One topic that comes up fairly regularly during my pre-wedding consultation is why wedding photography and videography costs as much as it does?
I’m going try to attempt to break it down here and hopefully give you the information that will help you to understand the secret behind the question. :) Please pardon me as these figures are average and will vary from one photographer to another. Also, please keep in mind that a single unmarried photographer will probably have a lower cost of living than one supporting a family of four! Individual differences between the photographer’s suppliers as well as their assistant’s skill also make a huge impact on the cost that they charge to survive the over saturated market!
Let’s assume the photographer lists a price of £2,700 for 10 hours of coverage, an engagement session, a book of 500 proof prints with a 30-page storybook type album.
Out of that £2,700 you need to consider the photographer’s annual expenses as well as fixed cost associated with an individual wedding. Among those expenses would be a professional indemnity insurance, equipment insurance, software, promotion such as adverts, wedding fairs and exhibitions, updates and maintenance of their website and sample albums, accounting and legal expenses, repair or replacement or upgrading of very expensive professional grade cameras and computers, continued education, wear and tear on their automobile, soaring fuel costs and for some…mobile studio rent, electric and telephone. All these may cost around £300 on average per wedding.
Add to the above figure the cost of an assistant, proof album and proof prints, consumables such as DVDs or CDs and the cost of storybook printing and binding cost. This figure may come to a total of around £900.
After these expenses, the photographer is left with £1,500 of so called gross profit 
. Please add 15%-20% VAT (depending on the location of the supplier) on top of PAYE taxes which will take on average, 40% of £1,500 i.e. £600. This leaves the photographer with £900 in earnings for photographing the most memorable day in your life.
Wow, you say…a thousand quid for a few hours work on a Saturday?.. surely this can’t be that bad? If it was that simple, you’d be right and it would be pretty damn good money. So, let’s look at the time invested for each wedding, shall we?
# 02 hours for pre-wedding consultation, emails and phone calls as you interview the photographer
# 06 hours for the shooting and editing of your engagement session
# 12 hours on your wedding day including commuting time to your wedding location
# 20 hours to post-process your images, get proofs printed, etc
# 02 hours on creating your online slideshow
# 14 hours designing and producing the final album
# 03 hours for misc. meetings, phone calls, emails, planning sessions, trips to the lab, etc
On top of all these, you must remember to add in the hours each week needed to run the business on its own
Therefore, a photographer invests an average of 60 hours for each wedding. Considering these facts, a good photographer makes about £15 an hour. The reader of this post also needs to be aware that the wedding season in the UK runs only from May till September as there are relatively few weddings which take place during the rest of the year.
The national average income for wedding photographers is approximately £26K per year. So if it seems like wedding photographers make huge amounts of money…please re-think as they don’t. On an average their incomes are pretty much in line with the national average wages. So, some make more and some make less, depending on their experience, creativity, talent, the actual type of product being delivered in addition to the overhead costs specific to that photographer.
I hope this information is helpful in understanding why your photographer’s prices are high….
‘Nuf said
