I’ve been thinking a lot about value vs cost as far as weddings are concerned. Having planned my own wedding, I was faced with this multiple times. I had to choose the things where cost won over value, and where value won over cost. There were things I was willing to sacrifice value on to get more value out of another thing that was more important to me. Let’s face it, we aren’t all able to have those amazing, cost-is-no-object weddings that we are blasted with on Instagram and wedding blogs. In the real world, we have budgets. We have to make decisions about where we will be spending our wedding-day money; often very tough decisions. Many of us are faced with having to chose what we want more; a beautiful cake or beautiful flowers; and awesome DJ or an amazing photographer. It’s very difficult, and often time couples are left feeling inadequate and disappointed. This is where weighing value and cost comes in.
When I say value, I don’t mean cheap. I mean what you are getting for your money. A wedding photographer that costs $3000, is well established, does amazing work, and has nothing but great client reviews is a better value than a wedding photographer that costs $1000, is newer to weddings, does mediocre work, and doesn’t have great client reviews. I wrote this post specifically pertaining to wedding photographers, but the theory applied to all wedding vendors.
One of the first things couples do when planning their wedding day is set a budget. After my now-husband and I chose our date, our budget was the next thing we worked on. And like many other couples, we ended up going over budget as we were faced with value vs cost decisions. As a wedding photographer, I knew from experiencing so many weddings what things would make or break my wedding day. I knew that the photographs were the most important thing on my list.
When searching for a wedding photographer (or any wedding vendor for that matter), you will be faced with a million different options. The wedding industry is highly oversaturated with vendors. It’s an easy field to get into, and these days, anyone with a camera is a photographer. Wedding photography is probably one of the biggest value vs cost decisions you will make. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “You get what you pay for”. I can’t tell you how true this is when it comes to wedding vendors.
So how can you be sure you are getting an amazing photographer while staying on budget? There really is no easy answer to this. You and your fiancé need to sit down and talk about the parts of your wedding that are the most important to you. How much are your wedding memories worth to you? Are you willing to chance the only tangible things from your wedding day to go the cheapest route? I’m guessing not. And chances are, after researching wedding photography further, you will find that your photography budget was unrealistic; and that’s okay. I know that wedding photography seems very expensive, but when you break it down, weddings photographers aren’t making that much after expenses and taxes. I can tell you that we aren’t wedding photographers because of the money, because for most of us, it’s just not there. We do this because we genuinely love it. That is one way you can being to separate photographers you want from photographers you don’t. Serious wedding photographers value their work, and charge accordingly. Most serious wedding photographers are wedding-only photographers. They choose to only shoot weddings and engagements to give their couples a truly personal experience. Talking from experience, it’s difficult for a photographer to specialize in every niche. That’s exactly why we stopped offering other photography services. We knew that our couples deserved our undivided attention. They deserved to have photographers that strive to maser their craft on a daily basis.
Depending on factors like years in business, target market, included products, specialty, and medium (digital, film, or both), on average, you can expect to invest between $1,500 and $4,000 on your wedding photography. You can see why your photographs are going to be your biggest value vs cost decision. You need to decide if your memories are worth enough to you to have them preserved by the best possible photographer you can afford. Something like 30% of couples regret not spending more on their wedding photography. Do you really want to be part of that 30% that ends up with not-so-great images of their one and only wedding day? Probably not. There are many great resources available online that can help you on your quest to choosing a photographer. I have typed up a short list of questions here to get you on your way to finding your perfect photographer.
How long have you been a photographer?
What medium do you use (film, digital, or hybrid)?
How do you backup your images?
Do you bring your own lighting?
How will we receive our images (digital files, prints, etc)?
Do you have past client references that we can speak with?
Do you have vendor references that we can speak with?
Do you have backups of all your gear?
Do you work with an assistant/second shooter?
How will you and your assistant/second shooter dress for my wedding?
Whats the worst thing that has happened during a wedding, and how did you deal with it?
What is your style?
Can we see multiple full-wedding galleries?
Do you photograph more than one event per day?
Do you have additional travel fees?
What is the charge for overtime?
Do you include an engagement session in your wedding packages?
Can we review a contract?
Do you have insurance?
What is your cancellation/postponement policy?
What is the retainer fee, and when is it due?
When is the final payment due?
