In this blog post and video, I try to tackle the taboo topic of wedding photography pricing and why it varies wildly from wedding photographer to photographer. I attempt to identify the key differences you may experience between a $300 wedding photographer and a higher-end wedding photographer.

Good photography ain’t cheap, and cheap photography ain’t good!

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Wedding Photography Costs Breakdown 

  • 6 hours of wedding coverage actually involves about 60 hours of work—sometimes more
  • Gross margins for a wedding are much less than what the client pays
  • Professional photographers are trying to run businesses and households
  • High paid photographers are likely to bring more skill, expertise, care, customer service and better quality products to the table; there are exceptions
  • High paid photographers can afford to run legitimate businesses (ie. insurance, backup equipment, technical training, hired help, client thank you gifts)
  • High paid photographers probably shoot less weddings and therefore can probably provide a better customer experience (ie. helping with wedding day timelines, answering communications in a timely manner, streamlining wedding day preparation)


If your wedding day images are important to you, hire the most expensive photographer you can afford—after you’ve done your due diligence of course. When choosing a wedding photographer, make sure you like the photographer’s style, make sure you like their personality, and make sure you like their photographs. You can’t easily do this day over. 

The post, Wedding Photography Costs Breakdown, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co.’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.