How to Charge for Wedding Videography
- 1). Shoot a wedding at a very low cost or for free to get a feel for what’s involved. Determine if you require extra equipment and assistants to accomplish the work.
- 2). Interview your client to find out what the wedding expectations are upfront for the final product. Do they just want the ceremony taped, or do they want the entire day recorded, including the wedding party getting ready, the reception, and interviews with family and guests? If they want their vows recorded, you will need additional sound equipment. Do they expect special effects, slide shows or other extras added in the final production? If the client’s expectations are unrealistic, you will appear unprepared and unprofessional.
- 3). Determine the amount of time, personnel and equipment you will need to complete the project. Also factor in the editing and production time necessary after the shoot is completed. Editing a full day of video can be time-consuming even when you’re experienced in video production. Post-production can often take 20 to 30 hours or more.
- 4). Evaluate the competition. Check out the work of other professional wedding video companies in your area to evaluate the quality of their work and to discover what they charge for different levels of wedding video work.
- 5). Compare your work to the high-end wedding video productions to determine what skills you need to develop to produce equal or better-quality work.
- 6). Invest in high-end equipment. The investment in high-quality equipment will pay for itself in improved product as well as reduced shooting and editing time. Good equipment also eliminates the chance of flubbing important shots. In wedding shoots, you only have one shot at it, literally.
- 7). Set your rates accordingly. The rates you charge will be determined by the size of the job, the amount of equipment you will need, the number of helpers it will require and the amount of shooting and editing time you will need to invest. Set your rates to be comparable to other wedding video companies in your area offering similar-quality services.
