What is the standard rate for a Wedding Photographer?

The answer to this question depends on your style, budget, duration of photography & whether you’re getting an album or digital images.

Let’s get straight to the point…

You can expect to pay from €500 up to €3000.

The lower end being a new or student photographer breaking in to the game that doesn’t have the expenses that professionals do, providing you with digital images on a USB stick or by email.

The higher end being a professional photographer with over a decade of experience, providing you with digital photos, parent albums, an album for you (Bride & Groom) and maybe some more extras, not forgetting the photographers experience which puts you and your guests at ease, knowing they will do a proper job.

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What is a good Wedding Photographer Budget?

A good budget in my own personal opinion is €1,500 to €2,500. (Digital images with no album on lower end, Albums and extras on the higher end)

“Wait, what?! Andrew! That’s expensive for a few photos!”

Well, hear me out. I’m in this game long enough and I know people in it five times as long, it’s a good budget because that’s simply what a wedding photographer has to get from a Wedding to support their career as a professional, I’ll explain in detail…

Let’s say that the package is €2,500 and includes all digital images on a Presentation USB Flash Drive, A parent album for each of the couples parents, a Leather album for you (The couple), a signature board, and a Private Online Digital Album for sharing with friends and family.

The Hours, Equipment and Expenses.

The prepararation before - The communication with the venue, planning the day in regards to lighting, placement, opportune times to gather guests for photos and the boring administrative stuff like Public Liability Insurance, Risk Assesments if photographing in public areas or parks, communication with local authorities to gain permissions, the list goes on. Don’t forget preparing bags of equipment the day before, cards, batteries, tripods, calibrations, multiple backups of everything.

The day itself - Everyone is different but Myself and other photographers I know will spend 18 hours working on the day of your Wedding - Preparations up until first dance, from the time they pack up equipment and leave their home until they get back home that night (And they may only get 5 or 6 hours sleep before doing 18 hours again the next day)

The days after - It’s not unusual to then spend an average of 50 hours editing, colour grading and finalizing your images (on a high end powerful PC, with a 4K editing monitor)

The work on the album(s) - If you choose the images for your album we spend about a day making the main album and the parent albums, sending you a proof to look over before being sent to print, and then actually getting the print work done, engravement, final quality check and careful packaging, all fo this can run into 2 days work sometimes, and rightly so, these albums will be cherished for decades to come.

The Materials - I wont go into the exact numbers, but the Albums, USB & Signature Board have to be printed, hand made, engraved and framed, collected, packaged and delivered.

Equipment - The professional Photographer bring €10,000 - €15,000 worth of gear, and backup gear to your Wedding day to ensure the best quality is captured - Yes we buy all of our uber expensive gear, Twice! - Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy! We can not, and will not let you down for any reason, especially equipment failure.

Expenses - The photographer has to pay Public Liability Insurance, equipment insurance, fuel and toll expenses, hosting of their website, communications, online storage and administative fees.

I think anyone reading this can gather that there is at least seven days of work in a Photographing a Wedding - and massive costs on equipment and materials too.

Two reasons you should pay more, rather than less.

1. Experience.

Experience comes from working with couples, co-ordinators, gear, lighting and locations, it’s knowing what’s going to happen next, almost like predicting the future.

Picture yourself as the photographer, it’s a winter wedding in December, you’re outside taking the photographs before it gets dark, you need to know how to avoid grain in your images in such a setting, constantly adjust for the setting sun and dimming light, color balance between natural and artificial light, balancing flash with the lighting conditions. You’ve calculated and pulled this off to a tee…

Then you go inside and realise that something very simple is going to stop you taking photos for 15 minutes. Your lens fogs up - You’ve gone from cold outside to warm inside with a glass lens, condensation is going to stick to the cold glass as soon as you walk inside, wiping it off 50 times, it will fog up instantly again because it’s cold, and will be for a few minutes.

All of a sudden your professional, very expensive camera is now out of action for 15 minutes when the Bride is trying to get you to take photos with her family inside, and guess what, you dont have 15 minutes to spare because the’re ringing the bell for dinner very soon!

An experienced professional has another camera and lens, mostly a backup of the exact camera and lens of their first camera, like i said, we have to buy all of our gear twice. They know that this will happen and jump straight on to their 2nd camera while the other one heats up for 15 minutes. A simple thing that an inexperinced photographer won’t be expecting and could cause them to miss photographs… Ah, the laws of physics are fantastic.

So your flying around outside organising people, lighting, posing and then get stopped in your tracks on a Wedding day by… Fog… But not if you’re experienced.

It’s the little things that nobody thinks about that can cause trouble. (Don’t mention strobe or laser lighting on the dancefloor.)

2. Knowing what’s going to happen next.

Predicting the future? Hmm…

Well, if the ceremony is in full swing the experienced professional will know where to stand in regards to which way the couple will be faciing when lighting the candles and saying their vows, and not making loud footsteps during the ceremony trying to get around the other side, detracting from the moment.

They will know that when the priest or celebrant is about to say “you may now kiss the bride” and not miss the shot.

It’s knowing when the bride and groom are walking down the Aisle that people will jump out in their way with phones and you have to be ready to gently keep them in their seat, whilst taking photos at the same time with the other hand.

At the reception they will know to reconfirm that speeches are happening after dinner and not before, and not miss the shots. They will know that the cutting of the cake will be after dinner, but before desert, but if they’re really pro, they’ll already have that photo taken - with the couple in the room on their own when everyone else is at the drinks reception. This is also an ideal opportunity to get a photo of the Bride & Groom in the reception room on their own too, and to see if they want a romantic photo in the Bridal Suite on their own too.

Lastly, the experienced professional will let the Bride & Groom be on their own from then until dinner, telling other guests that they are now busy and having some alone time. if you think about it, this window before dinner is the only time they will have to themselves until after the big day!

Putting the Bride & Groom (and others) at ease.

I’ll attach a gallery below of images of happy couples, I feel they are in their element, relaxed, and not affected by the camera or myself.

This is the longest and hardest thing to master and comes with time. If the photographer has all of the equipment checked over multiple times and set, knows the flow of the day and the location inside out, they can focus on helping people relax and enjoy the day, resulting in fantastic photographs.

On the day of the Wedding you need someone that’s going to be a “bit of craic” as we say, but pleasant, timely and professional too.

Ask yourself - What will I have left after my Wedding?

The shoes, cake, car, suits, food, cocktails, dinner and decorations will all be gone after your big day, they will be precious memories, but the photographs will preserve these memories and they will last a lifetime (maybe many lifetimes, I have my great grandfathers wedding photo) Worth the investment!

Maybe you’ll still have your dress too!

Thank you for reading, I hope my transparency and insight into the industry has made you feel more confident in your decision when choosing your Wedding Photographer.

P.S - We offer an unbeatable Photography & Videography Package that won't be beaten - Click Here to find out more.

- Andrew.