Realistic $$ to spend on photographer?

refink

I just started planning my wedding and I was kind of shocked my how much some wedding photographers are! How much is realistic to budget for a photographer? Also if anyone has any suggestions in the Indianapolis area that would be great  

hbatchel2

I'm paying $1500, and using George Street Photo and Video.

When I was looking, prices ranged from 500-3000 for the most part. I could have found someone a lot cheaper, but photography is one of those things where you kinda get what you pay for. I didn't want to risk it, so I'm willing to pay more for something I know will be good.

justinnmandy

my photographer is going to be around $1000 but the only reason its that cheap is because she had a promo going if I booked her by Dec. 31st. I got 30% off all packages and the cd of all printable pics up to 11x14 i agree with pp that u get what u pay for!!!4

jennalynn10

I am paying $1500 for Jamie Vester.  Like pp mentioned, you get what you pay for.  I would HIGHLY recommend Jamie to you, I LOVE LOVE LOVE our e pics.  Jamie is very easy to work with and is VERY speedy. 

jamievester.com

inkygirl

I paid $950 for ours with Jacquie Carman out of Hope, IN (near Columbus).  That included epics, rehearsal coverage, and all day wedding coverage, the DVDs with rights to print and a $200 print credit.  She's amazing and I highly recommend her.  She's a former Knottie and has built her business in the last few years.  She does charge a small travel fee, but it's only like $40 I think.  We paid for her hotel room and she waived the travel fee for us.  We got married in Louisville.  Her website is www.jacquiecphotography.com

brandi0507

Whoever you book make sure you pay attention to whether or not it includes a CD or pictures. My SIL paid over $1000 for her photographer then turned around and paid $1500 on pics after the wedding and to me that isnt worth it and the photo wasnt that good. I booked mine from people who have used them. Its AutumnBreeze photography. She is only charging me $650 and its all day coverage and a cd with all the pics plus she uploads them to shutterfly for family to have if they want. Shes also making me a wedding book. Hand made. Id ask around where you live. In my opinions recommendations are the best way to go. 

refink

Great!  I just wanted to make sure I'm not overspending on a photographer. Thanks everyone for your help

astone2011

I'm spending $1350 but that includes high resolution cd's of the engagement pictures and of the wedding, online gallery, engagement session and wedding for 7 hours.   Our photographer is out of Terre Haute, Indiana but she loves to travel and does not charge for travel (we are using her in Evansville, IN) and she will travel for engagement sessions too!  She is fantastic!  Her name is Melissa Copeland.  Here is her site... www.melissacopeland.com  You should definitely check her out  

caitlincoar

Like it or not, there's a huge quality difference between people who charge $1500 and under and $2000 and over. HUGE. It all depends on how important pictures are to you. I am a photographer, so the photos are the one and only thing that I felt it was okay to absolutely SPLURGE on.... our photos are going to run us about $6,000 (which I am aware is on the extreme high end) and our wedding budget isn't even going to be half of that, and we're paying for everything ourselves (and believe me, we are in NO way well-off). Quite frankly, I picked these people regardless of price because I LOVED everything I saw of theirs, and I did have a lot of struggle with the end contract price because it's the cost of a month-long honeymoon in Europe.... but every single person I have talked to who also had a budget wedding like ours, and even people who had larger weddings, said that the thing they MOST regretted not paying out a little more for were better pictures. And if you're not really worried about the pictures or they're not as important to you, go budget! But if they are really important to you, I would highly recommend putting a little more into pictures and a little less into something that isn't as important to you... It'll be worth it in the end!

srhoads

My photographer is Ryan Woodall Photography and his pricing is $2000.  It includes the disc of images after you order your album, so I was pleased about that.  Love the engagement pics and can't wait for the big day to get here.

97 days and counting!

S0095042

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_indiana_realistic-spend-photographer?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:97Discussion:71685ac3-81fd-484d-84c9-c79bdd1f66f8Post:dcc0c630-e3b8-4148-88cc-9d29540ee694">Re: Realistic $$ to spend on photographer?</a>:
[QUOTE]Like it or not, there's a huge quality difference between people who charge $1500 and under and $2000 and over. HUGE. It all depends on how important pictures are to you.[/QUOTE]

she's right...

<p>We are looking at Ryan Cookston (photojournalist), his packages start at $2,500 and include a lot of perks including a disc with all images and print release, engagement session, etc. We decided to slightly splurge on our photographer and cut out some smaller things to stick to our budget.

Check out The Roxie Group (based out of Terre Haute) or Lets Do Shotz (based out of Bloomington) for prices around $1500 /> both are photojournalist style...</p>

teranlindsey

There are some great photographers who are reasonably priced.  My sister had Tessa Tillett at http://tessatillett.wordpress.com do her wedding pictures, and we were all really happy with her work.  She charges around $700ish, gives you all rights to the pictures on a CD, and was super easy to work with.  She really listened to what was important to my sister in her pictures, and she really came through.

RJearley

I am a photographer and it depends on how important your pictures are to you. If you want someone that is really good and knows what they are doing it is going to cost you at least 2000. A good photographer can take charge of the events to make sure you get the shots you want and need, they can also let the mothers and other guests it is time to stop posing for pictures and what not. Also, look for someone that is a journalist photographer becuase you will not get those silly starchy looking posed shots. THey will find ways of posing people so you are not just standing in a line. When I did wedding work I worked for a lady that ran her own company and she was getting 5000 a wedding and I did most of the editing for the weddings I worked on and we would generally take upwarks of 6000 shots. How many shots a photographer can take is very important!!!!! I do weddings now and only charge 1000. but I only work by word of mouth and it comes with all day coverage and a as many cd's as it takes to get ALL my edited shots to you. I can do albums but they are designed from scratch and can be expensive.

Erin275

Check out nvisiblephoto.com! Great prices and beautiful pictures!

JR0913

Location has a direct bearing on price.  In Los Angeles, you could expect to spend $10,000+ for the exceptional photographers.  That's the market.  Sure, there are some very talented ones in the $6,000 range there, but that's considered a low rate for quality.  In Chicago, ballpark of around $5,000-10,000.  Indianapolis, somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500-7,500.  You get the idea.  

I'm out of South Bend and try to work with people of all budgets, but there's no way I can afford to do a full-day wedding for $1,000.  To give you an idea of the breakdown . . .  One of my camera bodies depreciates approximately $50 for every wedding I shoot with it.  Grand total of my cost to show up and shoot is about $300.  Some of the profit of every assignment also goes to pay for things like my website, business cards - you know, all the little costs of doing business.  Then, the bigger costs like self-employment taxes, health insurance, equipment and liability insurance, etc.  If I shoot a 12 hour wedding on my own, it's about 60 hours of work.  If I don't charge more than $1000 per wedding, I may as well work at McDonald's and serve you fries.  I'd probably make more per hour and never take my work home with me.  Never mind that I've been doing this professionally for over a decade and have been invited to teach photography internationally.

If you're on a budget, I'd suggest you simply find a great photographer for the stuff that matters most and maybe hire a student for the rest.  You'll at least be able to count on the photos from those couple of hours being great and the rest probably being acceptable but not exceptional.  Depending on the student.  I know some who produce great work, but a wedding is not a controlled environment.