OT!! Cost of wedding photos

[shellyj. 0]

any of you folks who have had to pay for or just know the cost of wedding photos? i would really love it if ya'll would post prices or price ranges.

i am going high end because i want GREAT photos. no cheesey,bad lighting, dorky poses, etc

just wondering if the photographer is trying to rape me here!!!! with what they are charging i am SERIOUSLY considering changing proffessions.

please post the amount paid and if you were satisified with the quality

[bandayed 0]

Hey Michelle -- not sure where you live, but I liked the photographer at my sister in laws wedding last spring -- he was good and not cheesy. She go hi for 6 hours and all the proofs -- everything else was extra and I think she paid him $1600.00. This is in MA. It is expensive b/c the reprints are murderously high (hmmm got a scanner?) WHO SAID THAT!?!? But the photos of your wedding are worth it. Don't count on the disposable cameras on the tables to capture the reception either -- if you have a night wedding they all just take a bunch of black background with overexposed faces! Enjoy the day -- when is it?

[Jessiebear 2]

My little sister shopped around & she settled on a photographer for $600. He was good. When she was shopping the best photographer in town was around $2000. He gave you all the proofs, a leather album & a picture package of your choice. She also talked to different places that ranged anywhere between the 2 prices I gave. Her main specification was that they were able to airbrush the pics. Good luck! & Congrats! When is the big day? Where are you registered? Hmmmmm........ Gifts maybe?

[shellyj. 0]

thanks ladies! thats helpful for sure! the wedding is 7-1-05 i am slacking in the planning to say the least! there is a wedding fair this weekend that calvin and i are going to.

as for registering and gifts (hehehe) i am gonna ask that no one brings a gift and if they feel compelled to spend something to make a dontation to your local foodbank in my and calvins name. calvin and i are older (he 40 me 29) so we have all the housewear stuff since we arent 'just starting out'. does that sound bad?

[Alexandra 55]

Michelle, I paid a pricey photographer and I have to say I'm sorry I did. The ONLY thing he did right was line up the various members of the wedding party and got us organized for group shots. Otherwise he screwed up in big ways, including telling me not to smile because it made my eyes close up! So in all of my posed shots I have this absurd "wistful" look on my face. Only in the candids do I look like I'm having fun. And he didn't get a single shot of my grandmother, in whose home the wedding was being held.

My point is that yes, photographers can be expensive but don't go just by money. Get references from your friends!! Talk with the photog before committing and make sure they understand everything. We did all this but on the day of the wedding a substitute person had been sent, who I guess didn't have the info he needed. And of course our wedding day was no time for us to sit down all over again with the photographer.

We were really disappointed, mostly because we'd assumed the pro would take care of everything. Give your friends the disposables, encourage anyone you know who takes nice pix to bring their own cameras, cover all your bases. Good luck!!

[DeLarla 22]

Alex said what I was going to say. Ask girls at the grocery, hair salon, bank, etc. A high priced guy doesn't mean he'll do a good job.

[kimalicious 5]

Here's my 2 cents. I paid close to $2000.00 for my photos. Why in the world will I ever need 15 8x 10's and a million 5 x 7's and 11 x 14's. I liked 1 of the photos. All you really need is 1 nice photo to enlarge and the rest need to go in a book somewhere. We had our engagement photos done and you really only need one pose to hand out. I have all these pictures left over I will never do anything with. And my brother in law took better pics of us than the photographer did. Decide what you can actually hang in you and your families house and the rest can go in a photo book of proofs. A friend of mine found a photographer that took all the pics and then posted them online and handed out cards at the wedding so the family could go on and buy what they wanted and order online for themselves and she only had to buy what she wanted for herself. My point, I guess, is to not buy a huge package. You seriously only need one wedding picture of you hanging on the wall somewhere. Find a photographer who's style you like and don't spend a fortune excess pictures.

[MyKdsDad 1]

Michelle, I've done close to a dozen weddings. All of the group shots. Candids. Portraits. The last one, I shot about 8 rolls of 36. We (MsJoy and I) had them all developed, putting the good shots in an album that we purchased and then gifting all the prints and negatives to the bride and groom. If I had to put a price to it all.......$500 to $1000 would have been reasonable. Just remember, anybody's camera or film can go bad and you'll get zilch.

[Penni60 45]

I paid $450 for my daughter's wedding photos. I LOVED the pics. It was a husband wife team and they were awesome. THey are in Clarksville of course and yes they do it for a living. He did both color and B&W and some digital. Very professional and they were dressed accordingly. He was never obtrusive and seemed to blend into the background. I didnt' even know he was there except when we did the posed shots. He was awesome.

[shellyj. 0]

thanks ladies! lots of good info! there is a wedding fair this weekend that calvin and i are going to so i am not solidify-ing (hehe) things until after we have met these other people in the area. the top people i had found on the net are of course BOOKED! i feel sooooo behind! this lady wasnt my TOP choice so i just hope all the good ones arent booked!!!!

i think i need to figure out who i will be giving pictures to and how many so i dont buy to many!

penni- we are gonna do the wedding here in WA. we bought a new home that has the perfect landscape for it! BIG rocks just beautiful! i was gonna get married in TN but changed my mind!

[shellyj. 0]

this is where we are gonna do it, we are gonna stand up by the rocks. there is another spot that we are considering but it will be have to think of the old folks.

[La_madam 20]

I paid 750 for mine and that was over 20 yrs ago..they were awesome

[puddin 7]

Beautiful spot! One tip - a lot of times the photographers at the wedding shows are overpriced with underexperienced photographers. They'll show you their best photos and then send out the rookie to shoot the wedding - the results are often quite different! I know lots about this business, you can PM me if you would like some tips on things to look for and ask.

My sister is a professional photographer. She does many weddings. She's fairly expensive, even for Utah. Here's the thing though: If you charge more, you get more clients! She started off charging very little, even though she was very good, because she thought that would bring in more clients. Not so. The minute she boosted her prices the phone calls started rolling in, and they were handing over the check with a huge smile on their faces. I'm sorry to say that's the only way to make it in the business.

I used to be a wedding videographer; it was the same thing.

[Jessiebear 2]

That spot is beautiful!All this wedding talk got me looking at my wedding pics. Check out this baby face! LOL! I was 18. I hated that veil! My pics were done by an amateur & we still paid $200 back in 1992.

[shellyj. 0]

same beautiful smile!!!

i'd LOVE to see more weeding pics from EVERYONE!