I wanted to take a minute this week to talk about a topic that’s been on my mind for a few years now. It’s near and dear to every photographer, every vendor, and every small business owner out there in the world. It’s common for us to talk about it with each other, but for whatever reason we sometimes shy away from letting everyone else in on the conversation. I’m talking about money, and specifically why we charge what we do.

I get it all the time. Emails filled with potential brides excited for me to photograph their wedding, or seniors looking to have me take their graduation portraits. They give me all the details, and I respond back with how excited I am that they’re going through one of the best parts of our lives and I can’t wait to get to know them. Just in case they missed it on my website, I send them my normal package intermixed with a bunch of questions to get a feel for their wedding. All too often, I get one of these responses:

“You’re out of my budget. Is there any way we can take X out of your package or add Y to get it a little cheaper?”

“Why do you charge this amount?”

“Actually, my friend has a camera and they’re going to gift me photos for free.”

Or they just never respond.

AND THAT’S OKAY. I know not every person has the money they need to have their dream wedding, and that’s why I work with brides to be within their budget if I’m the photographer of their dreams.

But that’s not the point. We (as photographers, vendors, or small business owners) don’t just pick a number that sounds good and charge you whatever we feel like. We don’t just bump up our prices because we feel like it. We definitely don’t want to bankrupt you or do anything harmful to your budget.

Our pricing is intentional. We carefully calculate exactly what is needed to cover the cost of doing business and give ourselves a paycheck. As photographers, we don’t just show up to your wedding, take pictures, edit for a few hours, then deliver the gallery. This may be all you see, but there is so much more.

Here is everything that goes into your wedding package:

As small business owners, we have this thing called the cost of doing business. This includes major and obvious things like taxes and buying equipment, but it also includes all the fees and payments that we don’t talk about. Website fees, domain fees, outsourcing fees, second shooters, gallery delivery fees, CRM fees, insurances, education investments, maintaining equipment, gas, hotels, and so much more that goes directly back into our business.

At this point, we haven’t paid for our food or rent yet. We haven’t paid our other bills. We haven’t paid ourselves yet.

TIME is the number one thing that goes into your package. Add up the time we take to answer emails, talk to you on the phone, scout locations, drive to engagement sessions, take pictures, drive home, cull, edit, blog, deliver the gallery, post on social media, send and read your questionnaires, help you plan your timeline, collect all your vendor information, hire a second shooter, call you again, drive to your wedding, shoot all day, stay in a hotel overnight, drive home, cull, edit, blog, deliver the gallery, and post on social media. And this is all just for you, one-on-one.

Outside of that, we send thousands of other emails, edit other pictures, work on our websites, update our portfolios, keep up with social media (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and more), market ourselves, go to networking events, travel, research and buy equipment, fill out forms, create questionnaires, write contracts, create workflows, create bridal guides, create what-to-wear guides, take head shots, read blogs, watch webinars, take online classes, learn as much as we can to better serve you and be better at our jobs, and plan and plan and plan.

We don’t create prices based on what sounds good or what will bankrupt you fastest; we create prices that cover the costs of our businesses and the time we put into them. It’s easy to look at just the product and judge its worth. We do it all the time. An apple is just an apple until we start to add up the farming, cultivating, harvesting, shipping, and maintaining. It’s also easier to look at a product and see a whole company with a team of workers with constant payrolls.

When you look at a small business, please look past the pricing. Look at the product and everything that goes into it, and you’ll begin to see the real worth. Maybe then, you’ll want to pay us even more.

Pin this blog post here!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•