happily married man on SO.

 

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

what about just calling around and talking to a couple photographers and seeing how much they charge? then base your numbers on something like that...

I will try to find a hi and lo mark amount to work from.
That was why I asked the question here to see if anyone has already gone through it to save some time.
Besides, I don't think many will give you a price until you are sitting in front of them and discussed all of the needs for the wedding. I can't do that...

 

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

Jon,

Thanks for the advice. That will help me quite a bit.

I shot the wedding in August by myself and had 2 cameras and a 3rd as a back up.

The ceremony I had 1 camera on a tripod with a 200mm lens looking at the Bride and Groom head on that I controlled with a wireless remote control as I worked my way around them shooting with my other camera. I even surprised myself by not ending up in the pics with the remote camera !

A comment was made that the pics came out so well because the people that were there were so used to having me shooting pics at the Poker Runs that everyone was comfortable getting their picture taken by me vs from a total stranger... Seemed to make sense. Plus I blended in and people don't even know how I got half of the shots that I did .....

 

[ItsPeanut]

Sharkey, stick to the boats. I got married married in october. If you would of had to deal with my wife, you would of had a better time taking pictures of roaches getting bombed.

 

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

Sharkey, stick to the boats. I got married married in october. If you would of had to deal with my wife, you would of had a better time taking pictures of roaches getting bombed.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

BINGO !!! :sifone:

http://www.costhelper.com/cost/wedding/wedding-phographer.html

 

[DonziGirl]

I've been looking around. For 3 hours, 1 photographer, 1 30 page album (when done), and a dvd of the images, it was $1500. That seemed to be about the average.

Luckily a friend of mine's uncle does photography and he's going to do the whole thing as a favor to me for $200.

 

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

I've been looking around. For 3 hours, 1 photographer, 1 30 page album (when done), and a dvd of the images, it was $1500. That seemed to be about the average.

Luckily a friend of mine's uncle does photography and he's going to do the whole thing as a favor to me for $200.

3 hours seems short if they are going to cover both the church and the reception. I would assume any portrait prints are additional... ?
The DVD, is that just a presentation slideshow? Or were they supplying the "Original Digital Files" of all the images?

I looked at my wedding invoice and at the time they wanted $40 per page for the album with a minimum order of 24 pages....

Thanks for your input DG !!!

 

[DonziGirl]

3 hours is short but pictures aren't my priority and I'm on a budget!


Portrait prints were additional. The DVD included the original digital files for all pictures taken.

They had different package deals. Obviously the more you got, the price lessened a little. My friend went with them. She had two photographers for 6 hours, the original files on a disk and a photo album done by them. I think by the time it was all said and done she spent almost $3k on it all. Apparently the expensive part is getting the original files because they can't charge you each time you want something printed. They assume your family and friends will have you print it for them where it used to be when they held the negatives, everyone had to go to the photographers to get copies and that's where they made their money.

 

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

3 hours is short but pictures aren't my priority and I'm on a budget!


Portrait prints were additional. The DVD included the original digital files for all pictures taken.

They had different package deals. Obviously the more you got, the price lessened a little. My friend went with them. She had two photographers for 6 hours, the original files on a disk and a photo album done by them. I think by the time it was all said and done she spent almost $3k on it all. Apparently the expensive part is getting the original files because they can't charge you each time you want something printed. They assume your family and friends will have you print it for them where it used to be when they held the negatives, everyone had to go to the photographers to get copies and that's where they made their money.

Exactly.
That is where they lose any control over the images...

 

[MarylandMark]

I was one of the ones that contacted you recently. My thoughts were I would rather toss money to someone I "knew" than someone I don't.

3ish hours in Maryland with around 100 pics printed various sizes with none larger than an 8.5 x 11 put in an album was around $5K IIRC

 

[phragle]

wedding *cough* I will never have something so foolish, the stack market is a safer bet ... anyways for piks...some of the best I have seen came from wedding where several disposible cameras where left at every table.

 

[Seafordguy]

We found this when we planned our wedding:

My wife wanted someone that wasn't traditional - was "photojournalistic" (whatever the **** that means) which seemed to be much more expensive.

Our wedding began at 4:30, the reception began at 5:15, and went till about midnight (we expected them to stay relatively late into the evening).

The 4 or 5 people we interviewed all did great work and each, for the most part, provided an album with ~50 pictures in it, provided a disc with ALL the prints, framed a large photo for everyone to sign at the reception, included engagement shots, and would show up for some shots while the broads were getting ready.

We found that this was basically between 3500 and 5000. The guy we ended up going with was closer to 3500, did the best work, and showed up at the house at 12:00pm and stayed until about 11:00pm. He bought an assistant along, and was truely fantastic, was never in the way, was descrete, and wasn't making us "re-shoot" stuff just to get a particular shot.

My brother in-law is getting married next month and they are paying about the same....
My wife's maid of honor got married a few months prior to ours, and she payed about 5500 I believe.

 

[Seafordguy]

wedding *cough* I will never have something so foolish, the stack market is a safer bet ... anyways for piks...some of the best I have seen came from wedding where several disposible cameras where left at every table.

Last wedding I went to that had cameras on the table, I hadn't been there 15 minutes before I was in the restroom with my fat friend taking pictures of him with his pants around his ankles, only to find out that the grooms mother developed them all.

They still speak to me though....