first dilemma already

VayCayMom · March 11, 2010

I just posted about my possible wedding booking, there is a lot of info in the post about the situation, my experience, skills etc. I am not a wedding photographer but am desiring one day to be and THIS wedding I know I can do and make the bride happy. And I would have until July to be totally prepared.

The bride just emailed me that her budget was $500 for 3 hours. Now what?

Until now my portrait sessions have been about $150 including 5 edited photos. The bride is a co worker of 2 of my clients.

JohnBiggs · March 11, 2010

VayCayMom wrote:

I just posted about my possible wedding booking, there is a lot of info in the post about the situation, my experience, skills etc. I am not a wedding photographer but am desiring one day to be and THIS wedding I know I can do and make the bride happy. And I would have until July to be totally prepared.

The bride just emailed me that her budget was $500 for 3 hours. Now what?

Until now my portrait sessions have been about $150 including 5 edited photos. The bride is a co worker of 2 of my clients.

Sorry, do you have a link to the other topic you speak of? I looked at all the topics on the wedding forum and I don't see your name as the author.

Without the other topic, can you tell me what you mean by 'now what' or 'delema'? Is $500 not what you were expecting? Did you agree to more? etc.

Thanks

Moogle Pepper · March 11, 2010

Here John

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=161549

JohnBiggs · March 11, 2010

Yes, I just found it. I read the list twice and missed it. After posting I found it. Still it's a good practice to post a link if you are going to refer to something specific.

Anyways, my question still remains... Please describe what you feel is the dilemma?

TGAllen · March 11, 2010

When you are doing your first couple of weddings, sometimes you have to eat the costs in order to build a portfolio. It's hard to book them or even advertise as a Wedding photographer if you don't have some shots to show. So, if you want to get into Weddings, I say go for it, get the experience and use it to grow. JMHO.

shming · March 11, 2010

TGAllen wrote:

When you are doing your first couple of weddings, sometimes you have to eat the costs in order to build a portfolio. It's hard to book them or even advertise as a Wedding photographer if you don't have some shots to show. So, if you want to get into Weddings, I say go for it, get the experience and use it to grow. JMHO.

Great Advice --- it's not eating the cost though --- it's $500.00 that she didn't have before - it's $500.00 that someone is willing to pay --- FOR HER FIRST WEDDING!!!! That's quite a compliment. I would tell the bride --- you know what --- no time limit for you -- I'm just gonna shoot until I'm done!!! - just stop at three hours --- just joking.....sorry couldn't resist.

zoomer · March 11, 2010

Guess we don't understand where the problem is?
$500 is a lot for your experience level, you will be very lucky to get out of there in 3 hours.
The more she pays you the more pressure there will be on you to perform.

Your deliverables will be jumping from 5 photos to 300 or so photos of equal quality you will need to deliver....
No worries.

I have looked at a lot of your pictures and your skill level is about average for where a lot of people start shooting weddings, as long as you don't overcomplicate things you should be fine. Get one under your belt and find out if this is for you before you start spending much time thinking about the price.
Shooting weddings sounds like fun to a lot of people until they actually shoot one...........

Sam · March 11, 2010

OK, here are my thoughts on this. First you say these are kind of friends of friends, so I would sit down with them and go over all the details. Be honest with them about your experience. Find out what are they looking for? What are their expectations? How large an event? Make sure that the $500 is all they can afford. I say that because if they are spending $1000 on the cake and $5000 on flowers, ect, then that would be an indicater they do not value photography and in my opinion you might want to reconsider. If on the other hand they are on a real budget I would go forward.

Define the deliverables. I think the experience you will gain will be well worth your time for a low fee, but I wouldn't include any out of pocket costs like prints or albums.

Discus with them the normal fees for wedding photography and why you are willing to shoot their wedding for $500.

I would also shoot the thing all day from bridal prep to reception. You want experience, they want pictures. Sure the money doesn't cover all this but why shoot for say only three hours when you can gain a lot more experience and portfolio images?

Practice shooting as a second (for free if you have to) if you can before the wedding.

Think about backup gear, borrow or rent a fast zoom, spare flash. Think about insurance.

These are just my thoughts...............Good luck!

Sam

VayCayMom · March 11, 2010

YEAH!!!!
IT is sooo nice to have some support about the pricing. I always thought my fist attempt would be for free anyway, but lately, it seems EVERYONE is telling me my "prices" are too low, even though I am fine at the moment where I am. I have seen a few posters with negative comments about people that don't charge enough, give their work away for free etc. I was beginning to feel guilty! So although I thought this might be OK I expected people to tell me not to do this at this price. Go figure! My husband had really beat me up about this and it was reinforced several times in his mind at the WPPI convention. I have to keep reminding him how much of a beginner I am.

And I totally would shoot over 3 hours because I am dying to do ALL the stages and I want to blow their socks off when they see the images, I intend to make them buy the prints etc. THANKS EVERYONE!

sweet caroline · March 11, 2010

Based on your portrait work, I think you'll do great. $500 is an amazing deal for the couple, but completely fair to you under the circumstances. Make sure you have a detailed contract.

Caroline

JohnBiggs · March 11, 2010

Vay, Your portraits are outstanding. Be careful because the bride and groom may expect all the shots to be outstanding as well. Generally in the wedding the conditions are far less than ideal except for a few moments.

VayCayMom · March 11, 2010

The bride is truly on a tight budget, borrowed wedding gown, reception in the home that hosted the party where the couple met. And he is from Britain.
She wants the photos on a CD. I told her I would have at least 200-300 finished images ready to print, including a few "Director's Cuts" that I would hand edit, and she could select 5 images for me to touch up/hand edit, on a CD for $100.00
So her investment would be $600.00 total and I will shoot the entire event, not just three hours.

I did a quick search in my area and I did see some photographers offering packages like this starting at $895, but I have no idea what their work looks like. I hope she decides to go with me. I will have a contract, that is very important for both of us.
And I will require a non refundable deposit.. maybe $300 ?? And the rest maybe 2 weeks before the wedding. Or should I let them pay the last $100 on completion of the CD?

Scott_Quier · March 12, 2010

VayCayMom wrote:

The bride is truly on a tight budget, borrowed wedding gown, reception in the home that hosted the party where the couple met. And he is from Britain.
She wants the photos on a CD. I told her I would have at least 200-300 finished images ready to print, including a few "Director's Cuts" that I would hand edit, and she could select 5 images for me to touch up/hand edit, on a CD for $100.00
So her investment would be $600.00 total and I will shoot the entire event, not just three hours.

I did a quick search in my area and I did see some photographers offering packages like this starting at $895, but I have no idea what their work looks like. I hope she decides to go with me. I will have a contract, that is very important for both of us.
And I will require a non refundable deposit.. maybe $300 ?? And the rest maybe 2 weeks before the wedding. Or should I let them pay the last $100 on completion of the CD?

With respect to your expectations, it appears you're on the right path

Contract - yup, you need one and I'm happy to see you realize this.

Before signging the contract, be sure to talk to the B&G about their expectations of the day. They, and maybe you, don't really know just how far off plan things will go. I've only had the pleasure of shooting one wedding where everything went as planned. If you are expecting private time with the B&G for some intimate portraits, make sure they want that as well - otherwise it ain't gonna happen. These are the sorts of things to discuss and clarify before you get into a formal relationship with the B&G.

You don't want to collect a deposit. Regardless of the terms of the contract, people expect a deposit to be refundable and some have actually been able to take it to court and make it happen. What you want to collect is a non-refundable Reservation Fee. A fee is paid for services rendered. You'll have to generate that list of services yourself but might include all the up-front work you will be doing for them (this does not include the practicing you'll be doing - in fact, I would not even mention to them the fact that you will be doing a bit of practicing before the wedding as it would/might tend to lower your cred with the client) before the wedding, your meeting with them once or twice after the contract signing, and your time to attend the rehearsal, that sort of thing.

Getting 1/2 the service contract at signing and the balance before the wedding - that would be a good thing.

As for that last $100, there are a couple of ways to run that:

They order the CD sometime after the wedding and pay for it then. Not going to happen. By the time they return from the honeymoon, the last thing they are going to want to think about is one more wedding detail. DAMHIK
They order the CD at the contract signing and you get the full $100 for it then.
You could build them an on-line gallery so they know what they are buying and then burn the CD when they order it. In doing this, you run the risk of them stealing the few images they really want and taking a pass on the CD. Yes, I know, your client would never do that. Yeah, right.
A variation on this would be to get the $$ for this deliverable at contract signing and also host the images on-line for distant guests/family.

Of the four, I would strongly consider the last. Oh, and BTW, you realize that you will realize ZERO print sales once the client has the CD. They will copy it and send it to everyone in the family and they will take it to Wal-Mart (Target, K-Mart, Eckards, etc) to get their prints so the timing of the delivery of the CD might be something you want to carefully consider.

l.k.madison · March 12, 2010

sweet caroline wrote:

Based on your portrait work, I think you'll do great. $500 is an amazing deal for the couple, but completely fair to you under the circumstances. Make sure you have a detailed contract.

Caroline

110%

form · March 12, 2010

Funny, I've been shooting weddings for about 1.5 years now and I still don't get $500 for 3 hours. $500 would be great for 3 hours in a first wedding - I am not sure why the money is an issue here.

VayCayMom · March 12, 2010

form wrote:

Funny, I've been shooting weddings for about 1.5 years now and I still don't get $500 for 3 hours. $500 would be great for 3 hours in a first wedding - I am not sure why the money is an issue here.

I explained in a later post that I thought it was great, but recently I felt overwhelmed from photographers posting complaints regarding people charging too little and giving their work away etc, so I guess I was over sensitive and was expecting negative reactions. I am fine with the price. And we are meeting next week!

first dilemma already

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