How Much Does a Wedding Photographer Cost in 2020?
The cost of a wedding photographer today
Wedding days are momentous celebrations: a union between two families with real moments of joy, nostalgia, excitement and tears. Such a significant moment for two families makes remembering the wedding day so important. We, naturally, believe that gorgeous weddings need great photography. The best wedding photographers should capture the most natural and beautiful moments of your big day with elegance and make the memories everlasting. This is why years of experience, as well as creative flair, is important to execute amazing wedding photography.
However, as with all great things, hiring a wedding photographer costs money. After booking a venue, paying for caterers, entertainment and decoration, you'll need to factor in how much a photographer is going to run your total wedding budget. You might be asking yourself: how much does a wedding photographer cost? There are many factors that can affect wedding photography prices: whether your wedding is in a major city like London or in the countryside or smaller areas, the duration of your shoot and the style of your photographer. It can seem like a bit of a scam if you’re just expecting someone to follow you around with a camera, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
It can be a trial to find the right photographer with creativity, who you trust and whose style you like. Moreover, their skillset comes in to question - are they good with natural light, experienced in the art of wedding photography, but can also pull-off some elements of fine-art wedding photography? The photographer needs to be not only available on your given date, but also able to travel to your wedding destination or your destination wedding.
If you find a photographer who meets all of the above criteria, next you’ll be trying to figure out how much they’ll charge you. There are a few things that always factor into the price of wedding photography services.
Read on to find out how much wedding photography can cost, and why prices in 2020 are the way they are.
Why is Wedding Photography so Expensive?
When you hire a photographer, much of what you pay them goes towards their time spent marketing themselves. Half of the work as a photographer is advertising and attracting jobs. Usually they are one-man businesses and freelancers who must constantly market themselves to keep the jobs coming in, and when you pay them you are paying for this full-time effort. This often ramps up the cost of hiring a photographer the traditional way.
Weddings are a significant time commitment for any photographer. You can typically expect to hire them for a minimum of around six hours, and your photographer will usually charge you an hourly rate. Besides that, you have to factor in the travel costs of the photographer. They not only have to transport themselves but all of their equipment. If your wedding requires significant drive time or even a flight to an exotic destination, that is going to make things a little more pricey. Searching online for a “UK photographer near me” is a good way to find someone local so you don’t need to pay exorbitant amounts for a photographer to drive to your location.
From there, the photographer will usually charge you extra for each delivered image, each of which will be edited and retouched to make them as dazzling as possible. Editing images is a lot of work and takes time, which adds drastically to the cost of the service. Additionally, if you want your photos made into an album that will further increase the photographer's pricing.
The huge time commitment devoted to self-marketing and editing is what can make photography for your wedding a costly affair. The actual shooting is the smallest (but most fun) part of a photographer's job.
How Much does a Wedding Photographer Cost?
As a general rule of thumb, people often spend about 7.5 - 10% of their wedding budget on the photographer, which means if your total budget is £30,000 (the national average wedding spend), you may spend around £2250 on your photographer. Spending can range from around £230 for someone to simply show up with a camera and take snapshots, to £3,500 or more for a seasoned professional and expertly edited and retouched photos in an expensive city such as London.
What are the costs of different wedding packages?
There is a large variation in price depending on the different packages provided by the photographer. UK wedding photographers often break up their pricing depending on the completeness of the service they give you.
The most basic (and cheapest cost) photography package for those looking to save will usually provide a single photographer for one day of shooting. They should talk with you before the wedding to discuss any details, and deliver a high-quality online gallery of edited photos after your big day.
Mid-range photography packages are the most frequently opted for. These wedding packages include an experienced photographer for a full day of photographing. They will be there from getting ready until the first dance. Depending on the photographer, this kind of package will sometimes include a pre-wedding shoot, perhaps for bridal parties or engagement shoots. your photographer will enhance each photo and provide a photo album as well as a digital gallery.
In the highest price bracket, fully comprehensive packages provided by wedding photographers should include a pre-wedding couple shoot, a visit to the wedding venue before the day, and even a second photographer to capture every moment in your wedding. After carefully enhancing every photo, your photographer will deliver a personalised wedding album along with a high-resolution online gallery. This is the most infrequently booked package, for obvious cost reasons.
As far as the 'average cost' for a wedding photographer, the vast majority of couples spend anywhere between £800 - £2,000, making the median average £1,400.
However, with Perfocal, you could save over half of these costs by bagging a pro wedding photographer on one of their less busy days. Find out how it works here.
The Cost of a Wedding Photographer in London
A wedding photographer in London will be the most expensive in the UK, without a doubt. There are a huge amount of professional photographers in London, meaning more choice, more competition, and more variation with pricing. Considering the average wedding in London will come to around £32,000 (2019), using the 7.5 - 10% rule, you can expect the average wedding photographer in London to cost anywhere from £2400 - £3200 for a full day of shooting.
The Cost of a Wedding Photographer in Manchester
Like with all things, photoshoots in the North of England are much cheaper. However as Manchester is still a major city, prices can still be higher than elsewhere in the country. You can expect to pay around £950 - £1900 for a full day of shooting in Manchester.
The Cost of a Wedding Photographer in Sheffield, Leeds, and Birmingham
These big UK cities will be much more reasonable than London photographer prices. You can get some beautiful wedding photography packages starting from around £850 to £1600 in Sheffield, Leeds and Birmingham.
The Cost of a Wedding Photographer in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and other areas in the South-West
In smaller, more remote towns and cities, wedding photography is pretty much as cheap as it gets. With smaller populations, these locations will get you a great deal on a wedding photographer. Areas in the rural South-West of the United Kingdom such as Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol and Bath will charge as little as £750 for a complete day of shooting, with prices peaking at only £1300.
Wedding Photography Costs Only Vary Slightly
Although there is some small variation in average prices for wedding photography in the UK, you can expect to pay a standard amount of around £1000. This range of price will get you a decent quality of photographer, and a brilliant digital album.
Thanks to Perfocal's new and innovative booking method, you don't have to fork out a fortune for your amazing wedding photos. We can book photographers in-between their big shoots, right up until the last minute, so that you get incredible professional wedding photos at half the cost. Photographers with Perfocal do not need to market themselves, and we handle the editing, all of which reduces the cost of having an amazing pro photographer at your wedding.
Bottom line: It's worth it to hire a pro photographer for your wedding day
Weddings aren’t cheap by any means, and a quality photographer is one area you don’t want to skimp on. A decent photographer will set the average couple back anywhere from £800 to £2000, which isn't to be sniffed at. But ultimately, because of the limits of our memory, your wedding photos will serve as your primary way of remembering that momentous day.
A good wedding photographer will capture all of the best aspects of the venue and the people within it. You’ve already spent a significant amount of money making sure everything is perfect for your wedding, make sure you’re able to revisit the memory forever with some great photos.
Are you getting married and considering booking a wedding photographer?
Your wedding day is a momentous occasion, and for most people a once-in-a-lifetime event. Whether your wedding's big or small, make sure you don’t fork out a fortune for your photos. You can hire a pro photographer simply and affordably with Perfocal instead.
We guarantee quick and simple booking, an amazing professional photographer who will travel to you, and 48 hour photo delivery every time.
We do all this so you can have amazing wedding photos without the price tag.
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