How many weddings can you photograph during a "good" wedding season?

[NeinLives]

I've shot one wedding this year, which went really well and was, in spite of all the hard work, very entertaining. Now I'm looking to make a career of it in addition to web development. I'm curious, though: how many weddings does a professional shoot per year and how much is their annual salary? Is it enough for you to live comfortably on? Does being a wedding photographer necessarily mean that one's weekends are committed to shooting weddings? Answers from experienced pros would be greatly appreciated.

[tim]

This year i'll photograph around 25-30 weddings, the vast majority in summer or near to summer. That takes up every Saturday in summer, plus some Fridays, some Sundays, and the odd other day. For each wedding I probably spend a few hours pre-wedding, the whole day on the day of the wedding, and 2-3 more days doing processing, proofing, album design, etc. Add in overheads and it's a full time job, if you're doing it properly. More than full time actually.

On week in March i'm photographing Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. That gets tough, and you really need to have lots backup gear because things generally go wrong at the worst possible time, and there's no time to run to the store.

Many professional wedding photographers I know have either a partner who also works, or do other work in winter. I will say that if it wasn't for having a mortgage I would be reasonably comfortable doing just photography, but very few people make a great living in photography. There are a LOT of hungry photographers. And don't forget the minimum $10K investment in equipment you need to get started.

If you want to make a lot of money without doing too much work photography isn't the business to get into.

[sapearl]

That's a hard question nein.... but I'll try to provide some useful info.

I consider myself a part time pro - weekend warrior.... wedding and event photography is my second job in additiona to a full time career M-F. I'm doing about 14 - 18 weddings, bar mitzvah's, anniversaries, events/year on average. This makes for a pretty full load when taking the regular job into consideration along with taking care of my home.

Ideally I'm hoping for an averate of $2k per package. It does not always hit that mark though. So after taxes and expenses there really is not much to live on for that volume.

Fortunately my day job "subsidizes" the photography gig so I don't have to worry about going bankrupt. Full time wedding photogs in my area are easily doing 60 - 100 jobs/year. I would consider this a bare minimum requirement for staying alive in this area and prospering.

This is not easy work. The market is flooded with eveybody who considers themselves to be a pro. It got even worse with the proliferation of digital. A lot of people don't understand the basics of exposure, composition and photography in general, are too impatient to spend the years mastering proper technique, and just assume everything can be "fixed in photoshop." I hope those folks maintain that atitude. It will make more business for me.:D

[yuriyo923]

My brother has one or two more weddings to do this year. This year he has around 50 weddings, but says next year no more than 30 but charge more.

His web site is www.priceless-images.com!

[sapearl]

As a part timer not all of my weekends are taken up, but that's due to my lower volume. Most, but not all weddings do statistically take place on Saturday, but others are sometimes planned for Sundays as well as Fridays.

In addition to my paid event work, I also due volunteer photography (gratis) for the local PBS television and radio station, as well as the Parks district. There's no monetary compensation here, but it does get my name out more. These are also both good causes, and I believe in supporting them.

........ Does being a wedding photographer necessarily mean that one's weekends are committed to shooting weddings? Answers from experienced pros would be greatly appreciated.

[sapearl]

That's a good philosophy, and I endorse it Yuri..... shoot fewer jobs but charge more per job :D. My accountant is always preaching that to me. It's a good plan so long as the market and competition will support it. Of course, in this worldwide down economy.....:cry:

My brother has one or two more weddings to do this year. This year he has around 50 weddings, but says next year no more than 30 but charge more.

His web site is www.priceless-images.com (http://www.priceless-images.com)!

[tim]

Some of the high end pros here limit their weddings to 25 per year, but they're charging at least NZ$8K (US $4K to US$7K depending on the exchange rate). Many of the ones with limits like this charge more than $10K, but there can only be a few in the country at that price point.

There's no way i'd want to do 60-100 weddings per year... mass production isn't my style. Plus i'd need a staff for that, probably a sales person, an assistant (have one of them), and 1-2 people to do post processing, album design, follow up sales, print orders, etc.

[sapearl]

Tim makes an excellent point regarding volume per year and the necessary required staff.

One local fellow who is doing about 100 - 120 or so has two additional shooters besides himself as well as one office person. Basically you end up as a small business enterprise with all the associated booking, tax, office, sales, and personnel activities that go with it.

I would be happy to average 15-20/year. This keeps it relatively simple as I'm the photographer, accountant, photoshopper, salesman and clerk all rolled into one.:D - Stu

[tim]

Even with one photographer you still have all the overheads, including accounting, so you get better economy of scale if you have more employees and more weddings. My accounting system (which costs US$400/year) tells me exactly where they money goes.

[sapearl]

Ah, you're way more organized than I am Tim :D... my wife is always yelling at be to be neater with my files and contract folders.

Even with one photographer you still have all the overheads, including accounting, so you get better economy of scale if you have more employees and more weddings. My accounting system (which costs US$400/year) tells me exactly where they money goes.

[tim]

Yeah i'm fairly organised. In Feb i'll restart work on my studio management software, it's sitting on the back burner until I have time.

[form]

As a solo photographer I've got 7 weddings for this month alone - but I've only done about 6 or 7 for the rest of the year previous. I'm running a healthy backlog of editing, but I just finished color versions for one of the three clients from last week, and am half done with the black & white versions. If all goes as planned, I should be finished processing right around the time when the next wedding is happening....and then I'll be behind again because there's another one 2 days later, then 6 days after that.

Given the level of work I put out, how much time I put into processing, etc., I would say that I could get about 40-50 weddings done in a year and still just barely keep hold of my sanity. However, my weddings don't pay me more than $250 to $450 gross, so that wouldn't really add up to very much.

[tim]

Given the level of work I put out, how much time I put into processing, etc., I would say that I could get about 40-50 weddings done in a year and still just barely keep hold of my sanity. However, my weddings don't pay me more than $250 to $450 gross, so that wouldn't really add up to very much.

If you doubled your prices you could do less than half the work (since some overheads will be reduced, like albums) and still make the same profit. Your profit should have another digit, otherwise all that work isn't worth your time.

[form]

My work isn't of a sufficient level of quality to increase my rates. I need to have more creativity, better technical skill and more careful processing and refinement in my work before I can justify charging more.

I am making money; just not 1D series profit. I can easily afford second-hand L lenses about once every 2-3 months, and eventually I'll be able to afford a 5D II.

[Vascilli]

My work isn't of a sufficient level of quality to increase my rates.
To, the contrary, I think your portfolio looks fantastic. You should be making loads of money off pictures like that. :D

[tim]

To, the contrary, I think your portfolio looks fantastic. You should be making loads of money off pictures like that. :D

In my opinion the portfolio is of a very good amateur, or perhaps of a beginning professional, so I agree with form in that regard.

[form]

An experienced eye can see that there are deficiencies in my creativity and what I notice; I currently can get the good stuff sometimes, but I can't yet see the great stuff in front of me. I understand some of the why and a little of the how.

As far as personal preference, I definitely lean toward the style of Joe Buissink, but I also like some of the more "youthful" work with intense colors and bright, cheery faces.