Photography - When all is said and done ...

How much money did you pay extra with your photographs/photographer?

Did you keep to your exact budget or did you sneak in any 'upgrades'?

How many pictures ended up in your album?

Did you go over, under or right on the mark?

Do you feel your photographer represented him/herself upfront with the extra costs or pictures etc.?

Your thoughts? Your opinions? Your warnings to future brides?

I am in the process of picking pics for my album.

I did go a little over on my budget, but it is so worth it.

My photogtapher Steve at Patken is the best. They were very uprfront with me with costs.

I will be upgrading some pictures.

This is all you will have when all is said and done, IMO, you should not penny pinch.

How much money did you pay extra with your photographs/photographer?

almost $700!!!

Did you keep to your exact budget or did you sneak in any 'upgrades'?

it was still within my budget...

How many pictures ended up in your album?

63

Did you go over, under or right on the mark?

23 over

Do you feel your photographer represented him/herself upfront with the extra costs or pictures etc.?

pretty much so...although he didn't tell me the prices of the extra shots...they were about what I expected...

Your thoughts? Your opinions? Your warnings to future brides?

I stayed pretty much within budget, b/c of my sister's help...she worked as a wedding photog and helped me compile a list of what pics I would need to give out, to display, etc...so the extra money I spent was for the extra pics in the book (which I could have cut down, but didn't want to) and we upgraded the book

I ended up paying about $300 extra.
50 pages were included in my album - We only used 48 of the pages but ended up doing about 16 composites (more than 1 picture on a page) which is how we spent all our extra money. We ended up getting almost 100 pictures in our album.
Our photographer gave us a price list for all extras prior to us booking them. I didn't realize how many composites I would've wanted - That's why I didn't anticipate the extra cost. There were just so many wonderful pictures that we wanted in the album so we definitely felt it was worth it.

My experience was similiar to Meg's & as we used the same photographer ... it makes sense. We wound up with about 100 pics, but we used some of the 'extras' in our package .... like the 16 x 20 (which we didn't want) & broke it up. Any $$ left over we applied toward the overage. I think we wound up owing about $400 or so. But with such great shots, who could choose to eliminate any of them?! It was definitely worth it!

We went way over with our album-I've said this before...I don't think the 'medium sized'packages that most photographers offer really include enough pics. I think it gets more complicated when you use a good/great studio-the better they are the more pics you want & you're probably already spending a small fortune on your package.
I'm going to P/U my album & pay my balance today...I'm thinking I'll probably end up paying again when I complete my wall portraits & parent albums.
I guess in the grand scheme of the wedding cost it's no big deal.
I just wish good studios would say up front that 60 or so pics won't be enough. I had no way of knowing that before I sat down with my proofs.

I wound up going over in my album when I picked the pictures by about 6-8 but then when I went for my planning session somehow I got over by like 14 - but than I elimated it by a few. So maybe I got about 10 or so over in mine and I added one additional special page (collage type). So it was a few hundred dollars extra. Both parents went over their allotted 24 pictres bu 6-10 pictures but they paid for the additional costs themselves.

I could have went crazy and addded lots more but that wasn't my thing. Tell you the truth - I have had my album 2 weeks and only looked at it once on my own. (besides showing our parents). It wasn't worth the extra cost and I am glad I didn't do it. I look at my proofs and other pictures much more. My video is so much more important to me and the funny thing is when I was planning pictures were way more important and when it was all said and done - I enjoy the video much more!

We definitely went over budget with our photographer, but since we were paying for this ourselves it was more a matter of choosing that it's worth it.

In retrospect we would have negotiated a higher count for the album - we contracted 50 and chose 78 pics! On that same note, there are some in the album that at the time I 'had to have', but now wonder if it was necessary. No biggie, but my album is HUGE!

Our photographer was very upfront with everything, but since we hadn't yet been educated on this we didn't necessarily know what to ask. I suggest you ask your photographer exactly what the process is from start to finish - that way you won't have any surprises.

So far...
We contracted for 40 pictures in my album. I picked out a whole bunch of composite pages...I now will have 110 pictures (48 pages) in my album which makes the total $840 extra. I just couldn't help myself. It is my photographers fault. She took too many beautiful pictures that it made it impossible to only have 40.

How much money did you pay extra with your photographs/photographer?

About 600, including our parents extras and extra prints ordered for my family. Our extras only came to about 70 bucks.

Did you keep to your exact budget or did you sneak in any 'upgrades'?

Snuck in a HUGE upgrade that got us a better album. The designer was in a REALLY good mood that day. LOL.

How many pictures ended up in your album?

58

Did you go over, under or right on the mark?

2 over and didn't get charged for them.

Do you feel your photographer represented him/herself upfront with the extra costs or pictures etc.?

No friggin' way.

Your thoughts? Your opinions? Your warnings to future brides?

Try and get the BIGGEST PACKAGE YOU CAN FOR YOUR MONEY. You will always need more pictures no matter what you think you will want now. Whether it be prints of family shots for siblings/aunts/uncles etc. Get as many pics in your album included as possible because you will always want more. Ask for the price list for extras upfront when you book. Make them show you the EXACT ALBUM that is included in your package and write it ON THE CONTRACT. Meaning the size, type of leather, type of binding etc. Ask them how much extra it is for multiple pics on a page and if you can work it into your contract. Really think about how many/what size portraits you will want because not everyone wants a huge poster of themselves. See if getting smaller portraits can give you more of something else. Order extra thank you pictures. If 85 are included, get them to give you 100, you can always use more!

Basically, try and get as much put in your contract as possible so you don't have to worry about the extra money spent after your wedding.

Good luck!

I am with Dawnie, and Meghan and Christine, let's all blame it on Lia, its all her fault, she took so many beautiful shots, you kept saying and this one and this one and this one We contracted for 60 photographs and we ended up with 92. The composites is what broke the bank, but we do not regret it, b/c the album would be so incomplete w/o all the pix that we have in it. These and the memories are all you have from your day.

PS I think we paid about $600 outside of our contract but that included a parent's album.

How much money did you pay extra with your photographs/photographer?

I spent extra but it's so worth it to me!

Did you keep to your exact budget or did you sneak in any 'upgrades'?

I upgraded my Thank you's and my album.

How many pictures ended up in your album?
96

Did you go over, under or right on the mark?
over

Do you feel your photographer represented him/herself upfront with the extra costs or pictures etc.?
yes very well

Your thoughts? Your opinions? Your warnings to future brides?

Understand up front what you are getting & what the upgrades cost. I knew before going in and I didn't have any 'surprises' at the end.

The biggest advice i would tell a bride is exactly what Jen said

'Understand up front what you are getting & what the upgrades cost. I knew before going in and I didn't have any 'surprises' at the end. '


This can not be stated strongly enough. Do your research and read the fine print. If you dont understand something perfectly, ask!! I know a few friends who complain about their photographer (or any vendor for that matter) b/c they did not put the effort into finding the right person/contract/package/arrangement for them. It almost always could have been avoided.

misty makes a good point: 'you always need extra pictures'

my uncle was diagnosed with cancer 3 months before my wedding...so my mother made a point to get professional shots of all her siblings...he died 6 months after the wedding (as I was getting my order ready) and I had prints made for all the siblings...

its just something that I would never have expected when I was booking

We paid an extra $600 to our photographer. That included additional pages for our album, our parents albums and the frame for our 16x16. I think all the enlargements we did were included in the contract.

I guess we were still in budget (didn't really have a set budget).

Our album has 55(?) pictures in it, and I didn't really feel like I needed more. In fact there really weren't other shots I wanted to include.

There were no great surprises about costs and fees.

My advice:
#1 get everything in writing!

#2 Pick your pictures and then live with them for awhile. Don't rush the process. You'll be surprised how much your selection changes after a little while. We were forced to delay our album ordering (because of MIL) but in the end, I think we have a better album for it.

I just picked out my pictures last night and went over our budget. It was defitnley worth the money. Don't skimp out on your pics because you will regret it in the end. I can't recall how many pictures we picked for our album I think over 50.