let me start by saying that I have been assisting / 2nd shooting wedding photography since October last year and have been approached a few times to book weddings shooting solo.
I have quoted $850 for 5 hours including disc for a local wedding, and they have now asked me how much it would be for only 3 hours. I do not want to undervalue my work in giving them a dramatically reduced price- but dont want to seem unreasonable either.
The prices that i have chosen are very reasonable for the skills and equiptment I own, and related to other pricing in my area its a great deal.
I have also taken out public liability insurance, so even tho this is not going to be my full time career, im not taking this lightly.
what would you charge for a 3 hour wedding as opposed to a 5 hour wedding which has been quoted $850?
@sburbidge i have considered that, but not sure if I should charge a slight amount more- because im booking out the day for it nd could quite possibly loose another booking who would be willing to book for the full 5 hours. Or do I just cut my losses and charge the lesser amount just to secure the booking?
Its also in october, which here in Australia Oct and Nov are pretty much high wedding season
I'd say to them that the $850 is the lowest rate you'd charge, it isn't negotiable. If they choose not to use the 5 hours that's their call, but I wouldn't give them a rate for less hours, because like you said, you could possibly book another wedding and get the full amount if you didn't do their wedding. I think if you don't want to take less, you should not, because you'd set up precedent for other folks to do the same, and then you'd be making less money than you think you are worth. Time is valuable!
I don't see how a person could do justice to a wedding with only 3 hours. I have done weddings in the past and taken 7-8 hours. From the getting ready, entrance pics ceremony pics, staged pics after wedding, leaving the church, reception, and then time putting it all together. I agree with Lislee and that is still a low price, and anything over 5 hours go at least 75.00 each additional hour.
@natandhayley This will be a problem you will run into a lot once you start doing solo weddings. As I am sure you are aware that every wedding is different, that also means length of time and budgets.
There is no 'standard' answer to this question, it's something you'll have to deiced, for instance my father won't do a wedding for under 2500$ and 8 hours with 2 photographers while I just booked a wedding for 4 hours for 500$ which just includes 1 cd of the images.
So like its been suggested, you either say i'm 850$ for 5 hours and thats it, or you expand your options, neither answer is right or wrong.
I agree with Richard, a 3 hr wedding seems quite short in time. When I shoot a wedding I usually have at least one assistant, and doing the photographs,setting up lights, running around trying not to go insane, plus all the post processing time after the fact should count for something. I have a set base rate, find out what the couple is wanting, get an idea of how much a pain the bride / groom might be before i tell them my rate. also, once you establish everything, be VERY careful of doing additional work for them, you might find more of a headache then imagined if you start adding things at the last minute. they will want more and more and more, without any additional compensation for you. I will not even think of doing a wedding for under $2000, and that is bare minimum with only one assistant. I establish what shots (formal) they want ahead of time, get everything set before i think of shooting. also i require a non refundable deposit do ahead of the wedding, and the other half due the day of the wedding before i take my camera out of my bag. that way, if true love fails before teh wedding i am not out money. granted, my thoughts may be a bit odd, but i have dealt with enough brides to know that by doing these things it limits messes and headaches later. also, make sure you explain to them when you will be getting the images to them, if you are doing a lot of post processing, it may take more than 12 hours after a wedding to do all of it. set this ahead of time as well, its better than phone calls at 3:00am wanting to know why the photos are not done yet, the morning after the wedding.
Don't give away your time and talent.
I agree with the others that I would tell the client that 5 hours/$850 is your "entry-level package". Because even if you only shoot the wedding for 3 hours instead of 5, you will need almost as much time for editing images.
OR you could offer them an "a la carte" pricing menu that is $200 per hour and $200 for the CD of 200 images.
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Its also in october, which here in Australia Oct and Nov are pretty much high wedding season
There is no 'standard' answer to this question, it's something you'll have to deiced, for instance my father won't do a wedding for under 2500$ and 8 hours with 2 photographers while I just booked a wedding for 4 hours for 500$ which just includes 1 cd of the images.
So like its been suggested, you either say i'm 850$ for 5 hours and thats it, or you expand your options, neither answer is right or wrong.
I agree with the others that I would tell the client that 5 hours/$850 is your "entry-level package". Because even if you only shoot the wedding for 3 hours instead of 5, you will need almost as much time for editing images.
OR you could offer them an "a la carte" pricing menu that is $200 per hour and $200 for the CD of 200 images.