How much did you pay for wedding photography?

Sorry that is such a rude question :hide: but it seems to range heaps!

Also what did you get in your package for the price that you paid?

Did you get a wedding album done straight away? I am thinkng about leaving out the cost of a wedding album and having that done for our first wedding anniversary as a 'paper' gift to each other.

It's still all quite expensive though.

Advice I ahve been given though by so many is to skimp on the photogrpahy as that is what you take away after the occasion is all said and done.

Any replies will be much appreciated :)

Excluding the reception our wedding photography was our most expensive item. We went over and above what our intitial package cost us as we loved her photos so much that we couldnt resist buying extra pages for the album, in the end we doubkled the size of the package album.:o

We were married in 2001 and the cost back then was approx $2100 for a 20 page album and her attendance at the wedding, she left the reception by 7.30 - we didnt want her there as then we would have to pose for photos with relatives who would never buy them and not enjoy our wedding as much, we both come from big european families and this was a real consideration of ours.:rolleyes: No way was I going to pose with 200 plus people!

Soooo anyway in the end we spent over $5000 on the album and a couple of framed photos. She was an expensive photographer tho, but it was all definitely worth it. People still comment on how lovely our photos are and I wouldnt change a thing, cost and all.:D

$3000.
Included two photographers, photos getting ready before hand, then they went ahead to do groomsmen etc at teh cremony venue.
Plus all the normal shots after, and then an hour at the reception. All up I think it woul dhave been close to 6 hours.

I got regular photographic size and high quality proofs in an albumn, a coffee table book albumn of the shots I chose, and the DVD of all the shots taken on the day.
She also spent hours airbrushing out all the graffiti from the rotundah (whihc although had been freshly painted the week before the wedding, was covered in hideous tagging the day we got married) which I did not ask for, nor did she charge etc for it, just did it to make the photos better.

They are both professional, courteous, considerate, produced gorgeous photos, were sympathetic to our particular issues on the day (my mum was dying of cancer and not well) so worked around us.

It was the third most expensive thing by a long way - short only to the reception itself and my custom made dress. Nothing else came close to the expense of the photos, but I wouldn't trade them for the world and think that it is honestly the best thing you can spend your money one.
After it is all said and done you may remember very little of the actual details of the day - it is a such a blur or people and conversations and excitement and nerves and planning, it is so so nice to photos of things I wasn't there for (like before the ceremony, walking down the aisle, my mum watching me while I was saying my vows etc) and other little things I don't quite remember.

Not sure where you are, but if you are in Melbourne, happy to recommend, her name is Chistine O'Shea - Coshphotography and she was amazing. If you google she has a website.

HTH :)

Thanks Ang and Lime,

Very helpful :)

I am getting married in Fiji so will be paying the expense of flying a photographer over as well.

I have been in contact with a photogrpaher in Fiji and his work is great and highly recommended and even though it is much cheaper than flying a photographer over, I am not sure I trust the quality/editing process.

Like Lime our photographer also took photos before hand as we got ready and her partner went to the grooms house to take photos. She was so easy to work with, really listened to our requests and took command of the day ( we had a couple of unruly groomsman who just like to play up sometimes!). Was well worth paying her.

$1500-1600 that was us getting ready, the man at the Church before the reception, and the whole way until the first dance after cutting the cake. We got all the discs of all the photos taken as well as a completely gorgeous album. We had over 800 pictures from the photographer on the disc.

We were really lucky - we came across and friend of a friend of my MIL who did professional photography (including lots of weddings) kind of as a hobby rather than full time career. She charged $400, and we were supposed to get 120 6x8 prints and a CD of all the photos, but we actually ended up with 180 photos (at no extra cost) because she said she couldn't part with so many of the photos.
We had photos of us getting ready before the ceremony, the actual ceremony, and then lots of photos afterward. She did the standard 'pretend to cut the cake photo', but apart from that she didn't do any photos at our reception.

We had a friend do ours for us and TBH i was happier with them than some of the professional photos we've had done.

We paid $2500 and I think it is the worst money we spent on our wedding day.

The person who was supposed to be doing our photos couldn't make it so he sent his partner, who had no people skills at all. She couldn't look us in the eye when speaking to us, she actually looked away when talking to us.
She took stupid pics of us hugging everyone after we got married. Just useless back-of-the-head shots. She was sitting down eating when we did the garter & bouquet throws. I had to ask her to take photos and she didn't get 1 shot of our wedding cars :(

If I had my time again I would probably spend the money on a good camera and have someone I trust to take the photos. Trust me, they would have come out better than the ones we paid for :(

$3800. This included pre-shoot, photos on the day of the wedding. We got all the photos on CD so we can print them out whenever.

Got i think 100 prints, a 20 page hardcover (mega heavy book) and 1 framed picture (large)

I think about $3300? That included both of us getting ready, beautiful natural shots, massage for DH, and then he hung around at the reception for ages (only half an hour was included in the package, but I think he was having a good time!) and took some gorgeous shots there. We got a full set of regular photographic size prints, and $400 worth of enlarged prints.
The photos are amazing, and I don't regret spending the money for a second. That said, the photos that friends and rellies took are amazing too, and a wonderful complement.

I would go with the Fijian photographer, and get some family and friends to take their own photos as well. We had a BBQ the next day, and had a laptop there, so we got everyone's photos together and shared them.
Alternatively, what about flying a photography student over with you? Bit cheaper, and you'll still get amazing stuff. They're also often not as bound by copyright, and more open to sharing options.

our ceremony was a bit different to normal, so our photographer altered the price to suit us. It was a night and outside aswell so needed a really good photographer who could pull it off.
In saying that it only cost us $1500 for 2 hours of her time. and that included before hand, the ceremony photos afterwards and then moving to another location and havig more photos taken.
We got unlimited photos on a dvd - which she had colour version and b&w versions of them all (think there was over 2000 photos) and a few she edited extra.
it would have been extra to get prints/album though.
I was really really happy with the photography. if you want i can give you her details, or show you some of ours so you can see what a great job she did.

my best friend is a wedding photographer and i *think* her cheapest package starts at about $1900. she has told me that that is a very reasonable price and that most people would expect to pay upwards of $2000.
HTH

We got married in 2000, just before GST came in. Our photographer was a relative of my dad's, (well his wife was i think) so my parents got a discount. Our package was $2300 for our photo's and video from getting ready through to leaving reception. They gave us our music for free (Photographer was a well known person on local radio here, so knew his stuff)
We got all our photo's in a 4x6 size, then we chose which ones we wanted for our album, which was made from rosewood i think?
Also included a video for us, with photo's of DH and I from being babies through to a few early couple shots when we met, and another 2 copies, one for each of our parents.
We also got an enlargement as part of the package, but DH and I couldn't agree on which photo we wanted to enlarge for our wall, so we never did it :( I got all negatives from them a few years ago, so when we can decide, I plan on getting one done on canvas.

Oh one thing that i was picky about, and didnt realise till after we got married, was what type of clothing they show up in. A friend got married after us, and all her wedding photos have a 2nd photographer in the background somewhere, wearing jeans and a polo shirt with the business name on the back. It was then that i truly appreciated our photographers showing up wearing a nice pair of pants and shirt, and his wife wearing a beautiful skirt/top that looked very business like :)

We got married 2006 and had an awesome photographer so friendly, easy going with a great eye for detail and great shots. He took lots of pics of me and girls getting ready and before wedding, boys before hand, wedding ceremony, guest group shot, lots after of bridal party and family pics, fake cake cut, and bridal waltz. He also took pics of shoes, beading on dress, jewlerry, favours which were lollies from suga, place cards etc etc.
We got 1 large wall print and 3 smaller, plus a big album with aluminium cover with names cut out, some digital pages, some pages that open out, package all up was $3500.
Our proof albums some of pics were used into album to save reprinting costs and double ups so only pics re printed for album were bigger ones than proof size.

We paid about $3600 I think it ended up being back in 2000. That included travel, black and white shots, and we had them for 7 hours - so they didn't have to stay for the reception we pretended to cut the cake and pose as if we were dancing. We originally only paid $1500 for an album with 40 photos but when went to create the album (4weeks after wedding) he'd taken over 300 pics and there was no way known we could condense our day into only 40 photos. So we doubled it and went to 80. We also got a 20x24 mounted wall photo and an album of all proofs (this was back in the day when digital cameras and photos were only new and our photographer didn't trust the technology to produce good photos). We don't regret the cost at all. Our photos are amazing and we look at them often. Other people I know who have gone the cheaper route have always regretted it.

Our best friends don't even have their photos after the photographer said she would put them in an album for them and then she left town and they never saw their photos again. All they have of their day are the few photos their family took.
A friend of DH's had one of their friends take the pics for free - she was an amateur and 95% of the photos are just of the Bride (they were besties in a single white female kind of way LOL) and none of the bridal party.
A close friend of mine had her photographer run out of film half way through (again back in the good old days LOL)
DH's brother and his wife had someone take them who was a friend of a friend. We have never seen the pics because SIL does not want them to see the light of day. She said they went to pick them up and as soon as she walked out of there she cried they were that bad.
And SIL had two women do it semi-professionally and I could have taken better photos. A lot of them were really good, but the ones they took of my girls (flowergirls) were just crap.

You have no idea how helpful your replies have been for me.

Lisa- I am so sorry to hear that your photographer turned out to be so crap. I would have been massively kicking up a stink to the owner.

That is awesome to all the people that got great shots from family and friends. I know that this is likely but I feel like I shouldn't risk it just in case. :think:

Okay maybe the deal I have been offered is not that bad after all. :)

This photographers work is amazing and his attention to detail is present everywhere.

He has given me two options

1. $3500 for a full package with
- a 10x10 designer leather & glass wedding album.
- This will also include approx. $1500 on accommodation & travel.
- It will also include 2 x A3 framed images OR 1 A1 image (large professional framed & printed images).
- 2 dvd slideshows of your favourite photographs to tell the story of your day to your favourite love songs.
- Plus all images from the day (breakfast, getting ready, family shots, ceremony, location shots, reception start to finish) on a dvd/cd in HIGH resolution. I will also photoshop any imperfections (if you wish) out of any photos and include some black and white, artistic & sepia images as well.

ALTERNATIVELY

2. $2800 with
- FULL resolution images on dvd
- high definition slideshow with your love songs, i can do 2x the slideshow with cover etc for your family if you like for this price.
- travel & accomodation

Either way it is still a lot of money but I LOVE his work and have seen it first hand at a wedding and then the final products. Arhhh decisions.

I think that is pretty fair money for what you are getting. If you love his work, then it will be worth every cent you spend on it.

Yep I would go option 1, sounds like excellent value to me! And if you know his work it will be all good I am sure.
Again, I seriously think it was the best money we spent on the whole wedding, I am so so happy I didn't listen to all the people telling me to not bother and just have a couple of friends with cameras on photo duty. (Made that mistake of not having a DJ or anything and ended up with no wedding dance, and nobody dancing, because there was basically no music...sucked! lol)

Good luck!!

Yep I would go option 1, sounds like excellent value to me! And if you know his work it will be all good I am sure.
Again, I seriously think it was the best money we spent on the whole wedding, I am so so happy I didn't listen to all the people telling me to not bother and just have a couple of friends with cameras on photo duty. (Made that mistake of not having a DJ or anything and ended up with no wedding dance, and nobody dancing, because there was basically no music...sucked! lol)

Good luck!!

We paid about $500 in 2009 - initially we were going to skimp on photography all together and rely on guest to take pics - best $500 ever spent!

All I wanted was some great candid shots thru out the ceremony, a few pics prior with me getting out of the car etc, and group photos - then some location pics of just DH and I, we got married in the Zoo lol, after hours so we had beautiful landscapes galore to have photos with. I got it all on a disc within 7 days and had the rights to print them out to whatever size I wanted, whenever I wanted.

So I picked out 7 of my fave pics and organised them on a massive canvas, and created a hardcover photo book thru Big W photos online - all up those two items cost $130.

Good luck!

Why not insist everyone bring a digital camera and take pictures for you. after all, they will probably all take photos anyway and being in Fiji, you won't need a good photographer, you will have great weather and a great backdrop, family tend to catch those more special moments too..


We got married in Bali in 2008 and had 15 people attend our ceremony including 7 family members. Ours was small but we were going to elope that's another tale...

Everyone took photos of us during the ceremony and of eachother too, so we got pictures of my mum crying off hubbies dad and vice Versa......

After the ceremony we walked along the beach and everyone was constantly taking snapshots whilst we were posing and playing, we got lots of kodak moments :)

Then we sat on some steps near the reception for more pics etcand everyone had their cameras out. And all through our small reception and partying all night.

Afterwards we ended up with Great Quality , special moments that were captured when no one realized or was looking, there are some really special ones like dh having a tear slip down his cheek saying his vowels etc.... About 2000 or more.

5 DVDs burnt for about $10 each at a kodak shop
Over 500 prints at only 15 cents each..... Sorry can't calculate.... Will add up and edit :)
And mil made up a special hard cover book with heaps of great shots, all professionally done and personalized for us for about $30.00 in Melbourne

We also got a wedding album a huge white silk one as a wedding gift so we filled that

And we bought massive authentic Balinese albums made from natural products in Bali and brought it back through customs, and filled them with more pic, so we have four huge albums , five DVDs full of pictured and a video our friend made of the day for free as a gift..

All up


Free excepts for albums and printing costs and I have not seen professional pictures better.

We also printed a heap in black and white , you can do that too these days lol. ;)

$2500 for;
2 photographers that were with us for roughly 10 hours (right thru til reception, i think they left aorund 10.30-11)
a photobooth
a proof album
and a thumbdrive of each and every single photo they took that night.

fantastic photos, the only issue i had is that it took EFFING AGES for us to get anything back... we only got out proof album back around 3months ago, and we've been married a year already.