Pricing a wedding shoot. Questions galore!

I'm prepping for a wedding shoot in a few months time and the bride is hell bent on hiring me. She likes my style a whole lot.

The wedding is quite unconventional, with everything made by the groom and bride as far as decorations, food etc. They're trying to save money, but spending where it needs to be spent. There will likely only be at most 50 people at the wedding honestly. They have plans to cliff dive (yes, you read that right) when the ceremony is over and want shots of that as well. There will be a BBQ field party kind of thing at the location as well near sunset.

My main question is how much to charge on my end not including my rentals and everything needed to do the shoot. It's unknown if I'll be the sole shooter at this point.

End result is she wants approx. 150 shots total, probably a book of photos at the end and several shots blown up likely to somewhere around 11x16 or so.
We're still working out the details between the groom and bride at this point since the wedding isn't for a little bit yet.

So, I don't want to be that guy and blow out my friends' wedding budget on my photography, but at the same time, it is shooting an event and I don't want to be short-changed either. I will say that this is my first paid wedding, but being a rather unconventional one, I can say that I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to handle it. I don't think I'd be as confident shooting in a church under typical wedding photography standards!
Can a happy medium be reached? What do you suggest?

My novice opinion- How long will you be involved, 4hrs?, 6? Need to decide what your shooting time is worth, processing time. Cost of gear rented and a margin on that and print prices (usually go for about 4x cost plus shipping). If it out of town, gotta tack on all that. Also if you plan to go into business, make it legit so you can write off expenses and future gear purchases.

So have shot weddings before, just not paid? How much are others in the same level of experience around your area charging? How much time would you spend on editing at least 150 images? how much does it cost you to make an album and do prints? Having a second shooter shouldn't matter how much your time is worth. Did they mention at all what their budget was? What is your lowest rate you think you could live with and the rest be paid with the experience under your belt - that is if you're fairly new to wedding photography...With that said - sounds like a fun wedding!

Good advice here already. No one can give you an accurate dollars and cents figure (at least they shouldn't), if that's what you're looking for. Figure out your time and expenses, then tack on 20-50% for profit margin. If she wants 150 photos, plan to deliver 200. Most photogs keep about 30% of what they actually shoot, so plan on taking a lot more. Given that this is a small/budget wedding, that's going to be a lot more difficult than it sounds.

The main thing is, talk to your bride and groom and find out what kind of numbers they're working with. People tend to have a very skewed idea of how much wedding photography should cost, so you need to get a feel for where they're at. If their budget is very close to or doesn't even meet your expenses, don't bother even wasting your time. If you plan to "get into the biz", the very LAST thing you want is a reputation as the cheap guy.

Communication is definitely key! And yes, people tend to have a skewed idea of how much anything costs.

Well, she's helping me out in other areas of my shooting, so I don't plan on banking the farm on a single wedding (a budget one at that..)

I just don't want to be shortchanged or come across like I'm asking too much. It's a fine line between the two and I have to figure out how to balance it..

eurotrash said:

Well, she's helping me out in other areas of my shooting, so I don't plan on banking the farm on a single wedding (a budget one at that..)

I just don't want to be shortchanged or come across like I'm asking too much. It's a fine line between the two and I have to figure out how to balance it..

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If it's for a friend and you need experience than fair value for your time and out of pocket costs is a good starting point. I figure if I can get what I make at my day job to do what I enjoy, I'm happy.

Rick M said:

If it's for a friend and you need experience than fair value for your time and out of pocket costs is a good starting point. I figure if I can get what I make at my day job to do what I enjoy, I'm happy.

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Unfortunately I'm unemployed after losing my job a few months back, so I need all the cash I can get lol :-\

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Have you ever shot weddings before? This is a key consideration. There is a whole lot more to weddings that most people realize and unlike a portrait or commercial shoot, if the results are not good, there is no "do-over". You have to be on top of your game every time, Since this is not a "I have this wedding to shoot this weekend" timeframe, my best advice to you before you do this shoot is to contact an established wedding photographer and offer to act as an unpaid assistant. Learn as much as you can from them, both from technical and aesthetic points of view, but also ask them for their advice about how much to charge. Time is money and you have to be aware that the time you devote to actually shooting the wedding is going to be FAR less than the time you will have to devote to getting the newlyweds, family and friends their images!

Hope this helps!

I agree with the others who say you should only charge your expenses rather than your time but with a twist. If your friends will agree to allow you to use the resulting images for advertisement purposes and to also be a strong reference for your photography to use with future clients, then I think you're being more than compensated. To begin with, you'll have the ability to say you've done wedding(s) and you'll have both the photos and a client reference to go with that claim. If going this direction is what you're interested in doing, this would be an excellent "foot in the door", so to speak.

get insurance or Judge judy will bankrupt you when it goes tits up.
Never shoot with one photographer get someone to shoot with you.

And I always go what you yanks call Wired ....I record everyting said for the whole wedding on a digital voice recorder behind my name badge ...very useful if you have a problem afterwards .....