Budgets and flowers and cake, oh my!
I’ve been talking with my little sister about her wedding ideas. She's getting married May 9. Of course, I adore helping her plan and imagine – she’s my only sister! Sisters are very special indeed. Here's a photo from her engagement session, which was so much fun to shoot! Isn't she gorgeous?
One thing we talked about was wedding photography. Since I’ll be standing up in the wedding, I can’t do her photography as well… even though I wish I could! I’ll snap as many photos as I can to satisfy my innate need to take pictures of her, without neglecting my matron of honor duties.
Since she’s on a tight budget, she was talking about how expensive wedding photographers are. When I explained to her why photographers charge as much as we do, it was like turning on a light switch. She got it! And she said that most people don’t know what I just told her. So I thought I’d write about it here.
I was in the same position as my sister. Kevin and I paid for our wedding ourselves, we scrimped, we saved, we made a lot of our own food, and so on. But I knew that people would eventually forget the food, they would forget the invitations I designed, they wouldn’t remember our ceremony – but everything would live on through the photography from the day.
Photography was one area where we didn’t try to cut corners. Our pictures and our album are truly the most important mementoes from that day, when all other details become hazy.
So in explaining this to my sister, I asked why she would want to entrust some of her most cherished photos to someone that only charged a few hundred dollars and handed her the untouched files, end of story?
Here’s what I told her:
1. Good photographers not only have training and experience, but we also have thousands upon thousands of dollars invested in cameras, lenses, flashes, other equipment.
2. Professionals also invest in backup equipment to make sure the wedding day will be covered.
3. Photographers need a really fast computer, as well as very expensive software.
4. Photographers need to make not only a living wage from the 12+ hours we work the day of the wedding, but also the many, many hours editing photos.
5. Professional photographers need to keep our equipment, software, and training up to date, as well as stay on top of other business expenses – websites, online proofing companies, business licenses and accountants and insurance, studio space for some photographers, and the list goes on!
6. And, like any job, the more experience and training you can add to your talent should lead to a higher income.
So you see, this all adds up very quickly! This is why professionals set up their pricing structure the way they do. Not understanding this process can lead to pretty intense sticker shock!
I told my sister that plenty of people hire plumbers for quite a hefty sum, or pay tax professionals hundreds of dollars for their financial expertise, or pay lawyers knowing they are paying for that person’s education and experience. Hiring a photographer is investing in a professional to capture memories from the special day that brides and grooms spend countless hours and dollars anticipating and creating.
As the light went on in my sister’s head, she said that she had never thought of it that way. She said that she was so used to using her $300 point and shoot camera and printing photos at Meijer or Walmart for $0.17 that she didn’t realize what goes into professional photography, or the value of a quality photographer.
So that’s why I’m sharing this story with you! Even if you don’t book a wedding or portrait session with Studio Xplore, I hope this helps you to understand why photographers seem to be so expensive. By hiring a good photographer, you are investing in precious memories of your day, captured by a professional.
