What Is A Wedding Photographer's Average Cost?
How Much Do Wedding Photographers Cost?
What is a wedding photographer’s average cost?
According to Marcus by Goldman Sach’s, a June 2019 summer wedding survey, 75% of Americans that planned a wedding over the past 5 years had a budget. 60% of the couples with a budget underestimated the cost of their wedding. Experts indicate that couples underestimate their wedding costs, on average, by 45-50%!!
On average, the majority of couples estimate their total wedding expenses will be in the neighborhood of $16,000. However, in reality, their weddings cost $28,000 - $33,000. This difference is staggering and if you’re like most couples, you can’t just snap your fingers and make another $15,000 appear.
This isn’t meant to scare you, it’s meant to prepare you.
wedding Photographers Average Cost
The average cost of a wedding photographer is largely dependent on your specific area. The cost of a wedding photographer in New York City will be much higher compared to Upstate, NY. The last time I checked, weddings in New York City averaged $76,000, while weddings in Upstate NY averaged $30,000.
So, how do you determine the average cost of a wedding photographer in your area? My favorite resource has always been www.costofwedding.com. Simply enter a few basic pieces of information and the site will provide you with an overview of average wedding costs in your area. They usually show you a price and then you have to click to see additional costs associated with that detail. For example, you might see that wedding photography costs $2,000 in your area. However, when you click to see the additional costs, the total might actually be $3,000 once you consider that couples also got an engagement session, prints, etc…
Knowing the average amount of wedding expenses in your area will allow you to more accurately develop a budget. The last thing you want is to be blindsided by a budget that is $15,000 short. Wedding expenses, especially wedding photographers, are usually much higher than people anticipate. It’s important to remember that hiring a photographer is not like buying a commodity (coffee, pencils, etc…). When you hire a wedding photographer, you’re really buying their personality, experience, creativity, professionalism, etc…
What Can Price Tell You About A Wedding Photographer?
The first thing I want to stress is that everything shared in this section is being communicated as “general rule.” There are always exceptions to every rule.
Wedding photography is expensive because being a wedding photographer is expensive. While many people believe wedding photographers work 8 hours a day and make thousands of dollars, they are sadly mistaken. Most wedding photographers spend at least 30-40 hours per 8 hour wedding. This includes meetings, emails, engagement sessions, photographing the wedding, editing, etc… The price of a wedding photographer can tell you a lot about the quality and experience you’re going to receive. And I don’t want you to take my word for it, Google cheap wedding photographers and check out some of the stories. It’s really scary.
For the purposes of this article, let’s begin with free photographers. That’s right, free! Many couples, consider the option of having a friend or family member photograph their wedding. They know someone that loves photography and they already have a “nice” camera.
Sounds perfect, right?
99% of the time, this idea is disastrous. I can’t even begin to tell you how many friendships or family relationships have been ruined over this. If you watch a professional wedding photographer at work, they can make it appear easy. However, when you’re actually the person responsible for photographing the wedding, you realize all of the difficulties you never imagined. Worlds start to crumble. I know actual professional photographers - with no wedding photography experience - agree to photograph a wedding for a friend or family member. Their photos were awful! You would never know they are a professional photographer. They were so flustered and stressed-out by the experience they vowed to never photograph a wedding ever again.
What about the cheap photographer? This photographer might be charging hundreds of dollars or $1,000-$1,500 to photograph a wedding. In my experience, it’s this photographer that’s most dangerous to couples. A lot of the devious or scammer type photographers fall within this price range. Many of them do an excellent job at convincing you that you’re going to get the same quality, if not better, than a photographer charging $3,000. Too many couples get their photos and their hearts stop. And not in a good way. As they sit there looking at underexposed, overexposed and blurry photos, they suddenly realize the $1,000 price was the worst $1,000 they every spent. Their wedding photos and memories are gone.
In this price range, we also see a lot of photographers that collect a deposit and then never show on the wedding day. Or they photograph the wedding and then disappear without delivering a single photo.
That brings us to the really expensive photographer. Many photographer have earned the right to charge a premium for their work and it’s up to couples to decide whether or not they want to pay that premium. However, there are also many photographers out there charging very high prices for their services because they want you to believe more expensive is better. If it’s the most expensive, it must also be the best, right? Unfortunately, no. This is nothing more than a marketing gimmick for many photographers.
Choosing the Right Photographer Is Hard
I will be the first to tell you, that choosing the right wedding photographer is hard. The news is constantly filled with horror stories of couples being scammed and we see this a lot with wedding photography. Unfortunately, there are several reasons for this:
Quality cameras today have never been more affordable or accessible
Social media platforms make it extremely easy for anyone to set up a free business page and call themselves a professional
Stylized wedding shoots. This is where a group of photographers pay to photograph staged wedding scenes using models and perfect environments. This only shows the type of photos someone can take in a controlled environment - it doesn’t show what the photographer can do with the time constraints and pressures of a real wedding day or having to get the photo perfect when you only have one shot. During these stylized wedding shoots, if you’re lacking creative ideas, you can look to one of the photographers around you for inspiration. You don’t have this luxury during a real wedding. To me, this is false advertising. They lead couples to believe they are getting an experienced wedding photographer.
Fake portfolios. This is one of the fastest growing problems facing the wedding industry. Inexperienced photographers that want to photograph weddings are stealing photos from real working wedding photographers, and creating portfolios using these photos. Again, couples are tricked into believing they are buying something much better than they are actually getting.
When Choosing Your Wedding Photographer, Choose Wisely!
The following is a true story.
A bride was immediately attracted to the Facebook ad “Affordable Wedding Photography.” She liked the photos so she called and booked the photographer for her fall wedding. $1,000 for a full day of coverage. This should have been a red flag, but she was so proud of herself for finding such an amazing deal!
On the day of her wedding, the photographer arrived 90 minutes late and provided no explanation. She noticed throughout the day, her photographer was constantly fiddling with his camera. She started to feel anxious and asked her photographer if she could see some shots. Her photographer reluctantly showed her some pictures. They were underexposed, blurry and very awkwardly framed. She didn’t know what to do or say, but she was becoming more and more concerned.
Now comes the good part.
A couple of weeks after the wedding, her nerves got the best of her, so she reached out to her photographer to see how the photos were coming along.
No response.
A few days later, she followed up again.
No response.
She waited another few days and followed up for a third time.
No response.
She had no idea what to do. About 6 weeks after the wedding, she finally heard from her photographer with no explanation or apology for ignoring her previous e-mails. The photographer called and said that he accidentally lost her photos and couldn’t get them back. She was furious and demanded a refund. The photographer refused to refund her money and hung up on her. She never heard from her photographer again; however, she later learned she wasn’t the only one scammed by this photographer. It eventually came out that her photographer preyed on unsuspecting couples and his portfolio consisted of photos stolen from other photographers.
Hopefully, this article has provided you with some tools to help you create an accurate budget for your wedding. I also hope it’s given you some ideas on how to avoid some common issues with choosing a wedding photographer and other wedding professionals.
If you’d like any more information or have any questions, please be sure to share your comment. Don’t forget to share this article with anyone you feel might benefit from it.