How Much Should a Professional Wedding Photographer Cost and What Should You Expect?

The latest saga to go viral on Singaporean social media is the story of this couple's wedding photo disaster. While not a fan of Stomp-style flaming and shaming, I have to admit the pictures are bloody hilarious.

(For those not in the loop: Couple uses bridal shop's wedding photographer. Photos turn out beyond-your-wildest-nightmares awful. Photographer was only paid $350 by the bridal shop for a full day of shooting and editing of hundreds of pictures).

When you consider the fact that the photographer was paid a paltry $350 for a job that could have taken entire days of his life, it's really not surprising the way things turned out. You know the saying: pay peanuts, get monkeys.

Photography is an art that takes years to master—and people who think any idiot can just pick up a camera and start shooting deserve to end up with crappy photos.

Here's how much a couple of local pros are charging to shoot weddings.

Multifolds Photography

Wedding packages of 8 hours start from $3,080.

Additional $50/hour for photography before 6am.

Additional $300 for split-day weddings

Additional hours beyond package at $300/hour.

 View their portfolio here.

Visual Artisans

300 SGD per hour. Most of the weddings they cover are at least 8 hours long, while some go all the way up to 15 or 16 hours.

Albums and/or enlargement prints available at an extra cost.

View their portfolio here.

Smitten Pixels

Packages range from $2,000 to $3,000 and include edited images saved on a USB, printouts and a slideshow.

Additional charge for extras like albums, photobooks and canvas prints.

 View their por tfolio here.

Trouvé

Full day wedding packages cost on average $3,000. Includes 10 hours of photography, editing and digital photo files.

$1,000 for wedding album.

Extras include prewedding shoots both locally and overseas.

 View their portfolio here.

 Live!Studios

Packages range from $1,588 to $2,888 depending on the duration, number of photographers and tables at banquet.

Includes 4 to 10 hours of photography, digital photos on a thumbdrive, live projection of photos abd customised photocards.

 View their portfolio here.

Clearly, you're looking a paying at least $2,000 for a full-day wedding package including gatecrashing, solemnisation and banquet… which really explains how engaging a bridal studio to provide an all-in package including makeup, gowns, suits AND photography for $3,000 means you shouldn't expect much from your photo s.

If you're on a budget but still want great photos, your best bet would be to skip extras like the photo albums and abandon all thoughts of having an expensive overseas prewedding shoot. It's much better to have a great photographer take pictures locally than have a crappy one provide all sorts of extras.

Obviously, there's no way to scientifically determine the value of one photographer over another. You either like a photographer's style or you don't, and no matter how cheap that $350 photographer might be, if his pictures are even worse than a 16 year old blogger's Instagram account, why even bother?

Our advice is to look through portfolios, shortlist a couple of photographers whose styles speak to you and then see which ones are within your budget.

Have you ever used a wedding photographer? Share your experiences in the comment s!

The post How Much Should a Professional Wedding Photographer Cost and What Should You Expect? appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.

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