Why is Wedding Videography so Expensive???!!?

Why is wedding video so expensive?! Our pricing - explained

If I had a dollar for every time someone said wedding videography was out of their budget, I’d be able to pay for your wedding film! Kidding! But not really. I’d like to explain what goes into the cost of a wedding video. What is really behind our pricing? Why do wedding video companies charge what they do?

In the beginning, Uncle Bob had his video camera. He walked around. He ate a little, well maybe a lot. He chatted with Aunt Bev. We laughed when we saw the video but overall we were happy because it was our wedding. 

These days, wedding videography companies make cinematic films of your wedding day. They use professional, movie quality cameras, drones, professional lighting and audio equipment... the list goes on. It’s just a lot better overall. But why is it so expensive?

Back in the day, it was one guy with his camera, and editing consisted of “cutting the bad parts out”. Today, we are looking at 3+ camera angles during the ceremony and minimum of 2 cameras the rest of the day. And a little thing about files. No longer are we "taping" your wedding. We now shoot hundreds of smaller files to SD or CF cards in 4K. These files are very large! Gone are the days of one long, grainy videotape. So now, it takes organization and planning on our behalf. Working hours! In addition to multiple cameras and files, we record the audio to external devices which has to be synched up with the video. Sounds complicated! It’s not really, but it’s time consuming and 100% worth it as far as your video goes. 

What else goes into the price, you might ask!? Our expertise. Our continuing education. We are insured. We are business owners. Gone are the days of a guy with a camera. We take pride in our finished product. We love to create beautiful films for our wedding couples. The thought of following you around with a camera on our shoulder makes our stomachs turn. We hire talented shooters to work alongside us and purchase cameras and lenses appropriate for shooting weddings. I personally believe a 70-200 (a long lens for close ups) is a life saver and helps us avoid annoying weddings guests and couples 100% of the time. “I didn’t even know you were there for that” is what we like to hear. 

But that can’t be that expensive!? Well, consider this. We work about 2 hours before your wedding in planning, and packing. We (2 of us) work 8 hours for your wedding day. We work about 40 hours on your edits. That’s 58 hours worth of work just on your wedding! This isn't even counting the costs of our expenses... The time we spend on marketing, sales and business development. It isn't counting the cost of our equipment, rentals and repairs.

Still, we love to do what we do, filming weddings, and would never complain about doing the work we love. We just hope you’ll understand why we can’t make you a wedding video for $700! Just do a little math with us for a moment. Lets say we do your wedding video for $1000, to be nice and help you with your budget.  First, deduct 30% from that $1000 for taxes. That leaves $700. Then divide that by the 58 hours worth of work (we are being very simplistic but bear with us!). That equals $12/hour. I know McDonalds and Target offer wages competitive to this, and they offer benefits and employee discounts! I personally would prefer Target over McDonalds, but then I'd be spending all my money there! McDonalds gives free meals, but we get fed at weddings too. :) I'll stick to my job creating wedding videos because I love it, but at a fair and reasonable rate. I hope this give you a little insight as to why wedding videography is so expensive! We like to think of it as an investment that is worth making - you will love your wedding video and won't regret the expense when you look back on all your memories with your new spouse. Also - think about the value of being able to see all the money you spent on your wedding over and over again! 

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