Any advice or any of you photographers who do weddings.

What does your packages for wedding consist of ???? and the rates....

Generally, this will vary from market to market. The best thing you can do is contact other wedding photographers in your area to find out these things.

There's one photographer who on his website says he will shoot weddings....for 500 grand....with a max of two hours shooting. (can you tell he won't do weddings?)

Sorry, but this is the best/only advice I can give.

Here are some statistics to ponder:

- The average wedding in 2004 was $26,000 and there were 2.2 million weddings last year, of which 50% had a professional wedding photographer.

- As of 2004, there are approximately 100,000 professional wedding photographers. So 10 weddings per year is average for most wedding photographers, which means that some are doing more and some are doing less.

Now to your specific question.

I would take a multi-view position in determining your price.

First I would consider who is paying for your and what metric that they are using for affordability.  This will inform you on how to pitch and what packages to pitch or if these would be the kind of client that can afford your services. Assuming that they are qualified for your services, I look to be at 10%  ($2600 at the 2004 average) of the budget. Some sites like the Knot or Wedding channel will suggest 5% or 6% ($1500 at the 2004 average) but you should try to convince the couple to spend more if you can.

The other view is your cost of good and services.  Ideally you would want your costs to be at 30% of your selling price.  Realistically you may be starting out at 50% but you need to work toward profitability. Cost of good and services include service related items (proof prints, online ordering services, album cost, etc.) and overhead (camera bodies and gear, computer upgrades, web site, on-line ordering, advertising, etc.).

Once you can find the balance between what your customers can afford to pay and what the actual cost is for you, then you can see what price you can afford to charge your customers.

Thank you all very much.

I researched some of the other wedding photographers in my area and thier packages range from $500-$3000.

So that helped me alot also.

I think I have the perfect package prices for me now.

Thanks again....

Indiana, we average $4000.00. Do 10-12 per year. We are the high end for our market. we're booked year and a half in advance.