12 Hour Wedding - ? Hourly cost?

Hi guys...

I have a bride who has recently contacted me to book one my cheapest wedding package, at $800. What i call the "digital only package," that includes 5 hours of wedding coverage.

I typically only charge an extra $50 an hour for extra hours of shooting, but this particular bride wants an extra 7 hours.

Bringing this 12 hour wedding to a total of $1150.

Is $50 an hour fair to charge for an extra 7 hours?

I've never had a bride schedule THAT many extra hours before so I'm not sure how to go about this lol

thanks!

Sounds pretty inexpensive to me, but it's not like you can raise your prices now. I wouldn't discount further if I were you though.

Good luck!
K

if it were me i would charge her between 75 and 150 and hour and if it was too much... she could find another photographer

^ what K said.

Your prices are low enough already - $50 for each additional is cheap. I get $100/hr for each additional, and people book extra hours frequently.

Good luck.

KFormus wrote in post #13273963
Sounds pretty inexpensive to me, but it's not like you can raise your prices now. I wouldn't discount further if I were you though.

Good luck!
K

I agree 100%

edit:
i count on 4 hours of work for every hour of shooting. between traveling, meetings, prep, post processing, backing up, mailing, etc etc.
$50 an hour would be $10/hour, not even considering any overhead

if your typical session is 5 hours, and she's asking for 12... that's not 7 additional hours, that's two sessions, plus 2 hours.... so... $800 x 2 + 2 additional hours x $50 = $1700.. which is still extraordinarily low for 12 hours worth of shooting.

I agree with everyone. Your going to producing many more photos for the additional hours. I wouldn't sell yourself short you are going form $160 per hour for your package to $50.... I would negotiate a higher price since 12 hours is exhausting and your work with post will be much more. Im looking at wedding photographers for my wedding coming next year and i know i would expect to pay a lot more for an additional 7 hours of work.

Yeah ... that's what I was thinking.

Although I'm not too sure if I can go back now since I already said $50 an hour. Darnit.
I'm not even sure this wedding is worth shooting.

I appreciate the advice guys

I do know the bride's budget is around $1500, I may just charge her the $1500, chop off an hour or two, and call it a day and a favor.

If you have already told her what you charge, it seems that changing that now is going to be tough.

All I can say is 12 hours is a LLLoooooooonnnnnnggggg​gg day. One thing to realize is in 12 hours you are going to take a LOT more photos.. It will requite more culling time..more downloading time...it will require more editing time..more batteries.. more cf cards... more DVD's.. probably more locations too.

There is a big difference between a 5 hour wedding and a 12 hour one.

$50/hour extra? Really? You need to change that. I realize what you want to do - provide a way to stay for an extra hour if needed. But limit it. Say that additional hours are a method to ensure that you can cover the event should it run over the scheduled time, and that extra hours are limited to one or two, and any additional would require a bump in price up to the next package level or something.

I simply charge what I charge and if I need to stay an extra hour, I will without a problem. I won't stay an extra 7 hours, that would require a new quote. Basically I include a buffer hour at no charge because weddings are never exactly on time. But this is built into my pricing anyway.

I agree you need to change your prices, but you've already told this bride what you charge. At this point I don't think you can raise your prices on her due to you realizing that YOU have made a pricing mistake.

Btw, can I ask what's included in your "Digital Only" package? If you include a disc you are also cutting yourself off of print and album sales so you are probably going to walk away from this losing money. I'd seriously reconsider restructuring your packages.

I agree also, price change is in order

Believe me, I'm working on that as of now