So what did you pay YOUR photographer to shoot YOUR wedding?

[CosmoKid]

Sorry if this has been asked before but I searched and couldn't find it.

As photographers, even if you don't shoot weddings, and even if you didn't get into photography until after you were married, what did YOU pay YOUR photographer to shoot your wedding?

When did you get married? 2000

How much did the photography cost? $3,500 for the package plus some extras.

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Just above

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? Splurge

Did they shoot film or digital? Film - we were right on the cusp of digital becoming mainstream.

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth?

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? Mostly, yes.


I put up this thread for a couple of reasons. I am curious as to how prices have changed over the years. But more importantly, I am curious as to what other photographers budget/value for their own wedding photography.

[yuriyo923]

Got married: 2006
Cost of Photography: 0, my brother did it :) www.victorzerga.com
Below average and I was happy with my photograpy!

[borism]

I got married on 1998
By that time My old Minolta X700 was stolen :(

We were so tight at the time that I got a bunch of disposable film cameras and place them on the table of the guests
I told the guest to get the cameras and shoot away ;)

Some cute pics came out BTW, of course far from professional photos ;)

[SwitchBlade]

When did you get married? 2006

How much did the photography cost? £1200

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? average

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? Splurge (but then the rest was cheaper due to calling in favours)

Did they shoot film or digital? Digital

Were you happy? Yes.

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? No, at the time they seemed ok, though I felt it was a lot of money at the time, but then the other photographers we spoke to ranged from £1000 to £2000. So not a lot for the job, in comparison, but knowing what I know now looking back through the album I see photos with bad focusing, poor lighting (mostly the indoor ones where the flash was used), and the worst bit was that the prints have bad banding where they were printed on an inkjet printer. Couldn't say whether I could do a better job as the notion of photographing someone's wedding fills me with fear but knowing what I know now I feel disappointed (but then I'm seeing faults a non-photographer wouldn't see).

[Lizzy7]

When did you get married? 2000

How much did the photography cost? £800 but she kindly gave us the negatives too as I was a photographer.

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? I read in a wedding magazine that £800 was about average then so we were right in the middle.

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? Neither splurge nor cheap.......in the middle again!

Did they shoot film or digital? Film

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? Yes, I really liked her style and it inspired me to go in to wedding photography, I was a product photographer then.

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? I was one which did make me a little more critical but more so of the printing because I'd done pro-lab printing too. There was one B/W print in the album where they had clearly lost the focus during printing and it really irritated me that she'd put it in but because she had given me the negs I could just reprint it. Apart from that one little niggle I still really like them :)

Lizzy

[Peacefield]

I'll distort the pool of answers a little:

Got married in 1980

Paid for everything ourselves, were were kids (I was 20 and she 18 at the time), and had no money. I don't recall what we paid, but it had to have been on the low end.

Film, obviously.

I was and continue to be greatly disappointed in our pictures. I forget why I know, but I later came to learn that we were the first wedding he ever shot and it shows. Don't know what we were looking at when he showed us his sample pics; probably his own wedding done by a true professional. In any case, I was a 35mm hobbyist at the time and our experience with this guy is exactly what inspired me to get into the business.

[mcluckie]

cuckle. I got married by an Apache justce of the peace at the bottom of the grand canyon. shot it myself. Guess I paid 750,000 for it, after the divorce.

[cchooks]

37 years ago, we paid $150.00 which was kind of high at that time. We got about 12 8x10's.

David

[CosmoKid]

cuckle. I got married by an Apache justce of the peace at the bottom of the grand canyon. shot it myself. Guess I paid 750,000 for it, after the divorce.


2 Weim avatars in the same thread. who'd a thunk?

[StellaBean]

In 1999 we paid about $700 for our photographer. She was great and that was definitely a splurge for our budget. We did not get the negatives though, although I think I had the option to buy them after a certain period of time.

She was referred by a friend and at the time I was not anywhere close to being a photographer.

[matonanjin]

There was no paper currency then. I gave him one horse and two cows.

[mcluckie]

2 Weim avatars in the same thread. who'd a thunk?


Beautiful dogs. Oh, sorry my typos, it was middle of the night in Beijing.

[jblaschke]

When did you get married? 1996

How much did the photography cost? $1,200 IIRC

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Average for the market

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? It was a splurge. We were poor journalists and paid for most of the wedding ourselves on a tight budget.

Did they shoot film or digital? Film - at this point, flat bed scanners were still somewhat newfangledy.

Were you happy? No. The photog was brusque and established no rapport with us, and kept trying to commandeer the ceremony and reception. And not in a "gotta keep to the schedule" way--he wanted to ditch the schedule so he could hit the links or whatever.

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? The more I learn about photography, the more disappointed I am with our wedding shots. We went with this particular studio by default, because it was one of the oldest in town and was the place The Wife's parents took them for family portraits as kids. The photog who shot our wedding was too young ot have been with them originally, and I don't know if he was a new owner or not. But in retrospect, the guy was only in it for the money, and had no artistic investment. Our formal shots have an ugly color cast, the lighting is spotty, and most of the so-called candids were posed by him. All I remember is how awkward I felt holding absurdly "spontaneous" poses as he made his shots.

When The Wife decided to start shooting weddings, the first thing we said was that none of our clients would be as disappointed with their wedding pics as we were with ours.

[Mike]

When did you get married? 2006

How much did the photography cost? £200. It was his first wedding shoot.

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Below

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? This was quite cheap, I think we spent the most on the wine!

Did they shoot film or digital? Digital, Pentax if my memory serves me correctly, he has since switched to Noink.

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? Yes, for a first wedding he did us proud.

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? I was a photographer back then but I wasn't as involved in photography as I am now but I look from time to time at them and he captured some great shots for his level of experience.

[PMCphotography]

I'm getting married next year, and bartering wedding photography. I'm shooting another photog's wedding, he's doing mine.

:)

[czeglin]

When did you get married? 2005

How much did the photography cost?
$2,050 for coverage and proofs
$510 album
$300 individual prints
$300 for negatives on 3 year anniversary

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Average or below. My wife tells me he was "the cheapest one she could find that didn't suck".

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? Comparable, but it wasn't a high priority. I would basically say we got a good bargain. It took my wife a long time to find someone she was happy with inside our budget.

Did they shoot film or digital? Film.

Were you happy? Yes!

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? Yes. Overall I'm definitely happy. The "standard" shots and formals were all pretty good. He got some great shots of the first dance. The last page of our album is a B&W of my wife and I during the first dance that makes me feel like I'm there again.

[monty28428]

When did you get married? 1989

How much did the photography cost? $25.

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Well how much does one photo go for ?

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? At the time it was $40 for the license and Justice of the Peace - so it was a splurge :-)

Did they shoot film or digital? Film

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? Yes I did!

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? As I recall the picture was quite nice.

Well now -- I'm sure you will all be surprised that the marriage lasted a whole year :-) Vegas Baby!

[Jon Foster]

I was married in 1990 and my father in-law's old partner (they owned a wedding photography business before retiring) shot our wedding on medium format film. There was no charge as it was his wedding gift to us. Some of the shots he got were fantastic too.

Edit: Yes, I was into photography at that time...

Jon.

[TamEric]

When did you get married? 2004

How much did the photography cost? ZAR 2500

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? average

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? it was cheaper than others but we paid for everything ourselves and had a tight budget, in comparison to the flowers etc - it was on par

Did they shoot film or digital? Film, on our wedding video you can actually hear the film "rewinding"

Were you happy? NO NO NO - the pics we got were stiff, boring and completely not like his so called portfolio

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? I wasn't a photographer then and i didn't like my pics then - and like them even less now

[woodfrogs]

When did you get married? 2001

How much did the photography cost? $1000.

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Below, we were getting some crazy quotes for photography

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? Maybe cheaped it a little.

Did they shoot film or digital? Film , digital was just coming in around here.

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? At the time I was happy, but I wish we had done more formals in other locations on the site. We got lots of prints, and the negatives in a beautiful case, plus a proof book, so def. worth the money

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? I guess, I think it was her 2nd or 3rd wedding, and she did bring a second photographer(which we didn't pay for).

[CosmoKid]

When did you get married? 2001

How much did the photography cost? $1000.

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Below, we were getting some crazy quotes for photography

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? Maybe cheaped it a little.

Did they shoot film or digital? Film , digital was just coming in around here.

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? At the time I was happy, but I wish we had done more formals in other locations on the site. We got lots of prints, and the negatives in a beautiful case, plus a proof book, so def. worth the money

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? I guess, I think it was her 2nd or 3rd wedding, and she did bring a second photographer(which we didn't pay for).

I went to school in Poughkeepsie. Rheinbeck is a beautiful area. Wish I cared about pictures back then.

[Robert16]

When did you get married? 2006

How much did the photography cost? £1750

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? I don't know. A little above average.

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? I think it was a little more than expected but I loved the guy's work.

Did they shoot film or digital? Digital. A Canon 1Ds mark II.

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? Yes.

Do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? Still love 'em

[djvkool]

When did you get married? 2004

How much did the photography cost? $6,000 AUD - about $4,500 USD back then

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Well above, we used the best photographer in Perth, missus wanted to spend the $$ so who am I to argue..?? :p

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? roughly to the equal proportion, the whole wedding cost $40k AUD

Did they shoot film or digital? Film

Were you happy? I wasn't fussed, buy she was VERY happy...

If you weren't a photographer when you got married, do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? Yep, although I may be able to do better PP digitally, the composition and attention to detail of our photog was second to none :)

[Tom Digital]

My wife and I got married back in 1983. The photographer was a supposed well known photographer from within the small city we got married. He supposedly had a good reputation??? I made arrangements with him to shoot our wedding. I paid him in full before the wedding and we agreed on a package deal of a couple 8x10s and 5x7s and a album. He used 35mm film. I know he took several pictures of which we never saw!!!! I questioned him about them??? He said they just didn't turn out!!!! After our wedding I went to his studio to pick up our package. He tried to charge me another $100.00+ for it!!!! Fortunately he gave me a receipt with everything on it and I had it along with me. After I showed him the receipt he told me to forget about the $100.00+!!!! To bad; but this photographer is no long around!!!!

[canonnoob]

i expect to pay a pretty penny here soon.... i expect to pay someone i trust... from here...

[Robert16]

i expect to pay a pretty penny here soon.... i expect to pay someone i trust... from here...

What's this? Wedding bells?
Have you popped the question?

[tkbslc]

When did you get married? 2001

How much did the photography cost? MIL payed for it, but I think it was about $1500 for a simple in studio engagement shot, 1 hour bridals, and 2 hours on wedding with a big album and some 8x10s and 5x7s. A lot of the guests paid a bit extra for their own prints and I think we paid an extra $175 for a 11x14 canvas of my wife looking gorgeous in her wedding gown - worth every penny. ;)

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? No idea, I did not shop around. I would have to say about average

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? It was probably about 20% of the wedding budget

Did they shoot film or digital? Film - I have some of the negatives and they are 6x6 medium format.

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? Yeah, they are decent shots. Although as I get more skill as a photographer I don't think the photographer was anything special. The shots are very stock and not really creative at all. Good "safe" poses and no special locations

Do you look back and like the pictures as much as you did when you got married? See above. I like them quite a bit - especially my wife's bridals. Very good to go back and see pictures of everyone. It has only been 8 years and each year the pictures seem more valuable.

[canonnoob]

What's this? Wedding bells?
Have you popped the question?
here soon. :D

[Hessam]

When did you get married? 2008

How much did the photography cost? $4,000 - two photographers

Was that average, below or above average for when you were married? Above

Compared to the cost of the wedding, do you think this was comparable to your other costs (flowers, band) or did you splurge/cheap a little compared to the rest of your budget? Splurged since I love photography.

Did they shoot film or digital? Digi

Were you happy? Did you get your money's worth? Yea, I really like a lot of the pictures we have and the photo album is coming along nicely.