Photographer Price Range?

[Princess_Dreamer]

Hey Ladies!
I''m sorta new to this forum, making my first post as a BIW! I''m trying to plan out my budget to see what we can afford and where I can throw in extras, and all that jazz. So, my question for you ladies,....can those of you who have already picked out your photographer give me a range of what prices I should expect? I live in Nor Cal. Most of the packages that we''ve seen that have everything we want are coming in at the $4400 range!! Is that way off base? Or was I just kidding myself thinking I could get it for way less? Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[sba771]

Welcome! I don''t live in your area...I am in fact on the other coast in New York, but I can tell you I spoke with photographers that ranged from $1600 - $12,000 so it just depends. Depending what is included for $4400 I don''t think that is crazy or too off base, but if it isn''t what you are comfortable spending then I would say keep looking and I am sure you can find someone for less. Good luck!

 

[laughwithme]

I live in KS so I would think we would pay less here for the same package in Cali but....photog packages here range from about $1,000 (wouldn''t recommend) to $4000 (would recommend) to $10,000 (for the very well-off brides.)

In my opinion, and the opinion of many others - photography is one budget area where you don''t skimp. You cannot recreate your wedding day - you can have stunning centerpieces, high-quality fabric dresses, laughing guests - but none of that matters if you don''t have a professional who can capture it. We set a higher budget for our photog than our two friends who were recently married. We budgeted $4k whereas they each paid $1k. One of them received okay pics, and another had a really tough time - the pics were grainy, smudged, and they didn''t sign a contract so the guy tried to back out on special items he originally said he would provide. We did our research, met the photog for coffee, and our engagement session was flawless, and I know her work will be just as great on our wedding day.

For 4k, we are getting 10 hrs of wedding day coverage, an engagement session, two photographers shooting, all editing, $400 print credit, a disc of all images with copyright release...and I think those are the main things.

Shop around, do your research, and definitely don''t skimp on this budget item!!!

 

[Lauren8211]

I (ahem, my mommy!) paid 3,000 for 2 photographers, 8 hours of shooting, and a DVD of all images edited that we can print when we like.

That was her cheapest package. More expensive ones included albums, TTD session, etc. They ranged up to about 5,000.

Best investment I ever made. We ADORE our wedding pictures.

 

[purselover]

We''re paying about twice that for our photographer in NY, which includes 2 photographers as long as we''d like them, 3 albums, cd of images and some other stuff I think. So your price sounds good to me!

 

[ash313]

I live in Michigan, so I''m sure prices are different! But if this helps:

We paid $3,450 for:

Engagement session
9 hours of shooting with two photographers
DVD of all edited images with permission to print (this is key, for me)
100 4x6 prints of whatever images in whatever combination we want
a 30 page professional album (I KNOW I overpaid for this, but considering that I would never put an album together myself, and I knew she would do it quickly and beautifully, I thought it was worth the extra cash to not have to worry about it!)

I

our engagement pictures, I think this was an extraordinarily worthwhile investment! Good luck!

 

[elrohwen]

We spent a little over $3k for our photographer. We got 2 people for the whole day, an album for us, two parent albums, some prints, and (most importantly to us) a dvd with the high res images. We could have spent more for a higher quality photographer, but our guy was very good and our pictures are great. We also could have spent less ... I feel like our quality was average - we could have spent a lot more.

ETA: I live in CT not too far from NYC.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

We paid the equivalent of $2500, but we found our photographer on craigslist.

We had a DW and we posted an ad asking for a photographer to come with us to the Dominican Republic. We offered to pay for the photographer and either an assistant or a guest for 5 days/4 nights. We asked for full day of wedding coverage as well as a trash the dress session and all high resolution images on a CD with copyright release.

We received over 35 responses from photographers, we narrowed it down to 10 based on their websites, and interviewed 6 on the phone. We finally met with 3 and picked a husband and wife team that had been primarily working on baby photos and family photos, but wanted to break into wedding photography.

We only paid for their trip and we couldn''t have been more thrilled with the photos. He not only have us all the images, he went back and edited nearly 100 photos as well as changing the color of my sisters dress in EVERY image that I wanted to print.

We recommended him to several friends and one did a very basic package for $1500 and the other did the maximum package for about $3800. The friend that did the basic package was really upset that the package included several larger prints, but didn''t include the CD with all images. She ended up paying extra for those and even then, she was upset that he only edited the photos she was going to print. But my friend that paid more, was thrilled because her package included all the images and he edited nearly 100 of the photos as well.

I am truly of the belief that you get what you pay for and it''s important to research what exactly you are paying for and if it matches what you want.

 

[mayachel]

NY prices. We are paying just over $5000, for a photographer I feel 100% confident in, plus an assistant, 8 hrs of shooting, rights to the images on disc and a 10X10 album with 40 pages of photos.

The only other photographer I hands down loved, was starting around $8000. So I was happy to find the one we went with. It took me a month or so to swallow the price, but the leap between photographers at $3000 and $5000 was visible to my eye.

 

[Clairitek]

What comes in that package for $4400?

We paid $2300 for unlimited shooting, a DVD of all edited images (all color, selected ones in b&w, and all the rejects), and 4x6 prints of everything he edited (about 400 images). To this day I am in shock that we found a photographer of his quality for his price. I had looked around a LOT and I didn''t find anyone else with his talent for that price. I found him on wpja.org (a wedding photojournalism professional organization) and I highly recommend looking at that site of that is the style of photography you are interested in.

Date: 12/15/2009 8:50:43 AM
Author: elledizzy5
Best investment I ever made. We ADORE our wedding pictures.

Truer words have never been spoken. I look at the pictures everyday up in my bedroom. I get so much joy from them. They were worth every penny.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

We found our photogs in upstate NY through networking, they were 2nd shooters for a well known wedding photographer, but were starting on their own.

It was 800$ for 2 photographers for 9 hours, 1500+ images edited and on DVD.

They weren't amazing works of art, but I think they did a great job capturing the day and the moments in lovely photos! I don't really regret saving the few grand, but to be fair, I've never really loved having people take photos of me as I hate posing for photos. But I felt more comfortable working with people my age.

And I ended up loving my photos

But if you compare her work to some of the pricier photographers, there is definitely a difference. Whether that's a good thing or bad thing is an individual choice I suppose. You get what you pay for though.
http://www.samanthalaurenphotographie.com/weddings.html

 

[Lauren8211]

Sorry - I forgot to mention that I''m in Michigan, and we did have a e-pic shoot, but no photos were included. We have to buy them.

 

[cleokizzy]

welcome to BIW!

now for the pricing, it would depend on what is included in that price you got but the rate is just about average for a good photographer.

 

[winelover23]

I''m in Seattle and I''m paying $300/hour for my photographer plus travel and accomodations for her. This includes an e-session, the disc w/ rights, plus editing to 30 pictures per hour. She is very inexpensive but is totally up with the current wedding picture "trend" of the biography style photos. I just searched and searched until I found someone that was my style but didn''t cost my first born

 

[sunnyd]

Also in Seattle, we paid $4400 for our package, which included:

8 hours of photography with 2 shooters
e-pic session
rights to print pics from both sessions
20 spread 12x18 album
guestbook of e-pics
2 5x5 parent albums
proof album
and they ended up throwing in a photobooth 2 days before the wedding!


We also looked at a couple that were $1200-$10,000, so obviously it ranges a lot.

 

[Princess_Dreamer]

The 4400 package, he said he would include unlimited hours (not to exceed 12), engagement session with an 11x14 portrait from the session, a 70 image pro album, 2 smaller parent albums, 5 super mini paper back albums, I think a $100 print credit (not sure on that one, don''t have the paper in front of me), oh and the dvd of all the pictures he takes.
So it sounds like I''ll be getting a pretty good deal. That makes me feel better! Thank you ladies I knew you could help.

 

[emeraldlover1]

There are so many photographers in North CA that I love! Most of them are really expensive. You may want to check out project wedding. A ton of girls over there are from CA and have used amazing photographers.

The photographer I used in NYC shoots weddings everywhere but I fear that her packages exceed what you want to pay.