It’s so bonkers to film a wedding.

Is there a wedding markup? Are wedding vendors just greedy jerks who want to fleece? You know, we are generally honest, hardworking, creative people who want to be paid fairly for our time. Yes.

You’re not crazy. There’s absolutely Wedding market and Libby Dollar. I’ve shot weddings in 26 states. So this is not regional commentary at all.

I would say wedding markup is definitely not a thing.

Is there a wedding markup on services? Kind of. But not without good explanation.

Listen, a wedding is an entirely different event than, say, like a birthday party or baby shower. If you were to lie to a vendor to get a cheaper rate and that vendor showed up and it was something else, that vendor could leave because they are not prepared.

You have to be prepared to film a wedding. The timelines are so different, the pressure is different. You have to bring different equipment. It’s so bonkers to film a wedding. To give you an example, the cinematographers of Hollywood and the TV industry don’t want to touch weddings because these are live events with extremely tight turnarounds. And you kind of have to be a little crazy to like doing them because you can’t really redo an event.

So everything has to be perfect, perfect the first time out. That’s a lot of stress and a lot of pressure. And not only that, but you have to change your entire personal life beforehand. You have to make sure you don’t get hurt. You have to make sure that your limbs work. I mean, it’s just crazy things you have to do.

So, yeah, there’s a markup.

I’m a wedding photographer based in Montana. And yeah, I can definitely say, you know, when I photograph an event, it’s going to be cheaper than a wedding. But the reason behind this is the amount of effort that goes into a normal event is going to be just substantially less on my part. For example, I’m shooting a bar mitzvah this weekend.

They hired me for a couple hours. I talked to them once on the phone. I’m going to show up. I’m going to do the pictures. I’ll edit, get them to. I’m pretty easy. We’re, on the other hand, with a wedding that is months and months of preparation. Usually there’s like maybe an engagement shoot. There’s an album design looking at just a massively long day now.

There’s just a lot more work that goes into it. Even just things down to coordinating a schedule, bringing on additional help normal. Then I can show up, I can do it by myself. But a wedding is going to take more people from my team. I’m probably going to have to hire out an editor as well. Just with the amount of weddings that I’m doing in a summer and the quality that needs to come with the images, just, you know, weddings are one of those once in a lifetime things and they have to be done right.

Whether it’s explicitly stated or not. Weddings are expected to be perfect. Getting close to perfect requires more and more and more time, money, preparation, expertise, assistants, all this kind of stuff. If I’m going to photograph family photos on a Wednesday evening at a park and I get sick or something happens with my family, I can reschedule. If the weather’s terrible, if my camera breaks, I can reschedule.

We can do it again. You can’t do a wedding again. You can’t just mess up an hour worth of photos. Oh, heck, I had the wrong settings on. No, you are expected for all of ten, 12, 14 hours that you’re there to produce evidence of every single thing that happens in the most artistic way that can grow with your portfolio And all of this kind of stuff. Other events that are as do or die, that have a firm date, that have high expectations, are price the same as weddings, events that can be rescheduled or are lower priority or have lower expectations.

Those are the things that get a discount.

You. Hi, I’m Lyn, a New England wedding photographer, and I want to talk about one of the things I see go wrong. A lot that is easily fixed on a wedding day, and that is a bride really struggling to get into her dress on her wedding day and finalize her outfit and then running late because of it, late to the ceremony, late to the first look. And this is easily avoidable if you just make sure that you try on your full wedding dress, including all of the undergarments or boob tape and all the other things you’re going to do for that day before the wedding day itself. You want to make sure you take the time to put all of those garments on to button every single button, to hook every single eye. Hook whatever you have to do to make sure that you have your full wedding look on yourself to see how long that takes, if it’s going to take you a lot longer than you thought, or if the tape that you need to do actually shows through. Or maybe there’s a finicky piece that is going to take longer to deal with now, you know, and you can budget time for that so that you’re not running behind and getting stressed.

Outdoor and auxiliary noise during your ceremony. Hi, I’m Jason Monroe. I’m the owner and operator of highway 61 films. We’ve been making wedding videos in Chicago since 2009. And one issue I see, and especially with weddings that are happening in city centers, is if you’re doing a ceremony outdoors and you are in a city center, you’re close to the action. A lot of times there can be auxiliary noise that is just really undesirable. Perhaps you are close to city transit trains. If your city has a train system in it, and the trains can be very loud going by during the ceremony and you’re saying your vows or emergency vehicles with sirens going off sometimes can be very disruptive of ceremonies. I’ve seen people pause and wait for several sirens to go by or several trains or let’s say you’re close to an airport. A lot of times, planes landing off or landing and taking off can be problematic. And especially this is something I noticed, too, for us. We’re doing video and we’re trying to capture audio of your ceremony. And sometimes I’ve seen it where it can be funny in certain moments if the efficient knows how to spin it, but a lot of times it can be bad. And we don’t want to discourage people from booking outdoor ceremony venues, but it’s just something to be aware of.

Who’s paying me. My name is Jean. I’m an event planner in the Philadelphia area. And for weddings, I’m mostly seeing the couple pay me. It’s funny. If it’s a check, it might be from the parents, but if it’s Venmo, it’s from the couple, so and but most often it is venmo, and most often it is from the couple. So unless they offer the details of who’s paying for what and how they’re working their finances, I don’t ask for my own payment or our vendor team. But my assumption is that the couple is paying for things and then maybe their families are reimbursing them for some expenses. But I’m seeing the couple. Thanks.

I as a wedding planner, I would say about 75% of the time it is the couples that are paying for us directly because families are maybe paying for the wedding and they are seeking our help to make sure when they’re spending and budgeting for the wedding correctly, because they’ve been given this much for the wedding. But that other 25% who are just tired of hearing from their bride or their daughter complain and moms are like, hey, we need help. I will pay for you specifically to help us out. So that is just like a two fold answer. But majority of the time, it is the couples paying for us as planners.

It. I would have to say from my perspective as a planner, the most difficult time for couples is 30 minutes before the wedding, and that is during that hurry up and wait time because you have hurried up and gotten your dress, got makeup done, gotten to the venue, hurried up and ate, hurry up and did all these photos and now you’re just waiting? You are waiting for guests to arrive. You’re awaiting until you’re about to go down the aisle. And nervousness, anxiety, all those things set in 30 minutes before the grooms are like, am I making the right decision, bro, do you have the rings? Brides are like, Did I do this? Did I forget this? Did I remember this? Are guests having a good time? Are they sitting where they’re supposed to sit? So that becomes the most difficult time. What I would say to you is, during that waiting period, relax. Let go and release. What I mean is relax and be in the moment. Let go of the worries of things didn’t get done. Release whatever anxiety and stressors you have and be in the moment and realize what you’re about to do. You’re about to walk down the aisle to meet your favorite person. And during that 30 minutes of high anxiety, be confident and confide in I am making the right decisions. It’s go time.

Hot. Take it’s. You hi friends. I’m Vanessa Rose from the papery, here to tell you that the most difficult part about your wedding is you and the timeline you think you’re going to follow. Everything on your wedding day takes twice as long. I’m going to say that again. Twice as long as you think it does. Twice as long as it takes you on a regular day like today. When you are looking at your wedding day timeline, please be realistic when you’re planning it out. And please speak to the professionals on your wedding team. Or better yet, get a day of coordinator to walk you through this hair and makeup. You need to plan buffers in between each person. Getting beauty services to account for bathroom breaks, getting a phone call, not being ready at the very moment they need to sit in a chair. Give yourself ample time through that bridal morning to make sure that beauty flows effortlessly when you stack it up, unrealistically and cram it all together because you don’t want to sit in a chair at seven in the morning. You are your own worst enemy. Moving, getting in and out of vehicles, moving from location to location, traveling around your venue property. It all takes longer than you think it does. You’re also moving more people in outfits they don’t wear every day, in shoes they may have never worn before. Just stop the insanity. Take a step back, think about the day and add more time. If that means you need to push cocktail, if that means you need to start beauty earlier, do whatever you need to do to give yourself breathing room in your timeline. And then you won’t become your worst enemy and the most difficult part of your day. Keep in mind this also applies to photography. Please don’t plan 17 family shots in a 20 minutes window. Good luck.