Reasonable budget for half day wedding?

Daniel_Paul

Daniel_Paul

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So my sister is getting married next year and asked if I would photograph her wedding for her and after initially saying yes (caught me off guard slightly and put on the spot) I have now come to my senses and told her I can't do it. For a number of reasons, not having done it before, not having sufficient kit etc etc

I did say however that I would ask around and see what sort of budget she should expect to pay. It's a late afternoon wedding (4pm) with photos up until evening 7/8 o'clock.

Having never done this sort of thing I have no idea what she should expect to pay (I know everyone will be different). I'm not even sure if this is the place to ask to be honest so accept my apologies if not!
 
There is a huge spectrum of prices for weddings with countless variables not least of all is dependent on the location you are looking at. When i got married last year we initially budgeted for 1200 quid and being honest that was roughly the going rate at the wedding fairs we went to with a couple of exceptions either side of that figure. The cheaper ones we saw and spoke to either had a crap portfolio or just didn't put me at ease and the more expensive ones were well outside of what we could sensibly afford (and being completely honest i don't think their portfolios warranted the prices they were charging compared to the ones around the 1200 mark). In the end we opted for a guy who charged us about 700 for a dvd only package who had a deal on for the fair we met him at, his work was really good and he put me at ease quickly (i am the camera shy one in our house and so needed to be able to feel relaxed around the person). As it turned out he has a pretty good reputation which we didn't know about at the time as the lead tog for liverpool fashion week as well as doing london and new york fashion weeks on a pretty much annual basis too along with various other bits too. I am guessing he could probably charge a fair bit more than he was but from what he has told me since he just enjoys shooting people and events so would rather charge a bit less and be booked year round than charge a bit more and do less weddings for the same income.
 
To get an idea of price you would need to supply much more information. I.e date, album requirements, location (less photographers in remote places so travelling expenses)
 
Thanks for the replies. The wedding will be on the South Coast (Chichester) on the 12th May. I'm pretty sure they would only require images on a USB or CD to be honest.
 
I've just popped wedding photographer chichester into google and gone through about 5 or 6 sites, all offering packages covering a few bases. Cheapest i found was £500 which was a dvd/usb only, most expensive was £2k with an album included, so it really is a case unfortunately that your sister needs to set a budget and work to it sorry. Apologies if that seems like a bit of a blow off type of reply as that isn't intended but with no idea of budget it's quite hard to really narrow it down other than to give you a minimum sort of price. There are a number of them that also offer bespoke deals though so with it being a 4pm wedding you may be able to work something out but that is really just speculating
 
keeweeman said:
I've just popped wedding photographer chichester into google and gone through about 5 or 6 sites, all offering packages covering a few bases. Cheapest i found was £500 which was a dvd/usb only, most expensive was £2k with an album included, so it really is a case unfortunately that your sister needs to set a budget and work to it sorry. Apologies if that seems like a bit of a blow off type of reply as that isn't intended but with no idea of budget it's quite hard to really narrow it down other than to give you a minimum sort of price. There are a number of them that also offer bespoke deals though so with it being a 4pm wedding you may be able to work something out but that is really just speculating
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No you're right and I did a similar search myself and let her know. I kind of knew what I was asking was a bit silly to begin with! Thank you though :D
 
Just to add - although its shorter than normal coverage it is a Saturday, and most charge more for a Saturday on the basis of it being a full day's shoot

Personally I don't have a short coverage option for Saturdays, so if most are like me it'll be a full day charge regardless

If she can afford it, £1000 ish probably gets you someone worth having, £500 someone who may do a good enough job. Less than £500 is likely to be a part-timer (who could be great) or someone just playing at it (who could be awful)

Good luck finding someone :)

Dave
 
DG Phototraining said:
Just to add - although its shorter than normal coverage it is a Saturday, and most charge more for a Saturday on the basis of it being a full day's shoot

Personally I don't have a short coverage option for Saturdays, so if most are like me it'll be a full day charge regardless

If she can afford it, £1000 ish probably gets you someone worth having, £500 someone who may do a good enough job. Less than £500 is likely to be a part-timer (who could be great) or someone just playing at it (who could be awful)

Good luck finding someone :)

Dave
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Thanks Dave,

You're right, I think its worth her finding someone with the style of images she likes and going from there. Our wedding photographer we found on gumtree of all places and was £500 from church to wedding breakfast however that was quite a number of years ago and in fairness he was excellent, we were really pleased however as you rightly say you could get one or the other in terms of experience!
 
I think something like £1k is a good starting point, easy to find people charging less as well as people charging more. You are looking at about 5 hours coverage so would be surprised if anyone came in less than £500 and would be worried if they can.
 
DG Phototraining said:
Just to add - although its shorter than normal coverage it is a Saturday, and most charge more for a Saturday on the basis of it being a full day's shoot

Personally I don't have a short coverage option for Saturdays, so if most are like me it'll be a full day charge regardless

If she can afford it, £1000 ish probably gets you someone worth having, £500 someone who may do a good enough job. Less than £500 is likely to be a part-timer (who could be great) or someone just playing at it (who could be awful)

Good luck finding someone :)

Dave
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Like Dave said a lot won't offer short coverage for a Sat and especially in a popular month like May (I don't either).

It's also fairly soon so a lot will already be booked on that date so she should maybe try to find someone sooner rather than later.

Agree around £1k is a reasonable budget for a May weekend date, hope she finds someone and that they have an amazing day (and you get to enjoy it too).
 
£1000 sounds “right” - however you can guarantee you’ll find someone who will do it for £199 on Groupon.....
 
It's not just the half day though is it, but all the work to process the images afterwards as well. People forget that.
 
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