Wedding Photography Prices

From large luxury weddings to micro elopements, from destination weddings or small church ceremonies. Here is your wedding photography prices guide.

So you’re looking to hire a wedding photographer and you need to know; “the cost of wedding photography and how much is this going to cost me?” It’s something you’re only ever going to invest in once so using this guide you’ll be able to work out the average price for wedding photography. Hopefully, you’ll have an idea of your budget and you can find out what is a good price for wedding photography.

The Average Cost Of A Wedding Photographer

The average cost of a wedding photographer in the UK is £1800.

This figure may be useful however the wedding photography price you will end up paying will be impacted by so many variables. There are so many wedding photographers will all different types of experience and styles based all over the UK and almost all of them are willing to travel.

So let’s talk about pricing for wedding photographers and how these prices are decided.

Shooting Experience

There are a few different types of wedding photographers and the photography prices for weddings that they shoot can depend on if there full time or not. Some may have full-time jobs and just photograph weddings on the side. Some have been shooting weddings for 10+ years full-time. This doesn’t always mean the more experience they have the more they’re going to cost. However, someone with more experience is more likely to understand how weddings work, and run, understand problems that could occur etc. Always a safe bet to invest in a wedding photographer that’s going to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Wedding Location + Travel

You may have read online that wedding photographers in London cost more or that the South East or major cities are more expensive than other areas. This is a myth and as an experienced wedding professional myself, I know wedding photographers all over the UK and overseas. These photographers are based in London, South East, Italy, Liverpool and many more major cities. Some of them cost as little as £1000. I also know some with wedding photography costs of over £7000 in rural areas within the UK.

However, some photographers have will charge a travel fee if your wedding location is outside of a minimal distance from their location. Some prices will exclude fees for shooting outside of England. For example, you’re having your wedding in the Scottish highlands, though the photographer you want is based in Surrey.

When it comes to the cost of destination weddings most photographers will either have a set price for destination weddings or have a one-off set additional fee on top of their UK wedding price. Or finally will just find out the actual costs of flights, acclamation and transport etc then add this to your cost on a wedding-by-wedding basis.

Wedding Season Pricing

All year round myself and my cameras have just one set fee regarding the cost of your wedding photography. This price does change as the years pass by though I don’t have different prices for specific days of the week or seasons thought the year.

Some wedding photographers out there though will have discounts for midweek wedding ceremonies or perhaps in the winter when these celebrations are less frequent. There is nothing wrong with this and no alarm bells should ring at all if a vendor is offering these kinds of discounts. My view is that I want to set a fair price for all of my brides and grooms who are paying for my service for that year.

Bespoke Hours

This won’t apply to all photographers in the industry, though some have been known to only have a “shoot per hour” price for their photography services. In most cases, this isn’t how people price their photography. However, some may have a half-day photography price and then you can add on additional hours. Just something to look out for or consider.

Additional Photographers

More often than not. Most wedding photographers don’t include a second shooter in their photography fees. Though in most cases you’ll find you can add an extra photographer to your package. If you’re unsure whether or not you think you need a second photographer at your wedding. Speak with your photographer during the consultation and ask about the pros and cons of this. It’s at least worth having a conversation about it. If couples want to have an additional photographer for one of my Italy weddings the cost may increase significantly as there are more travel fees included.

Extra Gear Fees

I wasn’t too sure if I should mention this. Most photographers nowadays are very minimal and don’t ever need “extra equipment” however now that drones at weddings are very popular. Some photographers may have an additional fee for drone photography. With the prices of these drones being cheap, more and more photographers have them. Though with the different licences, shooting and editing that they have to do, you may notice the price of the wedding photography change slightly.

What Should Be Included In Wedding Photography Prices?

There is no real right or wrong to this question. All wedding photography packages will always be suited to how the vendor wants to run their photography business. Some may have just everything you need without any need to ask for extras. Some photographers will have a more bespoke and “build your own” kind of approach.

Here are a few things that are always included with me and all included in the wedding photography price.

Zoom Call or Consultation

Getting to know my bride and grooms is important to me. Most or if not all of my couples book me for my photography style, and approach to a wedding day and because my personality fits well with the look and feel they want on their wedding day. So I always Zoom with my couples to discuss their wedding day, what’s important to them, who’s important to them and any other information that they feel I might find useful. I also send out a pre-wedding form several weeks before the wedding to find out if there have been any changes, give more specifics and for some practical information such as locations etc. All of this correspondence is standard practice with most photographers I’d imagine.

Editing The Photos

Wedding photography prices will include the editing of your images. At least the standard post-processing of the images. Once your wedding day is over and the photographer is home and backed up your images. They’ll need to begin the post-processing of the images. There will be different techniques and workflows for different photographers though the outcome will be relatively the same. The images will be processed so there is a consistent look and/or style to the photos. Thet the images have been cropped accordingly and sized appropriately. There are many other factors here, so much I could write a whole new article on editing. Though all you need to know is that starting editing procedures are included in the wedding photography prices and any advancing editing and retouching will most likely cost extra.

Online Gallery & USB

In today’s digital age, I’m not sure there is a single wedding photographer in the industry that doesn’t provide their images on an online gallery. These online galleries are practical, super easy to use, and accessible from anywhere with a good internet connection. A lot of photographers still provide a USB drive within their wedding photography prices though I no longer do this. The reason behind this is primarily environmental. No need to ship these pens from overseas to me and then for me to ship them out again to the couple. Technically all of my couples always hall all of their wedding photos with them in the palm of their hand’s thanks to the easy-to-access online gallery.

Wedding Photography Prices Summary

When it comes down to working out if your money can get you the best UK wedding photographers to capture you’re wedding. I think it’s a case of first working out how important your wedding is to you and how much you’re going to value the images afterwards. This then leads to your budget. Once you have a flexible budget inquire with as many photographers as you think fit your style and ethos. Speaking with these photographers and getting to know them will help you make sure you’re going to get not only the best photographer but the one that suits you and your wedding best.