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?
4 comments
As a guest, I would want the welcome bags.
And also as a non-drinker, as a guest I'd prefer the welcome bag.
As a former bartender and now someone whose life is on the line when drunk people are handed sparklers, I'm going to say Late Night Food. BUT, I've been to a handful of weddings where the late night food was a total waste because there wasn't enough time for people to get hungry OR because it wasn't really a party crowd and so the numbers just weren't there when the late night food showed up.
Late Night Food is amazing if: 1) There's a long time between dinner service and the end of the night. I'd guess people start looking for a snack about 3 hours after dinner, so if your reception has 5 hours between the end of dinner and the end of the night, you're a GENIUS if you do late night snack. AND 2) You know your guests and you can be reasonably sure people are going to actually stay for the whole reception and actually need/want something greasy to soak up the booze at that time of day.
If you meet those two criteria, you almost NEED a late night snack, and you certainly won't regret it.
I think i'd vote for the late night food. I was at a wedding near Philly and there were Cheese Steaks for everyone toward the end of the reception...not only did I eat multiple, but it was cool to feel like we're getting a legendary food in the land of the cheesesteak. Calling no late-night food a safety issue is amazing, too hahaha.
As an alternative to either one, you could offer free Uber/Lyft rides from the reception if there's not an easy shuttle or a lot of people are local and therefore driving home...I prob wouldn't do this unless we got free money from a genie though, or unless we wanted to GUARANTEE a party atmosphere at the reception.