To be honest, Jonathan and I have spent hours and hours talking through our prices, dialoging through what our peers are charging, what our experience is worth.
I've read many articles by other photographers who give me the dramatic breakdown of their photography costs and how they end up with a negative balance at the end of the day. I'll spare you that rant. We don't.
We don't end up with a negative balance, but we probably make far less than you imagine.
If you want to book our full-day wedding package, you may feel a bit shocked when you see the $4500 price tag it comes with.
Ouchie, that's more than either one of us paid for our first cars.
But let's break it down.
We include HST in that price. (That's 13%! right up front already in our prices so you don't get a shock on shock affect. We thought you may not recover from that.)
So what you are actually paying us is $3982, the rest goes straight to the government.
For that $3982 you get
-your engagement shoot
-all the time it takes us to cull, edit and package your engagement shoot
-the editing software and computers we use
-the hard drives we use to double back up and store all your images
-two shooters for 8 hours each on the day of your wedding
-that's two shooters with their wealth of photography experience
-two shooters with all the cool, expensive and strategic gear we bring
-oh yes and the hours of culling, editing, blogging and packaging we do for your wedding afterwards. {That's about 40 hours if you didn't know. But don't feel bad for us-we like it!}
-and as a bonus: your custom-made and sweet as layflat photo book with images of your wedding to display all the year 'round.
One of my friends reminded me once that the photos (and video!) are the only things couples take away from the wedding day. Sure there are the memories (and the vows that stay forever.) There's the dress that will stay in your closet and the invitation for your scrapbook. But the photos will stay on your wall for ages. Your parents will love getting photo books or photos for the next Christmas. Your children will grow up looking at the photos of the two you on your big day and reaming about how special it was.
Do you want to trust this to some schmo off the street with nothing but fancy gear and no experience?
Let us capture these memories for you; it would be an honour. And we're worth every penny you'll pay us. We promise.
xo.