2. How Much To Budget for Wedding Pictures?
Now that you know how important professional wedding pictures are, you might be wondering how much to budget for a photographer. In the past, the general rule of thumb was that approximately 10% of your entire wedding budget should be allocated for wedding photography.
Therefore, if your wedding budget is $10,000, then at least $1,000 should be spent on your wedding pictures. If we look at that figure realistically, $1,000 will not buy a lot if you are planning on hiring a true professional and plan on having a decent number of prints and an attractive wedding album. Instead, current wedding planners and other brides suggest that you spend the same amount on professional wedding photography as you will on your wedding dress. That makes great sense!
After all, what is the benefit of spending $3,500 on a wedding dress that is never accurately illuminated, featured, or showcased in your $1,000 budget minded wedding photographs? That doesn't make any sense - does it? Your pictures will be around much longer than your wedding dress and you want to make sure that you pay for quality pictures that will last a lifetime.
Call around to a few professional photographers or visit several websites of photographers in your area to get a reasonable expectation on wedding photography cost before you set your upper limit on how much you plan to spend. Most brides usually have no idea what wedding photography costs and those that take the cheap route usually regret it in the end. Professional photographers charge according to what they think their work is worth, or charge according to the type of clientele they want to attract.
Bottom line is to do your homework ahead of time on pricing and always see samples of their work before entering a contract ...
