In todays Economy.....

[Mrsjperry]

Has the wedding photography business taken a hit? Or is it too soon to say.

[form]

Many would say so. Some mid-level wedding shooters have dropped their prices to stay in business, and a few have completely gone under. Perhaps us budget shooters are getting more business than usual because people are more price-conscious than usual. I think the top level shooters, who depend on actors, sports stars and other more-wealthy-than-they-deserve-to-be people, are probably being impacted the least.

[picturecrazy]

I am 90% booked for 2009. I raised my prices in January. People still get married no matter what. My wife's grandma wasn't wealthy and got married in the great Depression, yet still hired a photographer. One of my in-laws did wedding flowers for about 35 years. She said business never slowed down through our bad times in the early 80's, nor our recession in the early 90's. She mentioned that the wedding industry is one of the most stable things around. I'm starting to believe her.

[razyl]

I think things will be pretty robust in Australia, I've got a solid number of bookings for 2009. As Lloyd says, people always get married.....although trimming of the wedding budget is bound to happen.

[tim]

I'm completely booked for summer 2009 (ie the next few months), and I have the usual number of inquiries for next summer. I booked two weddings today, for next Dec and Jan. NZ hasn't been so badly hit yet.

[randplaty]

Some people are getting hit pretty hard... Some people are doing well and growing their business. I think if you're a pretty good photographer, you'll do well. We need these types of downturns to weed out people who really shouldn't be taking photos anyway.

We're doing pretty well. We just raised our prices and still getting inquiries.

[PeaceFire]

Depends on where you are. I doubt many Detroit photographers are able to get full price and book up. I'm in San Diego and it's going strong. The military will never go out of business and over 50% of San Diegans work in some sort of military position (in both personnel and civilian positions) so we don't have as much to worry about here.

[alyson]

it depends on where you are. just like peacefire said.
when you live in a ghost town, better check out other earning opps.

[razyl]

I just had a couple pull out for an October wedding - he lost his job so they're going to have a much smaller event :(

[cbh76]

Bookings have tapered off pretty dramatically in my area. With myself and with other long time wedding pros I have spoken with. This could be due to the economy. People may be having more and more relatives taking their pictures. I mean let's face it, Canon has put a lot of digital Rebels in the hands of the masses. Many of these same people are posting ads on Craigslist claiming to be professionals. I don't mean to gripe about people trying to make a few extra bucks on the side or the increased interest in photography since the advent of the DSLR. I do think it is having an impact though.

Unfortunately, more and more people are shopping on price alone.