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.