Wedding Photography Packages and Prices Explained | UPDATED 2024

How much should you pay for your wedding photography? A few questions so many couples have when setting up their wedding budget. It can become quite overwhelming with so many different packages, and so many ‘cheap’ options, it’s hard to justify paying a premium for what seems to be the same service. Please remember this – the cost of a wedding photographer is a reflection of his/her expertise, knowledge and skill that comes with the profession, not forgetting the £10,000 or above price tag that their equipment comes with.

While your big event is just one day, the memories will or at least should last for the rest of your married life. Good wedding photography and/or wedding videography is the best way of remembering your day… The last thing you want is to wish you’d spent more on it. So here are a few things to think about, hopefully, this little read will shed some light on these two seemingly unanswerable questions – 

How much should wedding photography cost?

How much should wedding videography cost?

Start with 10% – %15 of Your Wedding Budget

The best place to start when deciding how much you’re going to spend on the photographer is to look at the wedding budget as a whole. The general rule is to spend 10% – 15% of your budget on your photographer and videographer if you choose to have both ( you really should choose both ). So, with a £10,000 budget, you will have a £1,000 -£1,500 budget for your photography and videography, which is actually reasonable. 

Of course this, like everything else, will depend on a number of factors. The general rule is that your photographer will start when the bride does, for the brides’ preparations, and remain to capture your moments until the first dance. There are options to only have the photographer with you only for the half-day, but it’s definitely not advised. This is a personal choice and will depend on the photos you know you will get from others.

Think About the Experience of the Photographer/Videographer

The cost of wedding photography and videography varies depending on the experience. If you have someone who has been doing this for years and has to pick and choose between weddings, you will find that the cost is much higher. If you have someone who is fresh out of university and starting his/her business, you will find the cost is much lower. This lower cost factors the risk of having a less experienced photographer.

Working with a less experienced photographer will not just mean a lower cost and higher risk. It can also cause problems for getting your photos. Most of the time they will be unprocessed and you’re less likely to get a photo album. When you pay the higher wedding photographer prices, you will find those wedding albums are grander and your disc images will be processed and ready for you to print duplicates.

Getting Extra Images After the Fact

The lower budget photographers may not have the images backed up. They could hold them for a few months to a year and then decide to delete them, assuming you have the copies. It is really important to check this before you decide to use them. Professional companies often have the extra space and the budget to afford extra space for their photos. You could go back to them a year or two after the wedding and get extra copies or new albums made up.

Generally speaking, a budget of £1000 and over will get you everything that you want on the day. From there, it depends on the albums and the images afterwards. By spending more, you may save on getting copies and it could include a fancy album design and copies of that album for the family.

How Much Should a Wedding Photographer Charge? How Much Should a Wedding Videographer Charge?

There is no set of wedding photography cost. It is really important to remember that each photographer will charge the amount he or she is comfortable with. Those who know they have little experience will often charge less so they can get the work to build their experience. Those with the experience and find it easy to get bookings will often find that the cost increases.

The cost of wedding photography will also depend on the extras that come. The photographer needs to make a decent hourly rate. If you want something for the whole day, which will take eight, maybe 10, hours, the price is going to be much higher than someone who will only be there for two or three hours at the ceremony. At the same time, you need to consider the time it takes to work on the images, select the best ones and create the photo albums.

The wedding photography cost may seem high at first but you need to think about what you are getting for that money. The cost of equipment is high and then there is the time it takes to edit all the shots making them perfect before delivering to our couples. You may not want to spend a lot but having a bigger budget and accepting the larger cost of wedding photography is better for the memories.

Wedding Photographers ARE NOT expensive!

If you think of your photographer and/or videographers budget as their hourly rate, you’ll understand that wedding photographers, in comparison, ARE NOT expensive.

For example, take two other wedding suppliers DJ – £300 for 6 hours = £50 per hour. Wedding car £300 for 3 hours = £100

A photographer charging £1200 for a wedding – time 10 hours om the day, 40 hours editing = £30 per hour!