Wedding Advice Please

[CanonFan]

A friend of my wife has asked me to do her wedding.

I know better than to do this for free, but im not sure what to provide.

Her buget is in the $750 area.

My main concern is a wedding album. There are alot of album stores online, but I dont know whats the best. I was hoping somoene here could give me some guidance.

I want to offer her a few albums options, from cheap to medium. her budget is only $750 so I dont want to offer anything to expensive.

How many pictures are normally included in a package? Do you only provide prints intended for the album, or do you toss some others in?

I plan to offer regular pricing for prints for family and friends.

My main photography focus is portraits, so my knowledge in this part of weddings is limited.

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[holga girl]

well, most album companies only deal with studios. and well, the least expensive album I have found is around $350. that is almost half your budget. if you offer prints to go along with it, you will be doing this wedding for free. $750 is about what my costs are to shoot a wedding.

I guess i would suggest buying a nice 4x6 slip in album from target or perhaps using a press printed book from WHCC.

best of luck.

 

[Big Mike]

For $750, I certainly wouldn't be including a custom album (unless it's a gift to them).

Are you planing to include the digital files? or just prints? or maybe just an album?

Many photographers include/sell either a set of prints or the digital images and then offer albums in addition to that (or include it with a package etc.) There really isn't a right or wrong way to do it....just what works for you.

 

[johnbergsing]

I agree with the others. $750 doesn't get an album. That'll easily eat up $350-$500!

 

[guitarkid]

For $750, just include all pics on disc if you feel comfortable with that. It will be less overhead and work for you. Let them do the legwork of printing, putting in a scrapbook, whatever. Why should you be inconvenienced by their very limited budget? If they don't like it, I'm sure they will be VERY hard-pressed to find anyone willing to just shoot for under a grand! good luck.

 

[Imaginis]

I want to offer her a few albums options, from cheap to medium. her budget is only $750 so I dont want to offer anything to expensive.

At that price, you will probably be stuck with a press printed album, which will run you at about $50-150. I can get you in touch with the owner of the lab I use so you can talk to him what that includes.

Real wedding albums run much higher than that. As others have mentioned, the low end is around $350. The medium range around $750-1000 (unless you want it to be 8x8 or smaller).

There is really no way to put a decent wedding album into a $750 budget.

 

[SarahTomlin]

I tend to disagree....

Get the prints on CD. Have a good 30-40 printed out on 4x6 and put in a photo album OR take some time to make a handcrafted album. It also will depend on how well you know these people and how much a profit you are willing to settle with.

But like someone else said.....don't make THEIR budget your problem.

 

[CanonFan]

Well I don't have a b&m studio, but I do have a portable one that I use when I cant shoot outside. My photography business is part time at this point but im definitly not new to the business. I probably wont have a problem buying an album from a supplier.

I read in another thread you can possibly get albums for as low as $100, but there wasn't any links to suppliers. Hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction?

What is normally included in a $750 wedding? Are pictures normally provided, or a proof album? Any prints?

I don't want to give pictures on a CD. I want to have control who prints them, such as a professional lab. Plus I want to retain the possibility of any future print sales.

Also, does anyone have any good resources for wedding contracts? Its a friend of the family, but I want to cover my bases. I already have the insurance area covered.

I'm not great at searching for things, when I tried to find contracts online for wedding photographers, my results were lacking.

 

[KmH]

Well I don't have a b&m studio, but I do have a portable one that I use when I cant shoot outside. My photography business is part time at this point but im definitly not new to the business. I probably wont have a problem buying an album from a supplier.

I read in another thread you can possibly get albums for as low as $100, but there wasn't any links to suppliers. Hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction?

What is normally included in a $750 wedding? Are pictures normally provided, or a proof album? Any prints?

I don't want to give pictures on a CD. I want to have control who prints them, such as a professional lab. Plus I want to retain the possibility of any future print sales.

Also, does anyone have any good resources for wedding contracts? Its a friend of the family, but I want to cover my bases. I already have the insurance area covered.

I'm not great at searching for things, when I tried to find contracts online for wedding photographers, my results were lacking.

"Business and Legal Forms For Photographers" by Tad Crawford (under $30). You can get it on Amazon. Get the version that has all the contracts on a CD so you can customize them in Office.

 

[B Kennedy]

Well I don't have a b&m studio, but I do have a portable one that I use when I cant shoot outside. My photography business is part time at this point but im definitly not new to the business. I probably wont have a problem buying an album from a supplier.

I read in another thread you can possibly get albums for as low as $100, but there wasn't any links to suppliers. Hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction?

What is normally included in a $750 wedding? Are pictures normally provided, or a proof album? Any prints?

I don't want to give pictures on a CD. I want to have control who prints them, such as a professional lab. Plus I want to retain the possibility of any future print sales.

Also, does anyone have any good resources for wedding contracts? Its a friend of the family, but I want to cover my bases. I already have the insurance area covered.

I'm not great at searching for things, when I tried to find contracts online for wedding photographers, my results were lacking.

If you are a registered professional take a look at asukabooks. They even have pretty reasonable lower end(aka not leather bound) books for around $200 and under, and they offer quality books. I know I'm currently in "negotiations" if you may with one low budget wedding. They want me to shoot an entire day, prolly 8am till 10-11pm (including setup/breakdown time) for under a grand. I quoted them at rock bottom for me at 1100, and I'm going to settle at a grand. When you start to break down your overhead & costs, it doesn't leave much room for a wedding album. And if you're looking to get your name out there to eventually get your business going, don't cheap out on the album because that's what they will be showing everyone! That, besides word of mouth, will be your greatest marketing tool.

Like the others said, for 750 I'd personally include the files on disk. I'm not offering a proof book because they can do their proofing online (unless they requested one), personally I feel that physical proof books are becoming outdated . And I would stipulate in your contract that prints/album can be offered as extra's with pricing to be negotiated.

["Business and Legal Forms For Photographers" by Tag Crawford] this is a great book, just got it a few weeks ago. For the price and general advice for a good starting point, its a no brainer.

 

[Nicholas James Photo]

It sounds to me like this is your first wedding, so here are some thoughts. Your main benefits will be pics for your portfolio and experience, so money is not that important at this stage..... do a great job and gain some referals.
Offer a decent album leaving just enough cash for expenses. Take lots of photos of people attending as guests and sell those photos to make money. you can do this by joining nextproof.com (the basic package is free), tell the guests the web address and hey presto. There is an option for the guest to simply dowload the image so you dont even need to bother with printing (although this brings in extra cash).

But remember, you cant buy experience, so use this opportunity wisley.

www.nicholasjamesphotography.co.uk

 

[jenn76]

I just shot a low budget wedding (my first wedding as a primary) for about $900, and am including an inexpensive album... either an assembled album from mpix.com (around $165 for a 24 page 8x8 or 8x10) or maybe (I haven't ordered a sample yet) a Lay Flat Album from Miller's (millerslab.com) also 8x8 24 page for around $100. Might want to look into those options, but again, I haven't seen the lay flat album from Miller's up close and personal yet... has anyone else ordered one?

 

[roxysmom]

I'd recommend just giving them a DVD with full rights for the price they are paying you. Then you don't have to deal with the reprints and the cost of an album. Since it's a friend you can say that you'd help them purchase an album through one of the professional websites at cost but put the total bill on them outside of the money they are paying you.

A place I've found for inexpensive albums is albumsinc.com. I've also used Art Leather but they are very expensive.

 

[fast1]

Well I don't have a b&m studio, but I do have a portable one that I use when I cant shoot outside. My photography business is part time at this point but im definitly not new to the business. I probably wont have a problem buying an album from a supplier.

I read in another thread you can possibly get albums for as low as $100, but there wasn't any links to suppliers. Hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction?

What is normally included in a $750 wedding? Are pictures normally provided, or a proof album? Any prints?

I don't want to give pictures on a CD. I want to have control who prints them, such as a professional lab. Plus I want to retain the possibility of any future print sales.

Also, does anyone have any good resources for wedding contracts? Its a friend of the family, but I want to cover my bases. I already have the insurance area covered.

I'm not great at searching for things, when I tried to find contracts online for wedding photographers, my results were lacking.

"Business and Legal Forms For Photographers" by Tad Crawford (under $30). You can get it on Amazon. Get the version that has all the contracts on a CD so you can customize them in Office.

do you have this? what else in shared by tad crawford?

 

[atbawrps]

I tend to disagree....

Get the prints on CD. Have a good 30-40 printed out on 4x6 and put in a photo album OR take some time to make a handcrafted album. It also will depend on how well you know these people and how much a profit you are willing to settle with.

But like someone else said.....don't make THEIR budget your problem.

Would you want to be known as the photographer that provides 4x6 prints in an old school cheapo album? Do you realize how much time would be required to make an album from scratch?