Why are wedding photographers so expensive?

Venues for the ceremony and reception are reserved. You have an idea of ​​the style of dress you want, colors and who will be your bridesmaid and best man. The excitement is building! The next step is photography. You know you want wonderful photos of your big day. But a cursory look at wedding photographers and their prices can come as a surprise exercise. Photography is certainly expensive. But why? They are just pictures for crying out loud!

Here are eight reasons why good wedding photographers are so expensive:

1. They are qualified – When considering photographers and their fees, it is helpful to remember that you are not simply paying for a photographer’s time on your wedding day. You are paying for the ten, 15 or 20 years of commitment it takes to create wonderful images in the few hours it will take on your wedding day. By paying more than you could have expected for a qualified and experienced photographer, you are giving yourself the added peace of mind that you will enjoy your wedding memories for years to come. Like most professions, becoming a professional photographer of consistent quality takes years of hard work. Many photographers attended college in photography, working their way for years as assistants or as newspaper staff photographers. They also spent countless nights browsing online forums talking about the latest and greatest ways to improve their work. They are always networking and reading countless books just to keep up. They have taken many millions of photos of a wide variety of subjects. Your wedding shouldn’t be a long job and a steep learning curve for your photographer. Your wedding photos and the overall experience will ultimately suffer.
2. One-time major events require serious responsibility – This is a once in a lifetime event that is the culmination of months or years of work. There is no possibility of filming again, not with so many important people in your lives coming from so many far away places to be with you and your future spouse for this day. What if your photographer drops his camera? What happens if one of your camera discs is damaged? What if your photographer breaks his ankle two days before your wedding? At every wedding, a truly professional wedding photographer must be prepared for the risks of covering a one-time event. That means having multiple discs on hand, image recovery software, several good-quality cameras, and a list of contacts who can fill them in in case they can’t shoot. The contingencies are numerous. This preparation can be expensive and time-consuming to maintain, hence the higher fees for customers.
3. Seasonal nature of work – Photographers can only reasonably expect to have one wedding per week. They almost always take place on Saturdays. For many markets, including the market that my business serves here in Kansas City, the winter months are not a popular time to have a wedding. The weather can be very unpleasant and make traveling completely dangerous. Therefore, photographers outside the Sun Belt can expect to be busy for only seven to eight months out of the year. A photographer is having a very strong year if he has between 20 and 25 weddings. To provide you and future clients with excellent service, photographers must protect their business margins year-round with those 20 to 25 weddings.
4. A single wedding represents a great time commitment – Your wedding is more than a commitment from your photographer to work on the wedding day. Many hours will be spent planning, editing, processing, presenting and submitting the images, not to mention the albums and other photographic products included in their valued packages. Your wedding will easily require 80 hours of your photographer’s time, if not more.
5. Tools are expensive – A qualified photographer will be wearing $ 10,000 or more of equipment on their person during their wedding. Digital camera equipment will generally have to be replaced every few years. That’s expensive, considering that professional-caliber camera bodies cost more than $ 2,500 to replace. The photographer should also update computers and software as often. Add to that burden the normal wear and tear of all equipment and the costs become staggering.
6. Commitment to you – As a wedding photographer, I can tell you that it is much more pleasant to explain prices to clients once than to apologize for the quality of your photographs forever. Ten years from now, when you see your wedding album, you will not be concerned with how much it costs the photographer, but with the quality of his work. Good is rarely cheap, and cheap is rarely good. A good photographer understands this and builds his business with a priority on committing to his images and experience above all else.
7. Growing the business is expensive – A wedding photographer doesn’t get a lot of repeat business from our clients. If we did, that would mean a lot of failed marriages! Referrals to family and friends are not uncommon, but there are a limited number of friends and family about to get married. Word of mouth from satisfied clients is important, but rarely enough to fill a photographer’s calendar. Photographers, more than other companies, have to invest more in marketing plans that introduce their companies to new potential clients. Many of these advertising efforts are expensive. A Page 1 placement on The Knot’s photographers website listing costs more than $ 5,000 a year. That is not cheap.
8. Integrity – Imagine trying to decide between two photographers for your wedding, a photographer follows the rules and does not take shortcuts to save a little extra money, but they have a higher price. Another photographer is priced lower, but cheats the rules and takes shortcuts so they can beat the competition. Which one is most likely to back you up when you need it? For some photographers, integrity is sacred. They understand that the long-term success of their business is impossible without it. Integrity requires them to deliver on their promises on time and exceed expectations. Its internal business affairs are also conducted with integrity. They pay their fair share of income taxes as you do and have adequate liability insurance. Integrity requires them to collect sales taxes and pay them to state governments in full on time. These ethical practices are not always easy to maintain and often require us to pass some of those costs on to clients. Unfortunately for some, integrity is seen as an inconvenience or a hindrance. While these issues may not seem relevant to your decision to the photographers, a person or company that meets all of its obligations is much more likely to meet its obligations to you. A more expensive photographer doesn’t guarantee such integrity, but it makes it that much more likely.

Wedding photography is expensive. No one can disagree. There are a myriad of reasons why a photographer has to charge such fees to ensure their long-term survival. As you ponder your options and choices, keep in mind how important the memories of this day will be to you. They should not be trusted to just anyone. Photographers may cost more than you originally expected, but ask yourself a question: Is it better to pay more than you expected or less than you should?