Weddings

While the cost you pay for general photography services may be relatively low, photographers typically charge large amounts of money for weddings. Because these events are so special to those who host them, they want the best possible photographs they can afford. The photographer will spend hours at the wedding, and they will also spend hours developing the photos. The market rate for a decent sized wedding package will cost about $3,000. A photographer who charges this much should be willing to spend at least 7 hours at the event, and they should act as both an assistant and a photographer. This photographer should also offer you more than 40 pages worth of photographs.

Many photographers are also now offering CDs or DVDs full of wedding photos, and these should be included in the package. If they offer you a proof CD, it should be full of almost unlimited photos. Because of the rising popularity of the Internet, many photographers have built website where clients can view their photos, and where potential clients can view samples of the photographer’s work. The photos of a client will be password protected on the site, so the photos can only be viewed by the family. Many photographers will also include a wall portrait in their package. As the name suggests, this is a large portrait that can be kept on a wall. It will generally be 11″x 14″ in size.

Despite this, it should also be noted that there are wedding packages which are cheaper than $3,000, but still high in quality. Remember, you don’t want to sacrifice price in favor of quality. This is for your wedding, and you will want to choose the best you can afford. The cheaper packages may be as low as $2,700. When you pay for a cheaper package, the photographer will spend less time at a wedding. Instead of 7 hours, they will only spend 5 or 6. You will also get an album that has a smaller number pages of photographs. Like the premium package, you can expect to receive a CD or DVD that is full of the photos, and your photos will also be stored on the Internet.

If you have an even smaller budget, it is possible for you to get a package for less than $2,000. Your photographer should stay with you for a minimum of six hours, and they will provide you with an album that should at least contain 30 pages of photographs from the event. You will be given a number of parent albums, and these albums will each have photographs that may be 5×7 each. If you choose this package, your photos may not be stored on the web. It should also be noted that the prices for one photographer may vary from another.

Different photographers will also offer you different packages. The prices they charge will be largely dependent on their reputation, and their demand. A photographer who has worked with celebrities or VIPs will generally charge as much as $10,000 to photograph your event. Again, you should always choose a photographer that falls within your budget.

There are a number of key advantages to being a freelance photographer. When you work freelance, you don’t have to worry about anyone looking over your shoulder. You will essentially be self employed, and you can work your own hours. You will have a great deal of time and freedom. At the same time, if you’re not working for a company, you’re not guaranteed a paycheck. You must totally rely on yourself when it comes to finding clients and bringing in money. Until you get some experience working at weddings, it may be hard for you to find work since many couples want to deal with photographers who are experienced.

You will need to find your market and cater to it. The latest trend in the wedding photography industry is fashion wedding photography. More couples want photos in which they showcase a great deal of glamour. if you can become proficient in this form of photography, it is very likely you can market your services and make a great deal of money.

If you’ve seen the prices that photographers typically charge for weddings, it is easy to see that they are earning significant profits, especially if they are working with a large number of clients in the course of a year. The typical going rate for a professional wedding photographer is $3,000 per event, and this means that a photographer with a large work volume could earn in excess of $100,000. Because wedding photograph has become a popular trend in the last decade, it is a lucrative field for those who are looking to start a business without a great deal of business capital up front.

However, it must be emphasized that running a profitable photography business will not happen easily. If you are thinking of starting your own photography business, the first thing you must do is write up a wedding photography business plan. By writing down your plan, you will have a solid idea of what you need to do in order to survive in this industry. It is not enough to simply by a camera and start advertising your business. If you do this, you will very likely have zero customers and zero results. To be successful, you must have a detailed strategy. First, do you know anything about the wedding photography industry?

Do you know how successful photographers make money, and do you know what strategies they use to bring in clients? If you don’t, you will want to study the industry to found out. If you don’t already have a knowledge if photography, you will want to learn about the subject. It wouldn’t help to go to college and take a few classes on it. While it is not necessary for you to graduate from college with a “photography degree,” taking a few classes and earning a certificate may give you the necessary credentials to earn the trust of client’s. Many photographers make the decision to become freelance. They choose to work for themselves rather than someone else.

When it comes to paying someone to take your wedding photos, it is easy for confusion to occur. To avoid this confusion, you must always sign a written contract. If you don’t sign a contract, you’re just asking for trouble. The contract should include the pay, the amount of photos to be produced for that pay, and the name, address, and email of both you and the photographer. If there are any disputes that occur over the work, the contract can be used as a document which clearly shows what both parties agreed to. When you are presented with the contract, read over it carefully to make sure you agree with everything that has been presented.

It is unwise to pick a photographer that you haven’t taken the time to review. Because wedding photography costs a lot of money, you will want to avoid hiring a photographer that you know nothing about. The best way to find a good photographer is to do so by word of mouth. Ask your family or friends do they know of any good wedding photographers. More than likely, they hired a photographer for their own weddings, and they can point you in the direction of someone who is reliable. Relying on your friends or family to provide you with a good photographer is much better than choosing someone you’ve never heard of.

It is also important for couples to make sure they choose a wedding photographer, rather than a photographer who doesn’t specialize in weddings. It must be emphasized that photography is a broad field, and while a photographer may be good at one style of photography, they may not be so skilled when it comes to taking photographs of a wedding. It is always important for you to choose a photographer who has a great deal of experiencing working with weddings.

Shower Yourself with Pictures

Start making memories before the wedding begins with a photo theme shower. Have the shower hostess ask everyone to bring a photo-related gift. The presents might be a memory-making object like a camera, slide projector or mini cam; a memory-keeping object such as a picture frame or photo album; or a ready-made memory, such as a collage of photos of you and your friends from high school or a framed picture of you and your fiance. If most of your guests have been friends for years, you could show a slide show of your shared past during the party. Have a friend or relative on hand to take pictures of the event — knowing you, you’ll want plenty of those!

Go For Glam!

Take your bachelorette party to a photo studio, for a chic set of prints you’ll keep long after the wedding. Make this “last night out with the girls” a full-scale frill-a-thon. If you still want to do the more traditional night out at the bars afterward, you’ll be made-up and ready.

Dinner and a Movie

Put together a slide show for the rehearsal dinner. Pillage your old photo albums for great shots of you before you met your beloved, during your early days of dating each other, and now. Ask your sweetie (or his mother) for childhood photos, and borrow any other good shots from both of your friends. Get slides made of the prints from a photo shop and rent a slide projector (or use the one you got during your shower!). Make a tape of your favorite songs — or the tunes that were playing while your were dating — to play while you show the slides. Better yet, bring your laptop, rent a projector and do a slideshow with your digital images.

The Wedding Day

The Write Invite

Rather than ordering standard engraved invitations, why not incorporate some of your own great art? Uncover that fabulous drawing of a bride and groom you did when you were five, and do your invites on copies of it. Or unearth that letter you wrote when you were 8 years old, vowing to never kiss a boy (except your dad and brother), and reprint that along with a picture of the two of you. Or, head to an old-school black-and-white photo booth and create a fun photo strip for your save-the-date notices!

Silent Stars

If your parents took baby movies while you were growing up, you could create your own video of the two of you as toddlers. Put it on a loop and let it run silently in a corner throughout the cocktail hour and/or reception; your guests will get to know you even better, and it’s a great conversation piece!

Instant Album

Hire a professional photographer or friend to take Polaroids of all the wedding guests, then slip them into a photo scrapbook you have ready right there on a table. The photographer will insert the pictures on the spot, and ask everyone to write messages to the newlyweds, creating an instant wedding album. You can use any pretty scrapbook or buy a special photo book created for this purpose.

Wear Your Heart on Your Chest

You’ve seen those computerized photo T-shirt shops at the mall. Why not have one at your wedding? Your guests will have an instant outfit to remind them of you whenever they wear it. You can also affix these “photos” to coffee mugs, plaques or plates. Depending on your budget, you can get the shirts or mugs pre-printed with the date of your wedding.

Blowing Up Baby

At the wedding, have childhood photos of each of you blown up into poster-size prints and mounted on a stiff cardboard sheets or foam-core board. Ask all your guests to sign the poster before they leave the reception. After the wedding, take your posters back home and hang them on the wall next to each other. We know a couple who literally created Memory Lane. They lined the pathway leading to their ceremony site with a clothesline-full of blown-up photos through the years.

Theme Shots

Why not give your guests some instant memories too? Hire a photographer with old-fashioned costumes and a yesteryear backdrop for fun wedding photos. Guests can don the costumes and pose in an Wild West saloon, an old-fashioned malt shop, or a Victorian parlor — it could even match the theme of your wedding. The photographer can give your guests prints to take home. You can even have individual cardboard frames printed with your names and the date of your wedding to slip ‘em into. Another, simpler option is to rent or make one of those stand-up flats with the bodies of famous people or cartoon characters painted on the front. Guests stick their own heads on top of the fake bodies (or stand next to the “famous” figure). Have someone on hand with a Polaroid, or just let guests use their own cameras.

Sweet Stand

Why let some ready-made bride and groom stand on your cake when you can do it yourselves? Cut out a full-length pose of the two of you from a photo and mount it on thick, solid board. Slide the board into a stand, and then stick yourselves right into the frosting. Or go professional — a lot of photo shops offer these silhouette-style, solid photos.

Picture This

Use small picture frames as escort card holders. Slide the guests’ escort card into the frames, and line up all the frames the way you would ordinary escort cards. Guests will take the frame with them to find their tables, and then take the frames home. Choose silver frames or pressed paper, cardboard-backed frames.

Parental Pride

Display your parents’ and grandparents’ wedding photos on the entry table or the cake table, creating a sense of history at your wedding and honoring them at the same time.

Scatter Shots

Help your friends and families get to know each other through a visual history of your lives. Scatter handfuls of both your families’ photos on each table (or assemble a bunch on a big table in a central location, where everyone will be able to see it), along with a card offering short explanations of the scenes. Sharing your photos can help create the feeling of a shared past, something your families will appreciate, particularly if they don’t know each other well yet.

Share the Shooting

Put a few disposable cameras on each table and ask guests to take pictures of anything that seems interesting, or give them a special scanvenger hunt with images to find (bride and groom kissing, cake cutting etc). When you develop the film later, you’ll be surprised by what you find.

Gift Giving

Favor Them with Frames

Give picture frames as favors. Find unique old frames at antique stores, or buy matching, elegant silver ones. If you have more eclectic taste, you’re sure to find frames that suit you — in places from Walgreen’s to upscale gift shops. Or choose simple frames and decorate them yourself with ribbon or glitter or a mosaic of old, cut-up photos. In the frames? If you can dig ‘em up, (and are having a small celebration) put a photo of you or your fiance with each guest in them, so every guest’s favor includes a picture of them and you!

Locket Up

Give your bridesmaids silver lockets, with a photo of you both inside. Or leave them empty and let your friends chose whom to wear around their neck (and close to their heart). Get real silver, if you can afford it — or check out antique stores for great, vintage buys. Present the lockets on pretty velvet cords.

On Being Married …

Start an Anniversary Album

Decide now to take a photo, or roll of film, on every anniversary, and keep them all together in one anniversary album. Start with pictures of your wedding. Each year, add a shot of the two of you that depicts the changes in your lives — your new house, your new car, your new kids. When your children get married, they’ll have plenty of old photos right in the album to use for their own wedding.