[Closed] Wedding photographers - how much!??!?

it's not just the work on the day, the post-production takes a lot of time as well... a few minutes an image, sometimes a lot more (like hours if you're a real perfectionist!) times that by hundreds of images and it's a lot of work...

I'd do it for three 20 year old bridesmaids and a Nebuchadnezzar?

and who's fault will it be if the 'cheap(er)' photographer does a crap job...

Either pay an expert a lot, or get a mate - nowhere in between.

We paid £500 for an expert and he was excellent so worth shopping about. Mind it was errr let see, ah nearly 9 years ago now but I bet he's still under £1k as his other prices haven't changed much.

MrNutt: had me googling there! Thats a lot of champagne!

Marsdenman on here is the fella to go for. Quite literally made our wedding, and the quality of the photography was amazing. Definitely worth every penny... 😉

And quite frankly, anyone who can make my hatchet-faced family look presentable could probably sort out world peace as well...

Ayup Chris! Hope you and the missus are grand!

We paid £1600 for a qualified and experienced member of the master photographers, they need to be stern and loud in order to organise the people and the particular photos you want doing. It's also about the album you want the piccis displaying in, our album alone was about £400 of that! Can't wait to get it!

My prices atart at £2.5K.
If you fail to feed me, you will find my contract states you will be charged £35, which is reasonable if I am going to be with you for up to 15hrs (more if required and with consultation) which is the time I give to every couple as part of each and every wedding package.
I am not loud nor stern.
If I am, I have failed you and what I do promise you. I will not raise my voice, I will not bully you, I will not pressure you. Although you are only the groom - the main focus is typically the bride.
I belong to no organisations nor societies - it's not necessary.
Do you want me to email over the booking form as dates are filling up fast for the rest of 2010.

They only get one chance to get it right. I'd bechecking they're downloading from card to laptop on the day to ensure no data lost. Oh and it doesn't have to be that dear, depends what you're looking for. It's also far cheaper abroad. We got married in Greece, the photographer was great, he gave us all the imageson disc plus an album ( granted the album was nowt fancy like some of the beautiful leather ones you can get) for less than 200quid

I should also add that I will actively raise my voice, I bully you and pressure you.

CHB - Member
MrNutt: had me googling there! Thats a lot of champagne!

I've had Nebuchadnezzars of beer before. Now that's a fun evening! Had one at Burghley Horse Trials one evening. As the sun went down, I was pouring the thing in to glasses and Princess Anne drove by. She motioned to her driver to stop. He did. She then wound down the window and said, "Enough to share?". We laughed, lots! She smiled, waved and drove off.

loads and loads and loads. One wanted £4500!!! Its worth paying a pro, but don't pay for the associated tat IMO. One guy (the 4.5k guy) would put all our photos on an ipod for us to keep? WTF? We paid about £250 in the end for a guy who took loads of great photos and just gave us a cd rom afterwards. You'll get loads of great shots from family as well (cos they just stand behind teh photographer and take the same shot!)

You will find the Book or Albums can make a huge difference to the finished product & the price.
Ones to look for are Graphistudio Wedding Books, Jorgensen and Queensbury and Albums Australia. There are others, some better than others.
In my case:
I give you all the images printed up to 6x4, typically you will own 1000+, depending on the day.
You have access to a web gallery and of course my happy, smiling face on the day.
With 500+ weddings under my belt, I have a fair idea of how to manage the wedding photography, cravats, corsages, you name it, I can mostly solve wedding day issues!

[url= https://download.yousendit.com/MVNmZXQrcTI4aVBIRGc9PQ ]Here's a link to one G.S Wedding Book layout, all done long-hand in Photoshop.[/url]

My post grad' is in photojournalism, having freelanced for many national papers, The Independent, Observer, Sunday Times etc so my style and approach is self explanatory. I have no isseus with any guest following my lead - they might lean something, but they won't get the shots I get, of that I promise. I'm good!

I'll do it for 50 quid. I'll even bring 2 cameras so I'll look like a professional. I'll be a bit loud and abrasive but nothing too bad - it's the only way to control the proles, I've found. I will eat like a pig and probably drink a lot, so photos of the evening do might be a little on the experimental side, if I've not copped off with a bridesmaid. In which case I'll keep the photos of the evening do in my own personal stash. For the price you can pick any of the albums in the Boots 'less than a tenner' range. I will insist that both bride and groom wear grey, as it is much easier to photograph. Do you want me to cobble a booking form together and sent it through to you? Probably best you don't confirm dates with the wedding venue until you've checked I'm available - I'm pretty stacked out with work at the moment. Hell, I'm good. You won't be wanting me to wear a suit will you?

Ti29er - I'm sorry but you are way way out of my price range, we are attempting (badly) to keep the spend to a budget that won't mean we are financially crippled for the first few years of married life.

If you charge £2.5k a wedding then that's great for you, it's making me strongly consider that I should join the gravy train that is charging silly amounts of money to people getting married. Even if you only did on average 4 weddings a month you are clearing a substantial wage.

I still think insisting on food is a bit of a piss take. No other contractor I have ever employed for a multitude of services over the years has demanded I pay their lunch - I mean come on!

OK, 45 quid and I'll bring me own sandwiches?

You wait until you see how much they charge you for cake!

Bakers that is, not photographers.Obviously.

I gave up trying to control the budget for my wedding ages ago. One more month of being the hapless victim to this extortion racket to go.....

Hmmm just reread my post, seems unduly harsh - wasn't in any way supposed to be a personal attack, I expect the weddings that can afford your rates think you are worth every penny. I'm just truely gobsmacked at how much everything is...

Cake is being made by granny so thankfully I haven't had to worry about tripling that estimate.

I've only had 3 couples decide not to feed me or one of my team.
They all paid, but that's not the point.
The band will need feeding the moment they turn up and a free bar.
Mostly the venues I frequent factor it all in, or the wedding organiser or wedding coordinator has done so on my behalf.

I only drink tea and water on the day, and don't eat cake. You see, you're coming 'round to me!
I get first dibbs on the bridesmaids too. Or the mothers - whichever look most promising.

we went cheap and i could have done better plus he was f~@king rude to everyone.

i would say call up your local college and as if any photography students wanna do it. they'll do it for free and charge for prints i imagine. i did photography at college and people were doing it often.

Everybody involved in the wedding "racket" tout the same line: it's your big day, do you want risk NOT paying top dollar and getting some old cr*p ? Take some polaroids, get everybody a fish supper and then have a big party. With the millions you save either donate to DEC Haiti or, more sensibly, buy a new bike and have a belter of a honeymoon. I know that's what I (and the missus) would do if we had the chance again.

I am a wedding photographer and my average wedding is about £1500. I can understand how to member of the public it may seem like a lot of money for "just taking a few snaps" but trust me there is a lot of work around post production.

I will spend between 8 and 10 hours on my feet, I typically take between 1 and 2 thousand pictures, they need editing and then there is album design, the cost of the album, insurances, rent, tax, marketing, associated web fees trust me the amount of money that goes in my pocket from a £1500 wedding is not very much.

Like so much in life, you get what you pay for, i believe my work is worth £1500 there are a lot of togs out there that will charge you a 1/3 of that for the same thing.

Put it this way, you can buy a £200 full sus at halfords or £2k on a proper full sus. ergo - you get what you pay for.

Sorry Ti29er, with the exception of the first dance pics, that album does little for me.
Nice collage and layout though.

A friend at work had this guy:
http://www.randallweddings.co.uk/wedding_photos/wedding-photography-moments.html

Best I have seen in a long time.

ti29er

downloaded your sample pdf - not sure i like some of your layouts, but the shots themselves are stunning

now I know how you fund your ti29er 🙂

I mean £600 for a ****ing cake! That's eggs, flour, water, some currents and a bit of icing.

AND THAT'S THE ECONOMY OPTION!!

And MrsSP's mother can't have her precious daughter 'settling for the economy option' can she?

Yes. Six. Hundred. Pounds.

Surely quoting the amount of work involved is just a poor attempt to jusitfy the price. People don't pay for time, they pay for an end result. It should be "£4k becuase my photos are f*cking outstanding" not "£4k because I've spent ages on it". And if people are dumb enough to pay it then well done on a profitable business. And of course there is an element of assuming a £4k photographer is better than a £500 one.

When we got wed 8 years ago we ended up paying £900 for our wedding shots and album , as we were the photographers last wedding before he emigrated we got the negatives and all the preview album too.

I trained with my grandad for 5 years with a view to taking over the family business then when he retired he sold all his gear under my nose without so much as a thank you! , If he'd wanted someone to carry his gear he should've said from the off , but never mind that's in the past and we don't talk anymore.

It's beyond me why you would need to take 1-2 thousand pictures , surely if you position your subjects properly there's no need. when I did weddings with my grandad he rarely used more than 6 rolls of film (medium format Bronica's) thats 90 shots , IMO it's not really a professional job if you need to take thousands of shots to get the results you need , I'm not really a big fan of the avant garde style of wedding photgraphy myself much prefer a traditional wedding album.

It all depends on what you want.
I'd been to plenty of weddings before I got married and knew what I didn't want;a photographer taking over the day, keeping guests waiting for up to 2 hours while he took the different staged group shots( no offence to photographers on here but this had been my experience on many occasions.)
I wanted my wedding day to flow naturally, not to be just one long staged photo-shoot.
We had a family friend offer to do ours as a wedding present. He spent about 10 minutes doing the staged groups after the ceremony, and then just spent the rest of the time taking natural photos.
Me and my family took photos in the house in the morning.
We came back from honeymoon to receive about 200 great pictures.
We then spent the next few evenings having great fun putting them into an album of our choice along with other snaps sent to us from friends and family.
I do not regret at all not getting in a "professional".

But then I didn't have a 3-tier fancy cake, and my dress cost less than £250. I designed it myself, bought the fabric, and had a seamstress make it up for me.

Ti29er - Member

My prices atart at £2.5K.

Hence why he can afford to buy a Titanium 29er! What is it a Jones or something 😉

You can even pay way more that 4.5k if you want but I suspect that the pain would be too high. I've got to agree with both Angela and Ti29er here. You want someone good enough that they get all the right shots first time in minutes rather than messing around for hours and that will probably take two people, not one. You also want someone spending the time after to do the filtering and give you 200 great shots rather than a DVD of everything because you just know that no-one will ever delete the junk after so can you imagine how bad the photo 'showing' will be...

If you wouldn't flinch at hitting the pay button on CRC for the same as you are paying your photographer, you probably need to be paying more 😉

Kind of agree with carlsog, 2.5K for a wedding shot on a digital SLR is a peetake. I don't care how long you spend on photoshop afterwards. Its not exactly rocket science and I run a digital print & design company. I guess you have to be confident to command those prices.

Its not even like you have to shoot polaroid any more, its all on a high res screen right in front of you. If its poor you delete and repeat. Not even any lab processing or film cost these days.
Professional Advertising guys get paid less and are truly skilled. I did my time working for them. My advise shop around, don't think that by paying more you are guaranteeing a better outcome.

DO: remember to have the best day of your lives!

PS. The ad guys I worked for bought the client lunch!

I do between 7 and 10 weddings a year and start at £750 for CD, it usually works out at less than £10 per hour all in. Even on a £2K job most of it goes on albums and mounts and frames.

Probably the lowest paid profession, only celeb photogs get rich quick

Ti29er - nice pics but pretty terrible layout/design imo.

My Gran made our cake, we supplied the ingredients and she made it. I wouldn't have had it any other way, nice to have something the family did for your day.

Fotorat. I deal with a lot of photographers and I can assure you it's not a low paid profession. Most photographers I know do very well thank you.

pfft tightwad!

ok I'll drop my fee. however I will be requiring at least two cans of tizer and a watermelon.

You see.

Horses for courses!
Some like the shots. Some don't like the shots.
Some like the layouts. Some don't like the layouts.

You can't please all the people all the time, and you'd be a wally to try to.
I specialise in certain things. I offer a few options and people either subscribe to that or not.

Those who do not like my work don't book me. I learnt not to be bothered by this many, many moons ago. Rejection in whatever form is actually part of the business, what you must not do if offer up one portfolio of work and images and products and then produce something that is not in keeping with your portfolio.

I've turned dowwn 3 booked weddings on further consideration and discussions in the last 15 years, with at least 9 months before a wedding because the b&g have actually booked the wrong person- me. Never try and fit a round peg into a square hole.

I'll upload another example shortly....

http://www.yousendit.com/download/S1VEc0w0NHZENlJMWEE9PQ

http://download.yousendit.com/MVNmS3hkR0ZsMHgzZUE9PQ

If MrNutt could please upload his book.

Mrs G is keen.

to book you for renewing our vows.

[url= http://www.px3.fr/winners/cat_details.php?cat_name=Advertising&compName=PX3%202009&pro=pro# ]it's also worth noting I won this - see the car winning image, plus a 3rd place in another category and 3 honourable mentions.[/url] some of which you might recognise from Mayhem and Clic24 in 2007/8.

Plus if you turn to page 62 (?) for 5 pages in this month's MBUK....

You see, it's not all weddings, I have, like many of my peers, a varied career and portfolio.

Plus I don't need to supply any watermelon as they're porous - you'd be surprised what fertilizers some countries put on them in the fields. Think: Human effluent.

Well I used to be a wedding photographer and charged £1200 for an all day slot,-B&G arrival at church through to the meal. If thy did speeches before I'd cover them for no more £'s.

I'd expect to take 400 -600 shots depending on guest numbers and it included a really nice "Story book" album, all PC designed and very bespoke. A lot of work and creativity, 8 hours being a photographer / diplomat / comedian and then 8 hours being a PC nerd.

Well for 2010, I just can't be bothered for £1200 and I've got no overheads like a shop or an assistant etc, I'd shoot in Jpeg and hardly spend any time manipulating photos I'd took (get it right in camera and don't spend ages on the PC). My albums cost me £150 And photos another £80. 2 hours of visiting to sort stuff out leaves me with £54/hour, [b]sorry why can't I be bothered again?[/b]

I'll do it. £1200 😀
(thinks what bike bits he "needs")

hmmm, my book appears to have vanished, instead here's a chook jumping out of a bin. I can however assure the viewers at home said chook did, quite clearly, proclaim "book", several times once back on terra firma. I trust that helps?
[IMG] [/IMG]

Anyone else got a picture of a farmyard animal that can call "album"?
Best to give potential customers a choice after all.

Here is picture I took of my future niece on a horse.

Can I have £2000 now?
[img] ?t=1264460075[/img]

cough* PLUG *cough

[url] http://www.esthetephotography.com/ [/url]

This guy is my mate, he's been doing Wedding Photography for a few years now, and is highly experienced and very professional...

Give him a call, have a chat, he'll give you a bespoke quote... It's worth telling him what you've been quoted elsewhere too, cos undoubtedly it'll make him laugh! 😉

Seriously though, for a professional service at a price that doesn't take the piss, give him a call... And we're talking prices a LOT more sensible than the £1500 or so mentioned elsewhere in this thread...

i want a £2.5k photographer,

but i only want you to do about 2hrs (pre, church, post,)
and i dont want 10,000 shots - couple of hundred is too many
then i do want you to discard the crap, pick one nice one for framing and put about 50 on a cd that nobody will ever look at again.

call it £100 and join us at the reception if you want (no pics)

SOOBalias will you supply the watermelon & tizer?

Silver.
I'd want the horse to have legs for £2k.

One serious point: ensure the photographer has professional indemnity and public liability insurance. If he's working for a 3rd party, make sure he / she / they have employer's liability too.
In my case, I'm the director of a Ltd company and we're VAT registered, likely indications of a professional, established set up.

PS - a little confused. How is she a "future niece "?

watermelon?

oooh a bit mr fancy pants arent you.

skip to the end...

my ex is a press photographer and has won numerous awards for the pic she's taken but she refuses to do wedding pics on the side as most photographers are scared to fnck up some bint's big day so you'll probably have to pay a fair whack for a pichur taker who's game enough to risk it.

well I would have preferred a puppy but I hear its frowned upon in polite society.

[url= http://www.graphistudio.com/en/products/Book/indexB.html ]The reportage layout is, IMHO, the best on this, the site that pretty much transformed wedding photography, back in 2001.[/url]

she refuses to do wedding pics on the side as most photographers are scared to fnck up some bint's big day so you'll probably have to pay a fair whack for a pichur taker who's game enough to risk it.

Not being funny, but that smacks of "poor excuse" if you ask me...

I'm a professional DJ in my spare time... If I doubted my ability to get people having a good time in the clubs and parties I've played at, that's the time to give up in my opinion! If I look scared, people will notice it, and will have a crap time as a result. Sure, it's not about being so arrogant as to believe it's my taste or nothing, but I have to be confident in my ability to deliver a professional service otherwise people will see through it, and I wouldn't get any work again.

Photography is the same deal in my book. If the Photographer turns up to a Wedding, but wouldn't say boo to a goose, undoubtedly he's not going to get many good pics. Yes, you don't want an arrogant areshole that orders everyone about, ruining the day just to get his quota of 2000 shots in, but a polite self confident professional person, that isn't afraid to get stuck in without being rude, ask for a few poses and then stand on the sidelines taking some more natual pics, all the while maintaining a very professional demeanour, is what you'd want... Certainly not some "I'm the greatest, you're lucky to have me here" kind of person...

If that sounds like what you want, give my mate a call by the way...

His number is on his website... 😉

PS - a little confused. How is she a "future niece "?

Just joshing with you Ti29er, it's my bride to be's niece and we get married a month today. TBH the whole is stressing me out and I'll be glad when it's all over

** walks off muttering** '£600!, it's just eggs and bloody flour....'

[i]The reportage layout is, IMHO, the best on this, the site that pretty much transformed wedding photography, back in 2001.[/i]

Cheese tastic! I'm sorry but they look over the top posed images.

Doh! No scripts had blocked the drop down menu but still not keen on the layout.

Very few shots are posed. Only the group shots.
Are you looking in the correct drop down menu?

Remember, this is a set of weddings from 2001. Some of them are very Italian. The Reportage wedding is not & is English.
The layouts are now quite dated, but the product goes from strength to strength and has spawned dozens of similar digital wedding style books.

Silver: I know one very well thought of venue, fully booked to 2015 (-ish), and they charge you £35 to hire the cake stand and cake knife.

not sure I'd want you at my wedding Ti29er, you seem a bit aggressive 😐

photography style and albums are definitely about taste - you seem to throw a lot of content into your layouts, literally. in my opinion they lack elegance and look more like a hotel brochure.

I don't see why as a professional you can't cater for all tastes

Disposable cameras strewn everywhere will give you the real story!

All i can say is we got a 'cheaper' photographer who, while the photos were, alright was a bit slapdash and we didn;t really get what we actually wanted.
As its one day you shoudl seriously think about getting someone who has a good reputation and listens to your needs. Thankfully we got enough great shots (I mean, who the **** needs 500 photos of your own wedding ?) and then had some awesome ones taken when we got back to NZ (mtb in kilt etc) all good. Got a book made up which the olds loved.

not sure I'd want you at my wedding Ti29er, you seem a bit aggressive

I have to agree - the pushiness/cockiness would be a real turn off for me, however good he might be. 😐

bakes & grum, back in line [u]now![/u]

now be quiet and say "thursday" [i]WHEN I TELL YOU![/i]

MaverickBoy - Premier Member

she refuses to do wedding pics on the side as most photographers are scared to fnck up some bint's big day so you'll probably have to pay a fair whack for a pichur taker who's game enough to risk it.

Not being funny, but that smacks of "poor excuse" if you ask me...

I'm a professional DJ in my spare time... If I doubted my ability to get people having a good time in the clubs and parties I've played at, that's the time to give up in my opinion! If I look scared, people will notice it, and will have a crap time as a result. Sure, it's not about being so arrogant as to believe it's my taste or nothing, but I have to be confident in my ability to deliver a professional service otherwise people will see through it, and I wouldn't get any work again.

Not being funny, but that smacks of not thinking it through to me. If people don't have a good time, you get kicked off and someone else has a go, next friday night it'll all happen again. A wedding's a one-off occurrence. You don't get the chance to get try again the next week, if you get it wrong you've just ruined the "happy couple"'s wedding album

As I read once, anyone can take pictures and cameras are cheap, so why pay a professional? Well, scissors are a couple of pounds in Asda, why not suggest you do the missus' hair next time instead of shelling out £80 at the hairdresser?

[s]Our wedding pics were done by a good friend of mine. She's no pro, she does it as a hobby, but she put a lot of work in beforehand, had most of her shots planned out in advance and did a bloody good job. We had a load printed out for an album, and even up to 12x8, the quality was fantastic. I was more than impressed. [/s]

Actually, after writing all that lot above (Praise still applies!!) I just checked her website and it appears she's moved on a bit in the last year. Have a look - 😀

[url= http://www.nicolamahoney.com/index2.php#/home/ ]Nicola Mahoney[/url]

I don't see why as a professional you can't cater for all tastes

if you are a professional you will be bringing something individual to the shoot (whatever you are photographing) so no i disagree you can't cater to all tastes.
this is why there are many different wedding photographers with different styles, abilities and fee's, you just have to find the right one for you.

I'm glad i don't shoot weddings because the general public are on the whole visually unaware and lack the ability to communicate what it is they want from you as a photographer.

I don't see why as a professional you can't cater for all tastes

Crikey, where do I start with a bizarre comment such as that?
Firstly, you have a portfolio of work.
It's not something that's commutable. I can't show you my web site and portfolio and produce a completely separate body of work, that would be to mis-represent the service I provide.

Similarly, you offer some goods and products and not everything. You are looking for clients who want what you do and there's NO point in trying to be a round peg in a square hole. Conversely, you'd be a fool to book a photographer who doesn't show, unequivocally, the work that you aspire to own. It's no good the photographer promising to produce for you a body of work on the day that he can't display in his / her portfolio & you would be a fool to think otherwise.

No apologies for setting you straight over this, but if you want one thing, the (maybe) recommended photographer does something slightly different and say they can do "that" on the day, more fool the two parties. Photographers do not cater for all tastes, and woe-betide you if you believe otherwise.

The whole church wedding thing is obscene from a price and moral point of view

Can't see the point unless you are religious, most times the couple have never even been to a church before and some have kids in tow

Utter hypocrisy and deserve to get stung with all the stupid prices

Churches are no better, they just want the money and couldn't give a stuff either

Pay up for the photos,crap old car,bland cake and then if statistics are to be believed get divorced (another shed load of cash)

Lot cheaper the 2nd or 3rd time although i'm sure the church will marry divorced couples if the money is right, slip a few twenties in a prayer book

The whole church wedding thing is obscene from a price and moral point of view

Churches are no better, they just want the money and couldn't give a stuff either

You're wrong by the way, but I'm not even going to bother trying to explain

Pay up for the photos,crap old car,bland cake and then if statistics are to be believed get divorced (another shed load of cash)

The statistics show people who wed in church are more likely to stay together. And the cake my Mum made was superb, my mates Jag was spot on, and my photos done for free. (See Nicola Mahoney's site above)
The bar was also free at our wedding.... 🙂

It's not what you spend, it's how you spend it!

Does anyone know what the relationship is between the cost of wedding photographers and the length of the marriage?
Ie. If I pay £2500 for photos, does that mean my marriage is 5 times less likely to fail than if I pay £500?, or 5 times happier, or 5 times more fulfilling?
Seems a bit of a waste of money otherwise 🙂

If you pay me £500 you'll get a couple of prints handed to you inside a half empty crisp packet (ready salted) in a subway (tunnel not sandwich shop), I may or may not have done some magic marker post processing in order to ether "liven up" the images or censor any that could upset children/political careers. That said if you pay a cool million then you can have the same images laser etched onto a gold plated rhino horn which also plays Major Laser when touched (its touch sensitive which also serves to control the volume). Its all swings and roundabouts really, oh and if you do get married in a children's playground statistics say that your marriage can be expected to last approximately 42hrs longer than if you'd have gotten married inside a church.

Taxi.
Best answers of the day.
Storming and so well informed!
😀
There's a very bitter man if ever I read one.

As for divorce - most all my couples are still together, as far as I am aware.
That is as much down to the socioeconomic group that book me (and the venues that recommend my services) and the various communities that beat their path to my door; amongst them a high % of Jewish and Greek couples.

Blimey. Divorced are we?

Happily married actually with a 19yr old daughter and married in a registry office

There's a very bitter man if ever I read one.

Not bitter at all, just find it obscene to spend so much money on one day, sort of the same way i feel about footie players wages

I live opposite a church and see all the comings and goings, would be banged out if all the happy couples that married there attended on a Sunday

And the next photographer who decides my drive is a good vantage point can pay if they are getting weighed in with two and a half grand
(usually just tell them to clear off, but must be worth 20 quid or so)

crap old cars

Just wonder why anyone who is non religious wants to get married in a church?

There's a guy near me who offers his services for the full day @ £280 plus print costs.

I'm amazed at his talent for recreating scenes from the Hammer House of Horrors.

I'm with Tijuana Taxi on this. Its a complete racket. And Ti29er, how do you get any work with that bigheaded attitude?

Not bitter at all, just find it obscene to spend so much money on one day, sort of the same way i feel about footie players wages

Why is it obscene? We had a church wedding last year, 70-80 guests. I would have been happy with a lot less, but I had a wonderful, unforgettable day. We didn't spend anywhere near as much as a lot of people do. About £6k IIRC

Lets see now.
Friends and family provided the car & driver, cake, photography, florist (Flowers at cost, £250-ish) and ALL the wine and champers
We gave the flowers to the guests to take home at the end, people were very happy with that!
Food £2200-ish for 80 people is £27.50 a head. Canapes, cheese, coffee, South African themed BBQ/Hog roast, BIG choice of food, not a stuffy sit down meal! £27.50 a head to feed all your best friends and family? That's no obscene at all, it's a reasonable price and a generous gesture IMO!
We hired a cartoonist who spent 3 hours doing caricatures of the guests. That went down well too!
We hired waitesses from the local college, suits hired locally, we used the local memorial hall for the reception and the barman and staff of the attached sports centre were brilliant. We paid the bar bill. Everyone got drunk and had a good time! The church was fairly cheap IMO, and the vicar, well he's what I would call a friend too and that's why we went there - I couldn't think of a nicer person to marry us. Just the nicest bloke ever.

So, in essence, most of what we spent went into providing work to the local community, lots of people had a great afternoon and evening for a reasonable cost, and the most important jobs of the day were done by friends.

Where's the obscenity in that? 🙂

some people buy a giant trance in the sale from pauls cycles, fit the better bits they already have, sell the new bits off the bike and end up with a very cheap and very capable bike.
some people buy an overpriced turner frame and buy another one a year later when dave decides there is some other "best suspension system in the world" available

some people pay more than others for wedding photography.

why are people getting upset?

Its a complete racket.

The same couple do commercial photography and charge approximately half as a day rate (when disregarding any albums being made - I am talking JUST about the hourly rate for attending). Have a family portrait done and it doubles again.

The daft thing is, their day rate for commercial stuff is about half what I would expect to pay a commercial photographer anyway (I usually pay £600-£800 a day).

I find it odd that they think their time is worth double for weddings and portraiture.