how many weddings do you shoot in a year?

kevinpw · July 28, 2010

Just out of curiosity.

1. How many wedding do you shoot in year?
2. Are you a one-man/woman company, or are you part of a larger group?

Thanks!

Matthew Saville · July 28, 2010

Hey Kevin!

As a full-time wedding photographer, I do about 20 weddings a year. I'd love to do maybe 25 weddings a year?

I'm a one-man team, however I'm currently aspiring to change that because I seriously need someone else to help me with certain things on the back end. No small business should be without support / out-sourcing, I believe...

=Matt=

Dmanning · July 28, 2010

Kevin, My hope is to photograph 12 while I am still working a full time gig elsewhere. So if I can manage that I will be able to transition to full time photography a little easier. I am a one-man show but I often have second shooters that are advanced amateurs. They make life so much easier as I constantly lose my keys.

help me with certain things on the back end.

Matt, what back end tasks do you feel you need assistance with? For me I know it's financial assistance and keeping books in order.

kevinpw · July 28, 2010

cool, thanks for your replies. there are a few photography groups where I live that shoot 5-10 weddings, plus up to 5 engagement sessions per week, as well as other shoots like portraits, products, etc. each wedding package costs up to $6000 (most expensive ive seen, and ironically the most popular around here...) and engagement sessions run from $1000-$3000. that's crazy crazy money right? of course this group has a full team of a few photographers, digital editors, videographers, general administrations, etc etc, the whole shebang. if my math is right, the most popular company's revenue is easily $100,000 a MONTH, easily more than that. that is mind-boggling to me...

ssimmonsphoto · July 28, 2010

kevinpw wrote: »

Just out of curiosity.

1. How many wedding do you shoot in year?
2. Are you a one-man/woman company, or are you part of a larger group?

Thanks!

1. Last year I had 18 weddings and 19 couples. This year its looking like 17 weddings/couples since I'm wrapping up my season in October this year instead of November like last year.

2. I'm a one woman show. This is just my "fun job" since I have another one that actually pays the bills.

kevinpw · July 28, 2010

ssimmonsphoto wrote: »

1. Last year I had 18 weddings and 19 couples. This year its looking like 17 weddings/couples since I'm wrapping up my season in October this year instead of November like last year.

2. I'm a one woman show. This is just my "fun job" since I have another one that actually pays the bills.

thanks for sharing. you're saying 18 weddings, part-time, doesn't bring you enough income? i guess i shouldn't comment before i know your prices, but i would think that that many gigs would bring you a substantial amount of money, and would allow one to have a good life when done full-time. no?

thanks again.

Moogle Pepper · July 28, 2010

kevinpw wrote: »

thanks for sharing. you're saying 18 weddings, part-time, doesn't bring you enough income? i guess i shouldn't comment before i know your prices, but i would think that that many gigs would bring you a substantial amount of money, and would allow one to have a good life when done full-time. no?

thanks again.

If you are charging at the least $3-4k, even then you will be barely making it for that amount of weddings.

kevinpw · July 28, 2010

i guess i should take into account if you have a family or not. that would make a lot of difference.

Moogle Pepper · July 28, 2010

Are you thinking about pursuing this as a full time business?

Another thing to consider is where do you live? What is the cost of living in your area? Those are two big things that also needs to be thought about when pricing.

ssimmonsphoto · July 28, 2010

kevinpw wrote: »

thanks for sharing. you're saying 18 weddings, part-time, doesn't bring you enough income? i guess i shouldn't comment before i know your prices, but i would think that that many gigs would bring you a substantial amount of money, and would allow one to have a good life when done full-time. no?

thanks again.

My first job is as a teacher and professor. This makes a good summer/fall job just to supplement. Lets me keep myself affordable for my market area. My husband refers to it as my self supporting hobby. And self employment taxes suck.

Matthew Saville · July 29, 2010

ssimmonsphoto wrote: »

...And self employment taxes suck.

AMEN!!! Anybody who is considering being a professional freelance photographer, if you're serious then you need the kick-in-the-pants that a chat with a good CPA will give you. OUCH. Especially freelance event photography- Basically, you gotta charge sales tax on your ENTIRE package, and there's no loopholes, trust me. (Other than delivering ZERO physical products, and forcing the clients to download their entire wedding via the internet...)

=Matt=

Matthew Saville · July 29, 2010

Dmanning wrote: »

...Matt, what back end tasks do you feel you need assistance with? For me I know it's financial assistance and keeping books in order.

Yeah I'm just no good with people skills. I've always been the quiet, calm, level-headed type who just doesn't talk and hides behind the tripod.

I'm basically not going to cut it in this peppy, bubbly market here in So Cal where "image" is everything and IMAGES don't matter that much. Unless I have someone else doing the "image" for me- calling and corresponding with brides, being cheerful, outgoing, etc...

We'll see what happens!

=Matt=

bnlearle · July 29, 2010

I try to shoot around ten weddings a year. And I shoot by myself

kevinpw · July 30, 2010

Moogle Pepper wrote: »

Are you thinking about pursuing this as a full time business?

Another thing to consider is where do you live? What is the cost of living in your area? Those are two big things that also needs to be thought about when pricing.

Not really actually, although I guess it'd be a good stepping stone. I'm more interested in fashion and commercial stuff, including products. I live in Jakarta, Indonesia. The wedding photog business here is SOOOO over-saturated, I don't know how people compete with each other, and how newcomers can succeed. It's mind-boggling.

Shima · August 1, 2010

These days I try to keep it at 10 or less since in previous years I was doing 15-20 a year and that was wayyyy to much with my full time job too. So now I keep it to 10 or less (I prefer 1 a month, max 2, anything beyond that and I start turning people away) so that I have my sanity and free time outside of being a network engineer all week and a wedding photographer every weekend. Gotta have some weekends for myself! If it was my only job I'd easily want to do 20+ a year though.

kevinpw · August 3, 2010

Shima wrote: »

These days I try to keep it at 10 or less since in previous years I was doing 15-20 a year and that was wayyyy to much with my full time job too. So now I keep it to 10 or less (I prefer 1 a month, max 2, anything beyond that and I start turning people away) so that I have my sanity and free time outside of being a network engineer all week and a wedding photographer every weekend. Gotta have some weekends for myself! If it was my only job I'd easily want to do 20+ a year though.

Burlingame? I used to live in San Mateo

Thanks for sharing. If you don't mind me asking, what % of your yearly income does your photography make for you?

Thanks again.

how many weddings do you shoot in a year?

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