Tag: Wedding Photography

Part 4 in my blog series on “How much will your wedding cost?” deals with photographers and videographers.  No offense to my videographer friends, but obviously since photography is my thing; I’m probably going to spend more time on that portion.  The pricing information is from CostOfWedding.com and is not necessarily the price you will pay for photography and videography here in Toledo, Ohio.  This blog series is simply to give Toledo Brides and Grooms an idea of how much they may pay for wedding items and services, and is a rough estimate at best.

According to the reporting on Cost Of Wedding website, Toledo brides and grooms spend between $1,020 and $1,700 total for photography and videography for average services.  For the experienced professionals, they spend between $2,040 and $2,720+.  The average amount spent for both was $1,360.  Unfortunately, this report does not state how many, if any, actual brides and grooms responded to this survey they used to collect this information nor do they say how many hours each wedding lasted, so spending amounts may vary widely.  Full day coverage for the most experienced wedding photographers and videographers in the Greater Toledo Area are usually much higher than the $1,360 given in this report, so please make sure you do your research before setting this, or any, portion of your budget.

The report further breaks down amounts by other things like engagement sessions, prints, albums, CD or DVD, and what they actually paid the photographer and videographer for their time and services.  Here are those figures.  For the videographer, the average Toledo couples spend between $674 and $1,124 on for average videography and between $1,349 and $1,798+ for the experts.  The average amount spent on videographers in Toledo in 2011 was $899.  For the photographer, Toledo brides and grooms spent on average between $1,067 and $1,778 for services but spent between $2,133 and $2,844+ for more experienced professionals.  The report states that the average amount spent on the photographer for a Toledo wedding was $1,422.

When planning your photography portion of the budget, you should include the extras like albums, prints and DVDs.  According to CostOfWedding.com, the average Toledo couple spends between $305 and $508 for average leather bound albums while they spend between $609 and $812+ for albums from the professionals.  The report further states that the average spent on a traditional leather bound album is $406.  This of course, does not take into consideration the size of the prints in the album nor does it list how many pages are included.  As for prints that are purchased, the average bride and groom in Toledo spends between $147 and $245, with them spending between $294 and $392+ from the experts, and they spend on average a total of $196.  Once again, this report does not give the details about the size of the prints nor does it state weather it is a proof set or canvas or anything else, which could drastically change the amount you would spend.  For engagement photo sessions, Toledo couples spend between $270 and $450 for average professionals and spend between $540 and $720+ for the professionals.  The report lists the average spent as $360 but does not state if this is just for the session or if it includes prints or a printable CD.  The report lists a category called Digital or Photo CD/DVD.  I’m guessing this is also for the photographer, but it could be a videographer product as well, but it does not define that.  The cost for this for the average Toledo bride and groom is listed as between $215 and $358 with spending for the professionals as between $429 and $572+ and the average amount spent as $286.
Now, with all of this being said, it is very important that you remember DO NOT choose your videographer or photographer by price alone.  You need to take into consideration their style, quality, your likes and how you truly want your wedding memories to be preserved.  Yes, many photographers and videographers are out there that will give you everything you want and then some for dirt cheap.  The problem is that most of the time, their end product reflects their price.  At the same time, there are also a lot of inexperienced people in the profession that are charging as much if not more than experienced photographers and videographers who probably shouldn’t be charging what they are charging if you base it on experience.  According to the American Academy of Wedding Professionals, the most complaints they receive after a wedding are about photographers.  It is very important to do your research on wedding photographers along with all of your vendors, and with the internet the way it is today, this makes it much easier to do so.  You can check out what other brides say about their wedding vendors simply by going to WeddingChannel.com and WeddingWire.com and reading their reviews.  You can also check the Better Business Bureau website to check for complaints about their service.

Another thing you need to consider about your photographer pricing packages is what you really want.  The trend these days is for the bride to purchase a disk of all of the images with copyrights so she can take the photos somewhere else to get printed and also make her own “cheaper” album.  Because of the high demand for this, I recently have revised my pricelist to include the disk of images in place of a traditional wedding album, your choice.  However, here are some things you need to consider.  I recently had a past bride from years ago ask for a new DVD slideshow from her wedding because the one I made for her back then will not play in her new computer.  This is a problem quite a few brides are finding out the hard way.  CDs and DVDs are not meant to last forever.  They get scratched, lost and sometimes even break.  They become outdated because of the constant software improvements and may eventually become obsolete all together because of techonological advances.  Although I do, not all wedding photographers keep your images forever.  Many of them, I have noticed from online forums, will give you what you purchased, keep them for a little while longer and then delete them from their servers.  Therefore, five or ten years from now, you may not be able to access them from your photographer if you need them.  After months of wedding planning and settling into your newly married lives after the honeymoon, do you really want to have to spend many more hours putting together a wedding album yourself?  It takes me several hours just to layout an album and I do it quite often, and that is with the bride choosing her favorite images to be included in it.  You on the other hand have probably never created an album before so I am guessing it will take you twice or three times as long as it does me, if not longer.

Also, as with most photographers, the disk you will receive with all of your images will probably not include photo retouching and color correcting on each and every image.  However, when you order prints or an album, I will make sure that this is done for you.  This ensures that you have the best quality photo prints and albums.  You also have to consider that when you purchase a high resolution disk of the images, they are meant for very large prints.  If you do not have photo editing software like Photoshop, your prints may not look right when printed.  Some stores that have print labs will crop them for you, but that doesn’t mean it will look the way you want it to look. I also keep hearing from brides that have been married for a while tell me that they wished they would have had their photographer make their wedding album instead of just buying the disk because they still “haven’t gotten around to doing it yet”.  They also haven’t gotten around to taking their disk to get prints because they can’t remember where they put the disk of images or have been too busy to do it.  When you have a professional do this for your, it gets done, usually very quickly.  Some photographers even limit how many images you will receive.  I do not do this because I do not know what “little moments” you will want to cherish and/or put in your wedding album.  Many photographers give a copyright release to you when your purchase a disk of images.  Be sure to check to make sure how many images you will receive and if the release has any restrictions.  Many photographers will restrict the size or what you can do with it because we use professional print labs that a common person cannot use guaranteeing that the quality is of the highest standards in the business.  If you take the image to a big box store or drug store, the quality is not the same as what we can provide with the larger prints. Professional photographers are picky about their work and do not want it seen by possible future customers if it is not up to their standards and therefore put those restrictions on what you can do with the images.

This information is not meant to scare you or talk you out of purchasing a disk.  I personally don’t mind when brides get a disk instead of an album because it is far less work for me since I don’t have to lay out the album.  I just wanted to let you know about all of the information and scenarios that you may not have thought about before.  Is saving money worth it to you to have to do so much work yourself when you can pay a little extra and have a professional do it for you?

Hopefully you will find the information that I have provided you in this blog helpful.  Sorry that it is so long compared with the other blogs in this series, but this is my area of expertise.  As I stated earlier, these are just estimates from CostOfWedding.com.  The amount you will actually spend will vary greatly depending on your taste, location and ideas.