How much does wedding photography cost?
Depending on the level of service, amount of hours, and the skill set of your photographer, you could be looking at a price point anywhere between approximately $1495 and $2995. Let me break it down for you.
Amount of hours: Photographers can be hired for as little as one hour and up to 12 hours for an event usually. The average amount of time needed for wedding photography is between 8 hours and 10 hours. Usually if a bride and groom are getting ready at the venue where they will be getting married, only 8 hours is sufficient. Two hours for getting ready pictures and six hours for the ceremony cocktail hour and reception. When a couple is getting married off site from the venue, like at a church or temple, then typically more than 8 hours is needed if you want pre ceremony pictures (pictures while you are getting ready for your ceremony). What a lot of our clients do in this case is book us for one hour to capture the groom getting ready and one hour to capture the bride getting ready and then everyone leaves for the ceremony. This is of course provided that the bride and groom getting ready location is close to each other. If you are interested in cutting the cost of your wedding photography, then only capturing the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception would be the most cost effective strategy.
Level of experience: It is important that you have a wedding photography expert capturing your wedding pictures. An expert understands the flow of a wedding and truly will save you time at your wedding. Instead of taking all of your time away from you at the wedding to capture several formals, a true wedding photography expert will capture just the right amount of images so that you get a great balance between pictures and enjoying all of the other aspects of your wedding, like eating and dancing with your family.
Level of service: Many brides select either one or two photographers to capture their big day. The benefit of one photographer is that it is cost effective. The benefit of two photographers is that one photographer can capture many photojournalistic images while the other can capture many of the formals. The other benefit is that one photographer can capture the action and the other can capture the reaction at the same time. For example, the bride walking down the isle, the primary photographer can capture and at the same time the second photographer can capture the grooms expression. Another example is when someone is saying the toast the primary can take pictures of them while at the same time the second photographer can be capturing the couples smiles and expressions.
Bridal Albums: Many top wedding photographers offer incredible bridal albums. These bridal albums often are custom made and really allow brides to preserve their wedding day for years to come. Many brides hand these albums down to their children and grandchildren.
Ways to save on Photography: There are many ways to save on your photography package:
Less hours of service
One photographer instead of two
Bundle the photography service with other services like videography and entertainment
Have a bridal album done at a later date
The city, state and date of your wedding will also determine the current market value for photography services. For example a Saturday wedding will probably run you more money for photography then a Friday evening or a weekday wedding.
In our professional opinion a reasonable rate for an award winning wedding photographer for up to 8 hours who would include color correction of your images in the Tampa Bay area should be between $1495 and $2995.
