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?
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I will kick things off here... I've been married for a long time, but you always remember your wedding day. The good memories stand the test of time and all the little issues tend to be forgotten over the years. Sorta.
It's a funny thing how pivotal this time is for your relationships with family, future family (in laws!) and your "best" friends. It's been 25 years since my own wedding and I still remember the name of the guy that reached out the week of the wedding asking where his invitation was (um, he wasn't invited!). We scrambled, changed seating arrangements, hotel roommates... and.... HE DIDN'T SHOW!!!
Does he remember this? No way. But I do. Because I was the bride and it was my wedding.
So- to this question about having a Bridal Buffer... my bridal buffer was my mom. She was my rock. My favorite person. I asked her to handle the rest of our family on the wedding day so that I could be present. We have a small family but they were all from out of town, coming to the "big city" and had A LOT of questions. I am so thankful my wonderful mother stepped up and was my bridal buffer on my own wedding day.