| How much should you pay for wedding | | | | spend days after the wedding editing your photos |
| photographers? Well this is entirely up to you and the | | | | and making them the absolute best they can be. If |
| answer will depend on how much are the memories | | | | you are having an album then they will also spend |
| of your special day worth to you? | | | | time designing and assembling your album of photos. |
| If you have budgeted £20,000 - | | | | As a Hertfordshire wedding photographer myself I |
| £30,000 for your wedding should you pay | | | | worked out that I spend around a week of my time |
| £500 for a photographer? £1,000? | | | | per wedding couple... just something to bear in mind! |
| £3,000? Do you think your wedding photos | | | | Do you want your photographs presented in a |
| (which will exist long after you have gone) are less | | | | beautiful wedding album or are you happy to just |
| valuable or more valuable than the wedding cake | | | | look at them on a computer screen? |
| (which will be gone by the end of the night). That | | | | Again, think about the future... imagine the wonder in |
| might sound like a silly question but I have known of | | | | your grandchildren's eyes as they turn the pages of a |
| couples who spent more on their cake (or shoes | | | | beautiful leather bound wedding album (now a family |
| which the guests didn't even notice!) than their | | | | heirloom) as they look back in to the past at images |
| wedding photography. | | | | of you as a beautiful, young couple in love! "So that |
| Your wedding photography will hold those precious | | | | was what granny and grandpa were like!" Now |
| memories that will be handed down to your children | | | | imagine that you didn't bother with an album and had |
| and your children's children as a family heirloom. | | | | just had a DVD so that you could look at them on |
| Should you entrust those memories to the uncle with | | | | screen... you will need to be careful not to lose the |
| a nice camera who has offered to photograph your | | | | disc or scratch it, or accidentally delete the files or |
| wedding for free? Well if he is a professional and | | | | lose them in a jumble of files on the computer... you |
| qualified photographer and you have seen and love | | | | will also need a back up in computer harddrive fails. |
| his work then, why not. But the reality is that this is | | | | Even if the digital files did survive 70 years... looking |
| unlikely! | | | | on them on screen will not hold the same magic as |
| What value do you place on the wedding | | | | looking at them in what will become a cherished |
| photographers skill, experience, style, creative eye | | | | wedding album that stands the test of time, handed |
| for beauty and composition, customer service? | | | | down from one generation to another. |
| An experienced wedding photographer will have shot | | | | Getting the picture? |
| many weddings and will be familiar with the wedding | | | | OK, so the bottom line... what is a realistic budget for |
| process, things to look out for, pitfalls to avoid, | | | | wedding photography? |
| realistic time planning etc. | | | | I would say put roughly 15% of your wedding |
| A professional wedding photographer will not only | | | | budget aside for photography. |
| spend the day photographing you wedding but will | | | | |