How much does a wedding photographer cost?
It’s probably the first question a couple asks when choosing a photographer for their wedding. And, in general, it’s the first question we all ask about any expense we face for the first time in our lives.
So you end up wondering how much the flowers cost, how much a band costs, how much the venue costs, and so on.
There’s a very Italian habit of treating price as a bit of a taboo, and it’s one I struggle to put up with. That whole “let me explain everything first, and we’ll talk about the price later…” routine.
No, we’re not talking about the price later. It’s like walking into a dealership with a twenty-thousand-euro budget and having the salesman tell you all about a ninety-thousand-euro Mercedes SUV.
It makes no sense. It’s a waste of time for both of you.
What does make sense is explaining where the cost of a product or a service comes from, which is what I’ll try to do in this article.
If you’re in a hurry and just want the number: in Italy it goes from about one thousand euros up to eight or ten thousand. Why the range is so wide is what the rest of this article is about. And my price? You’ll find it at the end.
Fine, but how much does it cost? Are you going to tell me or not?!
I’m telling you, I’m telling you.
Today a wedding photography service goes from a minimum of one thousand euros up to eight or even ten thousand euros in some parts of Italy.
Asking how much wedding photography costs is a bit like asking how much a car, a house or a kitchen costs.
Let’s take the kitchen.
How much does it cost? Well, at a big retail chain it can be less than two thousand euros, at IKEA five or six thousand, from a small brand that cares about the details maybe seven or eight thousand, up to thirty thousand for a Valcucine or seventy thousand for an Arclinea.
(Editor’s note: I’m no kitchen expert, I just had to buy one a few years ago…)
Are they all the same? No.
Are they all good quality? No.
Are they all worth what they cost? Again, no.
In every field there’s something cheap and poorly made, something overpriced because of the brand, and something in the middle, with a price justified by costs, quality and skill.
Nothing is free. I bet we’ve all thought at least once “wow, this vacuum cleaner cost twice as much as the other one, but I’ve had it for ten years and it’s never given me a problem”. Or “that thing is worth exactly the few euros I paid for it”.
The same goes for wedding photography. And rather than just telling you how much it costs, I think it’s more useful to explain why it costs what it does, which is a very different thing.
What does a wedding photographer actually earn?
A very refined gentleman once told me that his wife really loved my photographs, but my service cost too much for what it was.
“Working a few hours at a wedding and earning eighteen hundred or two thousand euros seems crazy to me.”
I don’t agree with that negotiating tactic, but from a certain point of view I understand why it can sound convincing to a client.
Sure: a ten-hour service, two thousand euros, two hundred euros an hour. Makes perfect sense.
If only.
But let’s take it one step at a time.
Pen and paper: let’s do the math.
Let’s take an average figure for a classic wedding service with two photographers (more on that here): bride’s preparations, groom’s preparations, ceremony and reception, plus a simple wooden box with 30 good-quality prints.
Let’s say 1,900 €.
Whaaaat?!? One thousand nine hundred euros?!?
Yes. One thousand nine hundred.
To account for all the costs, we have to start from the figure after tax, meaning what the professional actually keeps once taxes are paid.
If a photographer is lucky with taxes, on the flat-rate regime after four or five years in business and a thousand other details I won’t bore you with, they pay around 30% in tax.
So:
1,900 − 30% = 1,330 €
From these 1,330 €, we now subtract all our lovely costs.
Here’s a short list, on average:
- Second photographer’s fee: 300 €
- Fuel and tolls: 50 €
- Cost of the print box: 100 €
Total: 450 €
So from 1,330 € we take away 450 €.
1,330 − 450 = 880 €
Aaaah, so you make 880 € from a wedding?!? Not bad!
Wait, I’m not done yet…
I want to give you three perspectives. The first, the hourly one, gives a good idea, even if it’s a bit crude.
A photographer works about 12 hours on the day (travel included), around thirty hours on editing and album design, plus a couple of hours of meetings, video calls, quotes and so on. That adds up to about 44 hours.
880 / 44 = 20 €/hour
Considering that today a recent graduate charges twenty euros an hour for private tutoring, I think we can agree we’re not talking about the kind of money that lets you work for three years and then spend the rest of your life on a yacht moored in Aruba.
Now for the second perspective. Let’s say our good friend Roberto Fotolazzi (a purely fictional name) shoots about thirty weddings a season.
Thirty, which, whatever anyone tells you, is not a bad number at all.
880 × 30 = 26,400 €/year
Again, even seen like this, the yacht is still off the table.
And from this jackpot you still have to take away a few small yearly expenses, such as:
- Accountant: 500–1,000 €
- Software and service subscriptions: 300 €
- Website and maintenance: 150 €
- Equipment to replace: 500? 1,000? 2,000?!?
- Car wear and tear: brakes, tyres, servicing, inspections… (the car isn’t for getting to work, it’s for working)
- Equipment insurance, drone permits, licences, workshops, training, books
- And, for those with a studio, even rent
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, but if you run the numbers you’ll see that what photographers charge is far from excessive.
So? Weren’t there three perspectives?
Is being a photographer like being a miner?
No, not at all. I’m convinced it’s one of the most beautiful jobs in the world.
But I’d like the people who are outraged by these prices to stop and think. Many people work as employees and, quite rightly, aren’t used to the economics of being self-employed.
And that’s fine: there are plenty of things about being an employee that I don’t understand either. What matters is explaining ourselves and understanding each other.
And many people do understand. There’s not much to argue with when the maths is in front of you.
For everyone else, I’d suggest the third perspective:
At the end of the month Tarcisio gets his payslip: his net salary is, let’s say, 1,800 €, but the gross figure at the top says 3,200 €. If my income is based on 1,800 € per wedding, I’d suggest Tarcisio try living on his salary of 3,200 € and see how that goes.
But you still haven’t told me what a fair price for wedding photography is
I can’t tell you what the right price is, because as you’ve seen it depends on a million things.
It depends on the professional’s experience, whether they pay rent or not, their costs in general, and the level of care and quality they’re used to working with.
Always keep in mind that if a wedding photographer offers you a price that’s too low, they’re cutting corners somewhere.
Maybe on equipment, or on the quality of the albums. Maybe they hire a recent graduate for a few euros a day as a second shooter.
Maybe they aim to shoot sixty weddings a season at a lower price instead of thirty, which means they won’t be able to look after you properly before, during and after the wedding.
These are all things to consider before being dazzled by an attractive price.
Yes, I know, this is probably not a very chic conversation, and a very material one. But loving photography and telling stories also means explaining to people the challenges we professionals face, so that we can find a calm and satisfying way of working together.
And if what you’re after is an all-inclusive photographer for a thousand euros, or one who asks for five thousand without explaining why, I’m probably not the right person for you.
What actually moves the price
- Experience. Someone who has photographed weddings for years has already made enough mistakes not to make them on the day that counts. And they usually carry a spare camera body or two in the bag.
- Hours. I stay for ten hours, from the preparations to the party. But careful: more hours doesn’t automatically mean better photos.
- A second photographer. With more than 40 guests I almost always suggest one. Not to sell you something extra, but because on my own I can’t be in two places at once (more on that here).
- Editing. Choosing and working on the photos is the part of the job nobody sees, and the one that takes the most time.
- Albums and prints. They’re a separate chapter, and rightly so: not everyone wants them, and those who do deserve to choose them calmly.
And my price?
For a full wedding day with two photographers, the range is roughly 2,000 to 2,800 euros. Where you land depends on what you really need: both sets of preparations (and where they take place), the hours, travel, an album. For weddings far from Brescia, travel costs are added.
If you’ve read this far, maybe it’s worth getting to know each other. Write to me: I’ll answer personally.