General Question

Ok I have been working on setting up my business and I have the branding and name and stuff all set up. I am looking at the other photographers in the area and I am noticing that they are guaranteeing brides at least 800-1000 photos (prints) for 8 hours of coverage. Is this a common thing? I am hesitant about promising an certain number of prints to a client. Depending on the number of hours I am shooting I cull around 10-25% on average. Maybe I have a horrible ratio but I don't think I have ever given a bride 800 photos from one day of shooting.

Think different: offer 300 quality prints instead of 800 average ones. If you give a bride 800 prints (which is a stack about six inches high) they're overwhelmed usually, it's just too many prints.

Thanks Tim thats what I was thinking, less prints or a print credit.

What are the brides in the area expecting to receive from 8 hours of shooting?
Perhaps the local photographers have been "spoiling" them with so many prints. This could be the perfect time for you to step in and offer a different perspective to the brides.

I agree with Tim, too many is overwhelming and then the bride has to cull them too!

I tell people I give them around 300 images, and tell them how long it'd take if they had to look through every image I took and decide which if the 3-4 of each group shot to choose. Culling's a service, sell it as such.

800-1000? thats crazy! think how long it would take to let the bride choose which ones would go into the album!!
id say 300 good shots is more then enough.

to offer 800 photos seems excessive because either they are providing multiple versions of the same shot (only a bonus for certain key moments perhaps, or if different POV on same moment) or they are shooting like madmen and providing a lot of snapshots. That's how it seems to me anyway. I guess the other option is that they have a few photographers all capturing unique perspectives and covering different areas of the wedding, but this seems unlikely and unnecessary for a typical wedding.