Hi All. I have been doing some Senior Photography and Sports team pictures for the past couple of years. Last week I was asked to do a friends wedding in January of Next year. So, I have no clue what to charge. It is not a church wedding, nor a big formal wedding, but it is a wedding. I will have to travel an hour and a half away for engagement pictures and then wedding pictures. I was thinking $600 and give them all the edited files. I have a new D750 and flashes and such, and I explained to my friend that I haven't done any weddings, but I could do my best. I really am thinking hard into getting into weddings, so saying yes to his wedding is really getting me excited to try this out.
Pricing first wedding
- Thread starter brent
- Start date
I am not a pro of any kind, but some questions do come to mind. Are you taking care of the printing or are you going to let them worry about that? What is your time worth? Will you be able to use some of the shots for your own portfolio if you do decide to head in that direction?
There are some on here that do specialize in weddings and they may jump in and give you some ideas about issues you may encounter and how they price their services and products.
There are some on here that do specialize in weddings and they may jump in and give you some ideas about issues you may encounter and how they price their services and products.
Well for my first Wedding a friends sister asked me to photograph it, I said sure, told them it was my first wedding and that I would do it for just the travel cost £150 all in (Around $220),
Why did I price it so cheap I hear you ask?
Well they weren't going to have photographer to start with, so there was no expectation or contracts etc written up. so in essence if I screwed anything up then I could just not deliver those photos and what they do got was better than what they would have had (nothing).
Every wedding photographer is different, as in, how many shots they will take on the day, how many they would edit etc.
Getting out there and doing the shoot gave me a good first hand experience in shooting a wedding which can be stressful.
I was able to also gauge how much my time is worth in a real wedding and as such, I am now priced where I want to be and have 3 weddings booked in
But long story short, if you have no experience in weddings, price it realistically for the first one, then when you have the images in your portfolio and the recommendations you can price higher, the worst thing to do is price high and under deliver on your first wedding IMO.
Why did I price it so cheap I hear you ask?
Well they weren't going to have photographer to start with, so there was no expectation or contracts etc written up. so in essence if I screwed anything up then I could just not deliver those photos and what they do got was better than what they would have had (nothing).
Every wedding photographer is different, as in, how many shots they will take on the day, how many they would edit etc.
Getting out there and doing the shoot gave me a good first hand experience in shooting a wedding which can be stressful.
I was able to also gauge how much my time is worth in a real wedding and as such, I am now priced where I want to be and have 3 weddings booked in
But long story short, if you have no experience in weddings, price it realistically for the first one, then when you have the images in your portfolio and the recommendations you can price higher, the worst thing to do is price high and under deliver on your first wedding IMO.