You are paying an artist for their style, time, and expertise to preserve the biggest day of your life. So when you see varying priced packages, you may wonder, what is that all about? Are the prices arbitrary numbers selected to be competitive or do they actually represent a rate for a service or product you're purchasing?
Let me fill you in...
Like any expert, a photographer knows this process down to the minute. From the moment you start getting ready to when you'll meet up to look through your images. There is a rhythm and timeline to each part of this process and if done right, a photographer has done the work to calculate their pricing to reflect the time required to create and deliver exceptional images.
All that to say I can only speak for myself, and here's how mine breaks down,
Shoot Time
I have learned through the years that the amount of time required to capture a wedding depends on what the couple wants to preserve. You'll be so busy throughout the course of your day you probably won't notice my camera (you might not even notice me, haha, just kidding) but 6-hours is the minimum amount of time needed to capture your day. From getting ready thru the ceremony or the ceremony thru reception, 6 hours usually covers that. If that isn't enough time (and it wasn't for me) I, like most photographers, have additional packages to accommodate longer timeframes.
Editing Time
This is the bulk of the time, and the hardest to wrap one's mind around but let me help you out.
Once your guests have gone home, the celebration is cleaned up, and you (hopefully) are relaxing in a hot tub with your love, my work has just begun. At the end of a 6-hour day, I have between 500-600 images to process, curate, and stylize before I deliver the gallery to you. This takes 40-hours minimum.
Clerical Time
There is about 8-hours of clerical time for planning, updating you on progress, and reconnecting to deliver the finished gallery. I could skip this and go dark but if I did that, here's how that would go, at about week two of post wedded bliss, you'll start to wonder if you'll ever see your pictures, you might even be wondering if you were swindled by a snake-oil salesman. It's not a good feeling and the main reason why I have built into my process frequent and clear communication points.
Capturing this day is a really big deal, I don't take your trust in me and the decision to work with me for granted. Making time for clear communication is important to maintaining that trust and reassuring you that you made the best decision.
Bottom Line
Something as renewable and common as money shouldn't be calling the shots on how well the most important decision of your life is persevered. This decision is beautiful and worth more than all the money in the world. Be mindful of who you choose and make sure whoever you ask has an artistic style you love and who passionately pays attention to the details of your story.
Xx, Bethany
Hey!
How's it going?
I'm Bethany!
I am a born and raised Oregon artist, photographer, and moment junkie. Most days you can find me in a tattered eighties sweater and jeans, cold coffee in hand, chasing my kids.