I’ve noticed a bunch of wedding photographers talking about raising their prices for 2009! Thought I’d share what I have learned over the years about this difficult subject. Yeah figuring out how to set packages for maximizing sales is important as well. Although it is also very important to figure out where you fit into the market and what your market can handle. This is more of an evaluation approach to see if you are priced properly in your market. There were many points in my career where I thought to myself, “Am I too cheap? Am I to expensive?” Then I would step back and re-evaluated if I should raise my prices or not. After raising my prices $100 a month consistently for the last 2 years, I am at a good price and think I have found the perfect balance for my local market and target market. Just remember people, that every market is different and its important to understand where you fit into it. Your geographical location and target market can act as a ceiling for how high you can go. For example, some large Metro markets can support several 8k+ photog but some smaller cities may only have one or two 8K photogs. Also each photog is different and might not be able to book certain weddings. This has more to do with the similar interests and lifestyles between you and your clients. Also has to do with the total budget the bride and groom are working with. 20k weddings might only spend 1k on the photog. In most cases an 200k wedding has no problem with dropping 10k+ on their wedding photography! For example, if you are shooting a bunch small town fire hall weddings, you prolly wont be able to charge 10k a wedding! That kinda comes with the territory yah know?

Spending six loooooonnnngggg years as a Navy Meteorologist I learned a lot about research. So I’ve taken some of my research background and applied it to my wedding photography business. The more information I have the better I can evaluated how to position myself and my business. Not sure if I’m the only crazy one here. But I’ve compiled every single inquiry I have ever received! This info is/was very important to the growth of my business. At first, most requests were for local venues of all shapes and sizes. The brides seemed to be more “DIY” types and wanted a DVD of files. The following year I started to receiving requests state wide and even a couple destination weddings! These brides wanted more goodies like albums, prints and thank you cards. Now all my requests are for all the high end venues in a 150 mile radius and some destination weddings too! These weddings have a lot of details, lighting packages, grooms cakes and bands!

I know it is hard to figure out when and how much to raise your prices. Most get scared when they boost there prices each year. Well I’m from the school of thought that you should continuously raise your prices throughout the year as not to scare of your referrals. If you jump 1k at the beginning of the year you might scare some people off. On the other hand if you increase several times a year most couples won’t mind so much. They will expect for you to improve and increase your price. Another important indicator of a price increase has to do with the demand. The raw numbers of inquiries will tell you a lot about what your price could be and should be. Start with the amount of inquiries and then figure out how many weddings per year you need to book. Then figure out what your booking percentage of bookings are and you should have a better grasp on what your price should be. Another very clear indicator that you are under pricing yourself is if you are receiving several inquires for the same date! I mean if you have 7 brides interested in the same date…you can bet your sweet booty that you can raise up! I knew this one photog who shot 50+ weddings in one year at about $3000 for a shoot and burn. If he was booking that many weddings there is no reason why he couldn’t simply raise his prices by a several hundred dollars right? I mean demand was high enough obviously! Maybe…maybe not. Maybe he enjoys being away from his own family and/or really loved shooting that much!

~Rob