Shannon has been part of the wedding industry for the past 7+ years, functioning as Lead Wedding Planner of her company Periwinkle Events NW. Over these years, she has provided wedding planning services to 100+ amazing couples, and led a team of vendors for ‘Portland’s Venue Crawl’ who turned a downtown ballroom into a wedding reception showpiece. Shannon has also been featured in Art of Weddings, Bridal Musings & PNW Weddings magazine.
Design, vision, and working with others are Shannon’s strong suit. She has planned and facilitated multiple styled shoots, where vendors are able to come together and collaborate to create content. With this experience, she is able to lean into that knowledge when creating a design that brings her couple’s vision to life.
When she is not knee-deep in timelines, vendor correspondence, or designing a sweetheart table, she enjoys experiencing the northwest with family and friends. She loves reading a good book by the fire, listening to live music, walking on the Oregon Coast and visiting as many wineries, brew pubs, and amazing restaurants as she can. She is a native Oregonian and loves living in the PNW, however, she is always daydreaming of her next destination wedding or new place to explore.
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2 comments
I have been asked this so many times... does the wedding industry inflate prices when they hear it's a wedding?
Here is my honest answer (as a former wedding photographer)... NO. Did I charge more for a wedding than a 50th birthday party or a family portrait session? Yes, absolutely. I charged A LOT more for a wedding.
Was I taking advantage of the emotional sell? Absolutely not.
The main reasons I charged more for a wedding were: the unseen amount of work involved in the 12+ months leading up to the wedding, the skill level needed on the day, the INTENSE pressure to create perfect "portfolio level work" no matter what the reality of the situation- but mostly it is to compensate for the time AFTER the wedding in post production.
Little known fact about wedding photography - the real job is sitting at a computer editing photos. Photographers spend many hours behind the computer carefully selecting and editing photos. They make adjustments, crop, and adjust colors to ensure each image it's best. Don't forget the time it takes for batching, renaming, importing, exporting and uploading the photos and preparing them for delivery.
Do you think this justifies why photographers charge more for weddings than for other types of shoots?
Couldn’t agree more! And on the videography side its an absolute ton of data + editing discipline.
Its a double sided coin- weddings are extremely high pressure but also high reward when we nail it.
Our products (photo video) in particular are the only thing that genuinely will last forever . Having fun and ALSO nailing the product is worth the price of entry and frankly more.