B-Day Party

Hey all. I received a call yesterday from a lady interested in me shooting their daughters B-day party......Good for me and I am lost all the same!
I am guessing here: party last 2 hrs, girl is turning 10 I think.
How do you prepare cost for a birthday party? Do you do hr/rate and give pics on CD Copyright free? Do you select the 10-15 of the best shots and edit them and submit them for prints and hopefully sell prints?
What do you all think?

Hmmm..turns out I was wrong! It's a 50th Wedding Anniversary that 3 sisters are throwing for their parents! Sounds like about a 2-3 hr shoot...documentary style and pics on cd for her to choose from.

For a Wedding Anniversary I price them the same as a wedding.
Typically they are on a day I could possibly book a wedding, and they are as much work.

I have a CD only package but i would offer a proof book as an add on.

zagiace wrote in post #10989319
For a Wedding Anniversary I price them the same as a wedding.
Typically they are on a day I could possibly book a wedding, and they are as much work.

I have a CD only package but i would offer a proof book as an add on.

thanks for the input. I personally cannot charge for a wedding package since that is out of my rhelm! I can shoot documentary style, capturing the special moments. We have a negotiated rate and time which includes a cd......she also asked for a price list for prints. I think it will go well.

I have a package for parties including birthday, no takers so far but heres what i got so far. $50 an hour for each hour, and 100% of that goes towards a picture package that they choose. Then I suggest getting the pics put together into a custom leather book from WHCC, which is priced way more than $50.

No takers yet though.

msfvirginia wrote in post #10991865
I have a package for parties including birthday, no takers so far but heres what i got so far. $50 an hour for each hour, and 100% of that goes towards a picture package that they choose. Then I suggest getting the pics put together into a custom leather book from WHCC, which is priced way more than $50.

No takers yet though.

thank you for your ideas and plans as well! I'll have to look up WHCC and see what their products are like.

To be honest, I wasnt 100% satisfied with the book from WHCC, but I received one from shutterfly after that and now the WHCC is looking much better. The pages are thicker, the cover is much better feeling, and whcc doesnt put an add for them in the back like shutterfly.

The books are not cheap, looking at like $40 for a 5x5 or 5x7 I think, about $60 for a 8x8. I started my pricing at like $210 for an 8x8 one with 20 pages and one image per page. Im going to raise those up once I get more established. Right now alot of people have their eyes widened when they hear $200, but people have been liking them.

Theres another thread somewhere about blurg and a 200 page book for like $80 or something like that, but i think its more like a regular book. I forget what forum I seen that on.

Oh and after they buy the book, they may still want prints.

It might be worth bringing a computer and printer with you, to print up a custom card there with a pic from the party and your business info to give to each guest. Theres a thread on some forum *terrible memory* about doing this at wedding receptions but I think it applies here to.

Before you engineer packages that they may not be interested in, ask them what they want. Some people just want the files, and retouching probably isn't necessary unless they are ordering large prints. Perhaps agree to shoot the day, guarantee a minimum number of images that will be color corrected. Either supply those images on CD for a free and be done........or host them in a gallery and give them a price list for prints, albums, and files.

My packages arent really packages, their more a la carte that looks like a package.

I would be hesitnat to give them a cd since you probably wont get more sales. perhaps very low res if they purchase $$$ worth of stuff.

I think a photobook is perfect for parties and anniversaries. its a bunch of pictures that are presented nicely. I would try to sell that before a cd.

updated, just noticed someone charge as much as a wedding for an anniversary, hmm, makes my $50 an hour look cheap since they would only hire me for a couple of hours. I may have to rethink this, hehe.

msfvirginia wrote in post #10994583
updated, just noticed someone charge as much as a wedding for an anniversary, hmm, makes my $50 an hour look cheap since they would only hire me for a couple of hours. I may have to rethink this, hehe.

I do.
The way I look at is this:
As a wedding photographer I have 40-50 Saturdays (in my area) that are high potential. I have equal amount of Fridays and Sundays that also have potential. Those are the days I consider to be prime time and I have a base cost associated for booking events on those day regardless of what those events are. An anniversary takes as much time and effort as a wedding. It also takes one of my prime days off the calendar.

My time is no different, the work is no different, the cost is no different.

If they consider having their event on a Tuesday I would price it accordingly.

how do people react when you quote them $1000 for the day?

Weddings are not my main goal, Ill take them if I can get one, but im a bit weary now that ive had a kidney stone. I guess I just dont see weekend work as wedding value at this point.

msfvirginia wrote in post #10994737
how do people react when you quote them $1000 for the day?

Weddings are not my main goal, Ill take them if I can get one, but im a bit weary now that ive had a kidney stone. I guess I just dont see weekend work as wedding value at this point.

Actually I quote a little more.

I guess you have to ask what is your base cost per event/shoot that you have to actually make a profit?

During my presentation I work hard at describing exactly what hiring me for any of my packages means in value. I am sure if i just simply answered their question of "How Much?" with a few thousand they would scoff.

But I really don't want to book a prime day for $200. I cannot sustain my business by doing that.

Think about it this way. If you were to book every weekend full with $200 events at the end of the year you are bringing in 20k. And you would be very busy. If your marketing was absolutely stellar and your expenses lock down you are probably bringing home 12k a year.

Doesn't motivate me to lower my prices because it may seem to some that I am over charging. I work hard, my expenses are high, my equipment is costly and frankly, I deserve to be able to feed me and my family.

im not saying you should charge less. im just saying I dont see any thousand dollar portraits coming up and portraits are what I focus on. not weddings.

I would ask for you to give your presentation here for us to see, but that would be to much typing and work.