Photographers- need advice pleease!

Okay, I have an appointment with Queens Bridal Center tonight. I was wondering If any of you have been there (in Lindenhurst) , the yhave a Photographer there. He also told me to get all my pricing together. Honestly i havent looked at many photographers. we are definataly trying to budget.. I was hoping some of you could inform me as to what your paying for photography so maybe i have some clue, thanks in advance

Photographers- need advice pleease!

We are doing a video/photo combo which includes:our album-46 8x10's, 2 parent albums- 20 8x10's, 2 11x14's, 8 8x10's, and 75 thank you's which are 3x5 pics instead of the wallet size ones, all negatives and proofs, a 2 hr edited video- 1 DVD and 2VHS and all the unedited footage. I might be missing something, but I think that is all. The whole package was $3650+tax. The photo's are about $2200 of that. Hope this helps.

Photographers- need advice pleease!

You can get more when you book directly with you vendors. I have heard that many times from the vendors themselves. The wedding centers have to get paid so they increase the prices. Just some advise. What price range are you looking for?

Michele31

im not sure what price to look for because i dont know what it costs... they had asked me what my price range is and im not sure what to say.. what is reason able??

It really depends on what you want (m)

There are so many variables. Do you want one or two photographers? What level of experience do you want them to have? How much film do you want them to shoot (how many proofs)? Do you want color/B&W variation? Straight posed photos or someone with a photojournalist approach? How many hours do you want them for - ceremony/reception or from the time you're getting ready to the last dance? These are just a few things that came up for us. That's without getting into packages for albums, thank you's etc. We loved our photos and are glad we went above and beyond rather than bargain shop, but that's what worked for us. You & your FH need to decide what your needs are and then price around. Good luck! Michele 9-2-01

Kimberleeg

I agree with Shelby. You can spend $800 or $10,000+ for wedding photography. I will tell you what I found. There were photographers that costs $2000 that we really good and offered a nice package. Then there were photographers that cost $4,000 and I did not think they were worth that much at all. I suggest that you figure out a range to look in. What I mean by that is this- I knew upfront that my FH and I could not spend $8,000 on photographers. But we would be okay with $5,000 photography budget. I did that for all of my vendors. I decided on a 'cap' figure that we could not really go over. Now, my flowers came in much less than I projected and that was great. So, that helped me pay a bit more for something else. Here are some ways to save on photography costs and get the best photographer possible for your budget: -I am not sending thank you photos to everyone. Just close friends and family. Most people throw them in a draw. -I paid for the parents to get an album each w/12 photo. If they want to add photos they have to pay the additional charge. I have friends who only purchased (1) 8x10 and (1) 5x7 for their parents and then the parents had to pay the rest. -I negoiated with all of my vendors and tried to customize the packages to fit my needs. (That is very important) -Do not have the photographer stay at your reception until the very end. After the cake very little happens, most people start to leave. -Get a smaller professional album but make sure you own your proofs. You can always put them in a beautiful scrapbook to show them off. Here are some costs that I found- VIP a great photographer, you get two of them, nice guy, good package is around $2400. Fine Arts is around $4000 for the same amount of photos. Ray O'Connor is around the same price too. I booked Mark Kauffman Studios (Roy and Lynn) and my package is about $5,000 but I love their work, have a lot of photos plus I needed 3 parent albums. This also included my e-photos. But there are lots of girls who spend less than $1,200 on photos and are very happy. I would kind of set a cap (you know what is too much), and then meet atleast 4-5 before making a decision.

MIchele31

Thanks so much for your advice, it really helped me out a lot!