You will find that your prices will change as you learn and appreciate the actual costs involved in running a business as well as become more confident. At the end of the day, you do want to pay yourself a decent wage as wedding photography comes with a lot of responsibility. You only get one chance at it and it is biggest day of the bride and grooms life! It is a competitive business and there are many photographers almost doing the job for nothing. Quite often, their results are substandard and printing methods and albums cheap! Try not to fall into the pitfall of being too cheap, you will end up working all hours for next to nothing. If you are at the lower end on price, make sure you still come out making a profit. For example, don't go offering an expensive wedding album with lots of photos. You may think about offering a CD full of high resolution images instead.
Services - whole package or by the hour
There are various ways of pricing up weddings but the key to pricing is not to confuse clients with too many options and remain flexible enough to discuss specific requirements.
Some photographers offer a cheaper package with prints only and covering maybe just the reception right through to others offering a fully inflated Graphic studio wedding book covering all day right through from the brides house to the first dance. You may want to capture the lower end of the market as well as the middle to top by offering all options.
You will soon realise the cheaper end of the scale can be undesirable and not conducive to generating profit but it can allow you to build a portfolio. It is quite common for photographers to deviate away from this lower end market towards the middle after building up confidence in what they do. If you are going to offer print or CD only packages, be aware that you are attracting a client with a tight budget and ensure that you include enough profit margin to make it worth your while! It can be more desirable to offer album packages as quality albums can really do your photos justice. If the client has prints only they may choose to put them in a cheap and shoddy album, which will pull down the quality of your images. When they show friends, you may get the reputation of providing a sub quality service in sub quality frames so beware!
Many clients like to see what they are getting for their money and offering packages is the easiest way of doing this. For example, you could offer only 4 packages - 30 photos or 60 photos in two types of album and offer flexibility around these packages.
The standard is to include from the bride getting ready (optional) through until the speeches (after the meal). Note: the cutting of the cake is a posed 'set up' shot done prior to the meal. If you are asked to stay after the speeches this should be charged as an extra.
Different pricing attracts different clients
If you set your prices low, you will attract more customers. Whether they are the right sort is debatable - they may be those that are looking to skimp on the photography and you don't really want this type of customer, especially when it comes to reprint orders/parents albums etc. However, never rely on good reprint orders! These days, unfortunately, many clients scan the photographs at home and even though illegal, there is very little you can do to stop it. Price cheaply and you will undertake a lot of weddings and be very busy. Sounds good%u2026 however, you could be busy working all hours but wondering where the profit of your hard work is.
If you set your prices moderate to high and advertise in the right places, you will attract the wealthier client with the nicer venues. You will have fewer weddings to photograph, be less busy and make more money. This equals less stress!
Timing for costs
Do not underestimate the time wedding photography takes. A typical example of the time input that is required per wedding from start to finish would be as follows:
- Meet the client and get the business (2 hours)
- Meet them at the venue prior to the wedding (1/2 day)
- Getting your kit ready for the wedding (2 hours)
- The day itself (all day)
- Processing on the computer (2 days)
- Wedding viewing and design of the album (1/2 day)
- Ordering albums and reprints and putting the album together (1/2 day)
The list amounts to about 4 working days! Keep this in mind.
Consider offering them the ability to pay in Standing Order stage payments from the month that they book your services. This spreads the payments for them in manageable amounts, right up to the day of wedding.
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