Wedding Photography poll

LisaLPharmD · March 2010

I am paying $3300 for mine, which is more than I intended. All the places I looked at that were lower priced had a very obvious difference in the quality of their photos. These are photos you will look at forever, so I thought it was worth spending a little more

dieselsmomma · March 2010

We paid around $4100 but that includes $300 worth of invites that she made for us with our engagement photos. That also included a large photo book that has a metal wrap (with picture) on the front and was made in Italy (shipping costs were obviously higher).

tommyandy · March 2010

I found a student photographer for $400 who will shoot us at the courthouse & at the full ceremony & reception a week or two later. She will give us the SD card from her camera or we might buy one for her to use. We will most likely give her a cd with pix after to use for her portfolio. She goes to the local branch of the Art Institute. Chicago has several art schools so I would start there. You might be able to hire several students for very full coverage.

Also, we will be getting 1 large print for each of our parents & photo-cards for our thank-you notes made right away & a full album for our 1 year anniversary.

miriamard · March 2010

I got a great photographer for under $1000 (including all our photos on a disc!) because my fiance is a graduate student in art and taught a class that she took. I feel very lucky!

Calypso1977 · March 2010

mine was $500 and i was able to find a top notch person willing to do it for that as i married in off season. the person i used normally charges $3k+. i also only needed him for the formals that we did before and the ceremony - no reception photos.

happilyhisbeloved · March 2010

OP, it sounds as though we live in close proximity to each other. I am a little over anhour to chicago and 2 1/2 to indy. I had a very strcit budget set by my father, but pictures were incredibly important to me. For 1065, I am getting 2 photogs for 8 hrs, a DVD with original negs, and CD with proofs. I was adamat about the time and the dvd, but it took crazy amounts of research to find them. They are local-ish. One lives in chicago and the other photog lives in NWI, so there was no travel fee.

vlevitt · March 2010

i feel like we got really lucky. we're paying $1800 for one photographer all day. he has a background in journalistic photography, so he'll be fabulous with candids etc. he's also shot a lot of jewish weddings, which makes a difference, as there are a lot of events and stuff that are specific to this kind of event.

so, let's see $1,800 for all day, he's not charging tax, which saves us about 5%, and he'll print and photoshop all the photos.

other photogs who were under this rate were just starting in the field, and didn't know about jewish weddings, and hadn't been around much. the ones who were charging more were just FAR too expensive for us. i am super excited to see what our photographer comes up with.

kwrobertson · March 2010

alittle over $1000, but thats also including our engagement session and copyrights for everything. I have her unlimited the day of the wedding - cant wait!

JessAndTrav · March 2010

We spent $1795 on ours. 2 photographers, 3 sessions, a few prints and 3 albums. Unlimited photos with the rights. And it was 8 hours of coverage.

In our area, paying that much for photography is "cheap."

That's because the photographers around here are really, really overpriced.

JessAndTrav · March 2010

Annnd....if you spend much less than that, your photographer (in this region) will suck or not have the ability to get them printed professionally for you.

saxy414 · March 2010

Ours is $1800 for 8-10 hours, 2 photographers, one 10x10 album, and some extra prints (50?), and engagement session. It seemed about average for the quality of pictures I was looking for, plus I fell in love with our photographer. $2000 was about my max for the photo budget, so this was perfect.

ETA: Plus a DVD with high-res images and rights.

Brianne09 · March 2010

I kinda cheated, our photographer is a family friend and gave us a REALLY good deal.

sdvora · March 2010

I'm in Los Angeles. We're getting the cheapest package our photographer offered, which includes the main photographer for 6 hours, a custom-made and designed album, and a hi-res DVD of all images. That, for $3900. It's one of our "spurge" items though -- we really liked the Vintage look he does for his albums, and he puts a lot of work into them.

krmabojo · March 2010

I WISH Uwe could spend $3K on photography- it is just not in the budget. I did find someone I really like for $1500.

It really depends on what your original budget if for the entire wedding. Also, if you get a photojournalistic photographer, it is going to cost more.

simplebride_24 · March 2010

I have been a photographer for 8 plus years now, and it took forever for me to find a photographer that I liked, and was in a good price range. I met with probably a dozen photographers before finding one that had a style that I liked. The one that I did decide to go with is $1850 for full day coverage including all images on hi res discs and 100 images in a leather bound album, as well as our engagement shoot with an enlargement and the hi res disc and the rights to everything. If anyone is still looking and has questions about photographers don't be afraid to ask!

flamingtwig72 · March 2010

Our original budget for photography was $2,500, but we soon realized that this was not realistic for what we wanted. Truly, the photographs are the ONLY thing you will have after the wedding. We rearranged our priorities and are spending around $4,300 on an amazing photographer (granted, we're getting one of his lower-end packages, but it's perfect for our needs). After food and drink, photography is the most expensive item in the budget, but it's well worth it.

SolaraAsh24 · March 2010

Just booked ours and her work is absolutely amazing. Ended up being $2600 for 6 hours, coffee table style wedding book, full CD of pictures with printing rights, and an engagement session with 2 different looks. The price was with 15% off that I was able to negotiate. To me, photography ranked up there with my wedding dress - as someone else said, it's one of the only tangible things you can take from your big day. That was important to us personally though for some, it may seem like an afterthought.

I've also found in my area (Florida) that there are a lot of "point and click", fly by night "photographers" that not only charge an arm and a leg but their work is mediocre at best. My original budget was $2000 or less but we upped it because her work tells a story and doesn't look posed or contrived. We were very lucky to find the style we wanted at this price...

pooh22712 · March 2010

MOB insisted on a photographer she knew, who costs way too much! Hope he turns out too be worth it......

Schnebs · March 2010

We are using The Pros and are paying $1800 for 8 hours, unlimited shots, DVD, album, digital touch-ups, digital editing (like the black and white with parts in color, etc), and some other stuff too. It is a little more than we WANTED to spend but this company came recommended by friends and we have had nothing but good interactions with them during our planning.

KatyTop · March 2010

I agree that the most easy to find photographers are the most expensive. I found mine by googling photogs in my area. He opened his business in 2007 but I have seen a lot of his work and its good. We are paying him $800 and it includes 5 hours of coverage, all the photos on DVD and a hard copy of each, as well as the editing, the printing rights, and an engagement session and photos. He is very laid back, which I like. He also worked with me on the price and was very nice about helping me stay within a reasonable budget.

BrilhanteBride · March 2010

I have a good friend who does photography so I lucked out there and don't have to pay anything. She's doing it as a wedding gift to us.. she won't even let us pay her travel expenses...She's the best !

Wedding Photography poll

Re: Wedding Photography poll

Choose Another Board

Search Boards