Q: What should I expect my bridesmaids to spend to be in my wedding party? Dress cost? What else?
answers:
1 Videos
VIDEO SUMMARY
So to say that a bridesmaid should expect to spend a certain dollar amount at a wedding, it’s an unfair expectation to set, right? It totally depends on you, on what type of day you want. And every couple is different. And some couples, they want to pay for everything for their bridal party, and other couples s expect their bridal parties to cover things, and there’s no wrong way to do it. I think the important thing is to outline what those expenses are and then be very upfront. When you ask someone to be a part of your bridal party and they say yes, let them know, here’s what I have planned, here’s what I expect the expenses will be. And then you don’t have unrealistic expectations going into it, right? Because a bridesmaid who may have never been a part of a wedding before, she might not have any idea that she’s got to buy shoes, she’s got to buy jewelry, she’s got to buy a dress. Maybe it has to be a certain dress. If you’re requiring a certain dress and you’re requiring certain jewelry and you’re acquiring certain shoes, you need to be upfront about that. So I think that whatever your expectations are, it’s just super important to be upfront with them and to have good planning yourself so that you don’t set anyone else up for failure and then you don’t have any hurt feelings down the road. So.
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.