Photography is so expensive..

I found a photographer who negotiated $1000 with me, 5 hours of shooting time unlimited number of pictures to capture the main events in the wedding. Everyone else just takes cellphone pictures anyways.. It's all personal preference of how much you want to spend and how important it is to you. I was not interested in paying $2300 for pictures because it's not that big of a priority for me. Couple nice pictures is all I need.

We are ending up spending a lot on photography & videography (around $7000 in total) just because both me and my FH are quite particular about our photos! Our engagement shoot was done by the same people we're deciding to go with for our wedding because we loved how our engagement photo and video turned out!

I was having this issue than realized....hey one of my guests is a professional photographer. We are paying 1000$ for everything and unlimited edited photos. mostly cause since she was a guest i felt guilty asking her to work without a cost.

Glad to see you found a middle ground of a price your happy with the photographer. I did pay around the lowest price of $1300 for the photographer and luckily found him on kijiji site.

Thanks again ladies!! You’ve given me such great tips. I’m so glad to see I’m not alone in thinking these prices are high!!

also UPDATE I found a photographer!! Through kijiji!! She is super sweet and professional!! And her photos are exactly what I’m looking for (professional, lots of action shots, great lighting /filters etc ). She charges starting low at 1400 so it’s perfect. We don’t mind putting a couple bucks in for her higher package. Based on her skill I’m surprised at the low cost but I am sure she will increase her prices soon though. So glad I kept looking thanks again everyone!!

I was having a hard time finding someone in our budget ($2000) that was talented for the whole day. I actually took to my local Wedding Buy and Sell pages on facebook.

Someone recommended a photographer to me I loved... I messaged her and lone behold she was still over budget... but she directed me to someone else. Same style. Super talented. But just went out on her own. (Used to work for someone else). We love her.. our engagement photos came out awesome... and now we look at her new pricing and it's back out of our budget haha.. but we already have our contract for the wedding.

I would say your best bet is asking for recommendations from everyone you can. If you post on a Facebook page say exactly what you like and what you are hoping to spend. Real life brides and etc will know people in your area, and give honest feedback.

Message a photographer you really like... some are willing to flex a little bit, or direct you to someone else. It's worth a shot.

If you find someone just starting their own business that's not necessarily a bad thing either as long as they have experiencing and have shot weddings before and you like their style/gallery.

I found that the first few people were around this- After searching more I was able to find people between ****. They were still very talented and more hours than the most expensive and 4 hours. I would shop around even for people out of town because when I did this even with travel was cheaper than some of the locals!

Jeremy Daly Photography was decent pricing and from Kitchener. His work is amazing

I was originally worried about photography budget but then after meeting with a lower end photographer I was unimpressed by her lack of professionalism, she even almost harassed me after our meeting. I realized how much the pictures mean't to us so I decided to stretch the budget for the right person.

View quoted message Thank you I will try Craigslist and Kijiji!

View quoted message Yes it’s disappointing to see that seems to be the average but I’ve found a couple around **** so I guess we’ll go with that.. but I will keep looking as we still have a bit of time

When I was shopping around I was getting quotes around $3500 as well. I actually found my photographer who was 2 photographers for 10 hours for just $2700 which was great. It also depends where you are looking as well I think. Keep looking and you might find something a little cheaper but that is an average amount it seems.

Hi Sarah,

That seems to be about the average price for photography. I requested quotes from about 10 companies and they were all within the range of **** for roughly 2 photographers on a 10 hour coverage. I had a friend who had a university student who did photography on the side do it for 1500 for 3 hours. I think if you look on craigslist you can probably find some cheaper options to fit your budget.

We are paying $700 for 6 hours. The girl we went with is a couple years out of highschool and has been doing photography for awhile now. I found her on instagram actually !! We wanted good pictures but we cant afford to spend $3,000 for the day, unfortunately. however, my FH's dad is a professional videographer so he will be taking video and pics for us throughout the night and putting it together as a gift to us. yay!

Thanks for the input everyone! I just didn’t know how crazy it could get. I just found out a friend of a friend spent $7k on photography! I am stunned lol. Anyway it’s true those starting out seem to be in the 1000s range but I am not enjoying their galleries as much. I have found a couple in the 2000s that we’re better so maybe we will go for that. I will email them to see if they can customize a package as suggested, and I will also look to see what our venue has to offer in terms of vendors. Thanks again!!

Ya, some photographers just starting out might charge around the $1500 range but more established photographer charge more. We are paying $3500 for two photographers for 7 hours but it also includes our engagement shoot.

Check with your venue too! My venue had a preferred vendor list. We booked a photographer that has shot many weddings at our venue and we got a wicked deal for an 8 hour package.
But unfortunately many photographers will charge this much for an 8 hour + package. Keep an eye on wedding shows, or someone who is just starting out with their business

Yeah, I was super shocked with photography costs! It was the first thing that made me say: "Oh so that's why weddings cost so much!"

I’m paying a lot more than that 😐 so $3500 sounds like a good price to me.

Is it all day shooting? 2 photographers or 1? How many photos do you get? Does it include an engagement shoot?

Depending on what that price includes, it seems like a good price from all of the places I was quoted.

Sure is! I went with a friend who is a photographer (she's only done one wedding though), but everywhere I was looking started at $1,500 and that was only for 4 hours of coverage. Every hour more was $250....

Maybe try seeing if any of the places you are emailing have any wedding shows that they are apart of that they offer a discount at? I know here in Winnipeg we have the Wonderful Wedding Show that most people offer discounts if we book then and there with them.

You could also let them know what you are looking for needs-wise and see if they can make a package up for you based off of what you need.

Oh ya, photography is a crazy cost. That being said there are a ton of photographers so really shop around and decided which of their packages suits your needs. Do you want getting ready shots, do you want a lot of reception ones ie cake cutting. The more you want, the longer you will need them and therefore more $$.

Yeah, it can sometimes cost that much. If I were you, I’d seek out someone new to the business to get a better price. Otherwise - depending on the area you live in - the prices can be pretty high.