Toronto Photography Meetup Group

An acquaintance asked me if I could be his wedding photographer in 3 weeks, and I would like to get him a quote today. Wedding is small, <30 people total at Kitchener, followed by dinner at Langdon Hall in Cambridge.

Total duration is 4 hours of event + 1.5 hours driving + at least 4 hours of PP. What I need to come up with is an hourly rate for my budgeting purposes.

One suggestion has been about $100/hr, but can anyone else advise? Obviously I know what I'm doing photographically, but weddings are not my bread and butter.

Oh, and the acquaintance is my direct boss.

Thanks.

Are you doing prints as well?

are you sure you want to do your boss' wedding? i don't even want to do a casual portrait for mine lol

maybe you should budget for an assistant as well. rather than carrying and organizing everything yourself, having an extra pair of hands might be handy, even if it is a small venue.

Charge for a full day.

Its going to take you a whole day anyways including drive to and from.

Based on this person being your direct boss, I would have turned this down immediately but in a very "nice" way ("Oh.. I'd be so honoured but, really, I'm already booked to *insert excuse here*; perhaps I can ask some of my photographically inclined associates?").

If things do not go well, not saying that's what's going to happen but just to be safe, you're going to have to live with that relationship until (or if) you decide to move on from your current place of employ.

That said, if you do decide to go through with it I would not go anywhere under $1500 and I usually price myself far too low.

If you want a ballpark per hour rate, I would suggest $200, but again, I price myself too low (according to what I've been told by other wedding photographers).

I know there are a whack of other wedding photographers on this board so I'm sure they can probably provide some sort of better insight on how they price their particular products.

Cheers and good luck
Dave

I have to agree with the "I wouldn't do it" sentiment.

Now that you've taken it, don't sell yourself short. Also don't do it for an hourly rate. Expect to be asked to re-edit, reprint, "Just make this little change please." about 50 times. People who "know you" expect that they can ask much more of you than they would an unrelated professional. In doing design work I've had someone "who knew me" ask for so many alterations to a job (somewhere between 40 and 50) that I ended up with something that was substantially identical to my 5th or 6th iteration.

If you feel completely comfortable with shooting this style of photography, have done so many times in the past, and are going to be preparing media/prints for the person in question, then I would have no issue with saying that a "friend rate" for a professional job would be $2K+.

Realize that this situation will put higher pressure and higher demands on your skill than you could ordinarily expect. Don't do hourly.

$100,000 for the whole day. If your boss says yes, then you can afford to fly out someone like Dennis Reggie or Jeff Ascough.

Otherwise, say no.... even doing it for free would be a bad idea when it's your boss.

I'm of a similar mindset.... my boss is really really picky, and I wouldn't even dare dream of photographing anything personal for her. It would be my worse nightmare! When I do stuff for the company, that is a different matter, and usually they are very happy with the results. But when it turns personal, its a whole different ballgame.

I am sure Chris can do photos that will please his boss, I wouldn't have taken this if it was my boss, but then I am very insecure about my wedding abilities, and don't have the right gear, so that's another story. On the other hand, I'd let them know it is a strict business contract, where you get paid for what was agreed to.

Well, considering you don't really have much experience in this field,travel and my personal view on working your your way up the ladder, I would charge around $400-600max. That's if he only want a DVD.
Since he is your boss, charging too much will ruin your relationship with him. He asked you because he thought you'll give him a "boss deal". I would've NEVER taken it...but since you already did it is too late. Just explain to him what you are charging and don't forget to mention how much of discount he is getting. Seriously, or you will regret it!

Do you like your boss? If not, tell him you'll be happy to shoot his wedding for free. When he's back from his honeymoon and asks for the DVD of photos, just say "Oh, the DVD is $10,000". What is he going to do? Fire you? If he does, sue the company for wrongful dismissal! You can't lose!!!

Thanks for the feedback.

The discussion is CD only, and he's not taking a honeymoon. He'll be back at work on Monday. He's also been married once before, so I suspect it's not that big of a deal to him. He says it's just for memories.

As DmitriM mentioned, $400-$600 is a good start off price for someone at your comfort level. What you need to do is be upfront with your boss.

If you haven't told him already, you should tell him that you're green when it comes to shooting weddings and give him your price. Ask him to talk it over with the wife-to-be and if he still gives you the thumbs up, you're off the hook should anything unfortunate happen with the shoot.

I think in general, men are less critical about the wedding photos; it's the wife and her parents that you've got to watch out for.

You don't seriously believe that do ya

Just a wild guess...

Remember, it's all about the bride. Guys generally don't care so much about these things. Happy wife, happy life. Miserable wife, a lifetime of strife.

Its definately all about the bride! I didn't give much care about the finer details of my wedding.... all I cared was that we had a good photographer who was going to dissapoint us.

As it turns out, everything at my wedding was great..... except for the idiot DJ!