Behind the Lens: The Investment in Your Wedding Memories

You’re engaged! Congrats! Let’s face it, weddings are not cheap, they definitely bite the wallet. If you’ve started the wedding planning process, you already know this. You have a budget to work with and are deciding how to divide the amount to take care of all your needs. In your search for a wedding photographer and cinematographer, you’ve probably asked yourself why we charge so much?

Wedding photography and cinematography is an investment. Here’s a few things you probably don’t think of when you see the collection price.

The total amount of the collection isn’t the take-home paycheck.

Most photographers are running a business. We all know businesses don’t run for free. Wedding photographers have many expenses to keep in mind including but not limited to: state and federal taxes, insurance, gear maintenance, website domain and upkeep, editing software, client management software, marketing, accountants and bookkeepers, Quickbooks, etc. This doesn’t include association fees, education, or paying for additional shooters and assistants.

We don’t just work the hours of your wedding day.

Wedding photography isn’t your typical 9-5 job. We work odd hours, starting from the initial inquiry till long after the wedding. We are there for the hours you hired us to cover, the time spent editing, corresponding emails between you and vendors, location scouting, meetings and consultations, designing albums and wall art. Beyond that, we are still working on delivering an exceptional client experience that will serve you well. We are constantly working on our brand, marketing, bookkeeping, and servicing our gear. The work we put in goes beyond the actual wedding day, and that is to ensure we have a thriving business that you can trust to serve you on your special day.

We are specialists in our field.

Like any field, when you have a problem, you go directly to your specialist. Not because a general practitioner isn’t knowledgeable, but because the specialist is well educated to your particular pain point. Wedding photography and wedding cinematography are intensive and rely heavily on experience. Weddings are the one place where timelines can fall apart, uncontrolled events can take place, and your photographer has to be prepared and ready to adapt as needed. As a wedding photographer, you are encompassing portrait photography, product photography, family photography, children photography, and candid moments throughout the day. On top of capturing all the important moments and people of the day, we need to know our lighting and set up, composition and posing, and making the person in front of the camera feel comfortable.

On your wedding day, would you rather live in the moment and enjoy, knowing your wedding photographer has everything in control, is capturing amazing images, and gets along with your family and friends, or have to micromanage and worry about important shots that are missed?

I know which I’d choose.