How much should I spend?
Weddings are expensive at the best of times and deciding how much is the right amount to spend is a tiresome task, especially when it comes to photography. This is not helped by the advent of digital technology and the internet, which means there is even more choice and therefore a much greater spread of abilities and prices.
The largest cost item is by far time. Living and working in the UK is simply very expensive. The more involved the photographer is for your wedding - before the day, on the day and after the day - then the more time he or she is allocating to your wedding, which has a cost.
However, equipment and professional development is important too. It is not just a case of getting an expensive digital camera. My main investment is in a range of professional camera lenses and flash, all of which I simply would not purchase just for personal use. You will have many guests at your wedding with their own cameras and they will take many snaps for you. The reason to hire a professional photographer is to get some truly great pictures, not just more snaps.
If you are reading this and your budget is for £1,000 or less then my best advice is to look around hard. Many traditional wedding photographers – the type of pictures your mum and dad will have had – charge less than £1,000. There are some more contemporary photographers who are prepared to charge this, but it is not enough to justify a full time profession, so the chances are they relatively new or have some additional source of income and are happy for this to be a labour of love. That’s no bad thing but just have a good look at their work first and satisfy yourself with what you see.
If you are looking at spending between £1,000 to £2,000 then it is worth thinking hard as to whether you are at the £1,000 or £2,000 mark, because there is a lot of difference in terms of choice. You will find many photographers with a price in this area, as it is the upper limit of the cheap photographers, the main price for the middle ground and the lower price for the high-end photographers. It can get really confusing, so it pays to do your homework.
If your budget is more like £2,000 and above, then this where you should expect to get real quality, both in terms of the photography and the choice of albums. There are some great wedding albums but they are expensive and it will be difficult to provide these albums at much less than this amount.
The general advice is to allocate around 10% of your total budget for photography. This is good advice, as the larger the wedding in overall budget then the more you will want to capture this with the photographs.
The largest cost item is by far time. Living and working in the UK is simply very expensive. The more involved the photographer is for your wedding - before the day, on the day and after the day - then the more time he or she is allocating to your wedding, which has a cost.
However, equipment and professional development is important too. It is not just a case of getting an expensive digital camera. My main investment is in a range of professional camera lenses and flash, all of which I simply would not purchase just for personal use. You will have many guests at your wedding with their own cameras and they will take many snaps for you. The reason to hire a professional photographer is to get some truly great pictures, not just more snaps.
If you are reading this and your budget is for £1,000 or less then my best advice is to look around hard. Many traditional wedding photographers – the type of pictures your mum and dad will have had – charge less than £1,000. There are some more contemporary photographers who are prepared to charge this, but it is not enough to justify a full time profession, so the chances are they relatively new or have some additional source of income and are happy for this to be a labour of love. That’s no bad thing but just have a good look at their work first and satisfy yourself with what you see.
If you are looking at spending between £1,000 to £2,000 then it is worth thinking hard as to whether you are at the £1,000 or £2,000 mark, because there is a lot of difference in terms of choice. You will find many photographers with a price in this area, as it is the upper limit of the cheap photographers, the main price for the middle ground and the lower price for the high-end photographers. It can get really confusing, so it pays to do your homework.
If your budget is more like £2,000 and above, then this where you should expect to get real quality, both in terms of the photography and the choice of albums. There are some great wedding albums but they are expensive and it will be difficult to provide these albums at much less than this amount.
The general advice is to allocate around 10% of your total budget for photography. This is good advice, as the larger the wedding in overall budget then the more you will want to capture this with the photographs.
Labels: Tips and advice
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