Is the wedding industry over priced?
An article came out and blew up about how don’t say it is a wedding and your costs will be less.
Something you need to keep in mind… is a wedding really like any other event? Is it:
A once in a lifetime event?
Does the event require pre and post investment of time and energy?
Is your wedding a multi location event?
A full day of labor, often lasting way longer than just the preset hours of coverage?
These questions can apply to many vendors on your wedding day. The physical, emotional and psychological weight of a wedding is greatly different than just another event… AND IT SHOULD BE.
To give you a perspective on investment of a photographer on a wedding:
1-4 hours of emails and meetings in the initialization of services
2-3 hours of engagement session (travel time and photographing time)
1-3 hours of post editing and gallery upload of engagement session photos
10-20 hours of work on the wedding day (travel to/from, setting up/tear down of equipment, actual coverage of the wedding day, uploading and transferring of photos)
10-30 hours of editing
1-3 hours of miscellaneous tasks to make the wedding day and post work function consistent with no stress for couple
That’s over 60 hours of wedding day work, not including all the other costs associated with this process such as:
Gas, gear costs, maintenance and updating of gear, education/improvement costs, business insurance and other business expenses, keeping software and hardware up to date, advertising costs, etc.
It is pretty safe to say that most photographers will be investing near 100+ hours on your wedding day experience to be what it is.
Example: say a photographer needs to make $60K a year to make their bills. They have an additional $20K in costs of gear and business expenses. And let’s say they shoot 40 weddings a year. That means they would need to charge $2,000.
Cost per hour works out to be less than $20hr and that doesn’t keep in mind that they will have to pay self-employment taxes which are about 15%.
If you are getting a photographer who is willing to get paid $20 an hour they are likely not investing in their business because they cannot.
Could you imagine what the services of a CPA would look like at $20 an hour? But this isn’t just an event but a once in a lifetime event. Paying $20 an hour expertise and artistry to cover your once in a lifetime event that you cannot be recreated…