Edinburgh Wedding Photography Pricing

I'll forgive you for thinking that this question relates to how much photography is going to cost you. Actually, I was referring to how much wedding photography costs... the photographer. It can be super easy to see a price for a wedding photography package and see a day rate of £1500. I think we'd all be pretty happy if we were earning £1500 for a few hours work! But that's far from the reality.

As with any business, a professional photography has overheads - costs. The website you are reading this on has cost money - to create, to host, to develop. You may have jumped through to this page via a paid advert. The images you see on a photographer's portfolio were taken with expensive cameras and professional lenses. Every piece of gear requires upkeep and maintenance and backups for your peace of mind that equipment won't fail on the day. Equipment may need upgrading so that your wedding day is captured using the latest technology available. Every image is edited through commercially licensed software. Images need to be backed up - that's SSDs, HDDs, Cloud Storage. Then there's the device that the editing takes place on. I've built my own PC so that I can regularly update parts rather than the whole machine - but that means graphics cards, processors, motherboards, RAM.

All of these things need to be in place before I even take a single picture on your wedding day, and I haven't even touched upon travel costs, professional indemnity & public liability insurance, accountancy fees and everyone's favourite - taxes.

Firstly, a full day's photography is never just a day. Any experienced wedding photographer does not simply turn up on the day without a meticulous plan in place. Most wedding photography packages should include at least 1 planning session. My packages include 2, but you can request more. Photographers may also conduct a venue visit if they've not worked at your venue before - giving them the opportunity to sus out the perfect locations from your wedding day.

On the wedding day itself, your wedding photographer will be on their feet the whole day, keeping up with the action and events. Our down time during the meal is often spent recharging batteries and prepping for the evening reception - keeping an eye on the weather and available sunlight.

After the coverage has finished and your wedding photographer is home, the day still isn't done. As an experienced photographer, I'll not sleep until all your images are backed up. From this moment on, the post-processing stage will commence. Editing is so much more than just applying a "filter" - it's about culling images, applying my own signature editing style to each and every image, cropping and straightening before tidying up in Photoshop to remove unwanted distractions.

It's not a hard and fast rule, but generally the more expensive the wedding package the more experienced the wedding photographer.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with hiring a new photographer - we all have to start somewhere - but if you are wanting a wedding photography experience that is seamless and a confident photographer that isn't phased by unexpected challenges or rapidly changing environments or situations, then you may want to invest in spending a little more on an experienced wedding photographer.

Cheaper photographers may also not be full time, which means they may not be as experienced as the more expensive wedding photographers despite being in the industry for the same length of years. Planning sessions might be trickier to arrange and your gallery might take a little longer to be delivered.

Every wedding photographer will develop their own signature style over time. While this doesn't strictly affect their photography pricing, it definitely will have some influence. A wedding photographer who is renowned for a certain editing style may become sought-after, and that may affect their demand and inherent value in the Edinburgh wedding photography market.

The most popular styles of wedding photography right now are photojournalistic, otherwise known as documentary or reportage photography. That means your day will be captured more candidly, with less focus on traditional wedding images, staged shots or formal group images.

Fine art is also an incredibly popular style, which focusses more on the couple, their romantic journey and the aesthetics of the day in a more stylistic and curated way. The latter style tends to be more expensive as more time is required to carefully plan and envision your day rather than let events run naturally.

Traditional, staged photography that focuses on group shots or posed images tend to be more on the cheaper side as they are now in less demand as more and more couples want a relaxed, candid wedding photography experience.

You may see the word "investment" instead of wedding pricing on many website. There's a reason for that and it's not just because we want to sound fancy. Wedding photography is an investment. You'll remember your wedding day through the images taken by your wedding photographer for the rest of your lives. Just like any other investment, your wedding photography is very much based on what you initially put in to it.

If you're only looking for a basic style or if photography isn't a priority for your day, then the cheaper Edinburgh wedding photographers may be the perfect fit for your day.

If your photography is as equally important to you as the wedding venue, then you'll want to assign a slightly bigger budget to make sure that you are hiring an experienced photographer who is going to capture the best moments of your day in the way you've always dreamed.

By investing your money in a mid-range to luxury wedding photographer, you are purchasing more than just someone to take pictures, but someone who is going to understand your vision and will effortlessly photograph your wedding with premium professional camera equipment, adapt to changing events with ease and ensure that you enjoy a stress-free wedding photography experience.

Every wedding photographer offers their own unique wedding photography packages. There are a few things that will drive up their wedding prices and packages, however. Below is a list of the more obvious factors that impacts the price you'll pay for Edinburgh wedding photography.

- Coverage Duration

It's a no brainer - if a half day coverage offers half the amount of hours as full day, then you can expect to pay less. Adding on hours may mean you get slightly more bang for your buck though.

- Wedding Albums

Most wedding photographers will offer some sort of album package. Premium wedding albums are often handmade and are designed by your photographer.

- Prints, USBs & Engagement Photoshoots

A lot of wedding photography packages will include a USB, prints or even an engagement photoshoot. These all will drive up the price from any base digital only package. Remember that professional printing for wedding photographers doesn't mean we pop down to a high street lab. My print partner is an award winning printmaker that is one of the best in the country, delivering highly accurate colours on beautiful photographic paper.

- Second Photographer / Videographer Package

Sometimes a wedding photographer will offer what's known as a second shooter as standard as part of some of their packages, others more on a bespoke basis. Having a second shooter will definitely increase the wedding package price, and can be as little as a few hundred extra to double the price depending on the wedding photographer's experience and how they work as a photographer team.

Edinburgh wedding photography packages are extremely varied, but you can expect an online private gallery as standard, and most should offer at least one digital only package.

Now that you've read through this whole article, you'll know that the answer is very much dependent on how much you value wedding photography and the experience of that photographer.

If you are looking for a complete experience that takes care of you from the moment you book to the day of your gallery delivery and beyond, then you'll want to set aside a larger budget for this type of luxury wedding photography. Edinburgh offers many mid-to-luxury wedding photographers all with their unique style and wedding package offerings.

As an easy price guide, you should expect to pay around 10-15% of your total budget on a wedding photographer.

If you're interested in investing in beautiful wedding memories with myself, you can check out my wedding photography packages here.

How Much Does a Wedding Photography Cost in Edinburgh?