Average UK Wedding Photography Prices 2020 - Explained (Full Guide)

So you’ve finally found some time to sit down and start booking some wedding vendors, maybe you’ve even somehow managed to convince the other-half to join in!

After a quick google search of “Wedding Photographers UK” you’ll quickly realize that some will run up the cost of a luxury holiday while others start around the price of a family meal! How can prices vary so much you may ask, what could be the difference?

Let’s talk about it.

Beautiful Couple at Gileston Manor, South Wales

Average UK Wedding Photographer Cost:

As a whole, sources say that “the average wedding photographer and wedding videographer price themselves around £1590 each” with the cheapest region being the North East, coming in at around £1,100 on average and the most expensive being the South West, reaching out at a rather high average of £1,700 per day.

Based on calculations done by Hitched.co.uk, the wedding photographer alone takes up 5-10% of the entire wedding budget! But how can this be?

How can one person warrant such a sizable slice of the perfect wedding day? Why does it cost so much? Lets break it down the three main reasons.

1. Wedding Photographers Experience:

A UK wedding photographers time in the industry is one of the biggest contributing factors to their package prices. Every award-winning wedding photographer worth their salt once started off with next to no portfolio and very little experience in the industry. How could they ever have booked weddings with no images for couples to look at you may ask? Low prices.

Booking a wedding photographer or videographer with a full day package priced below £700 is always a gamble. Newcomers to the industry tend to offer low prices hoping to attract couples on a budget so they may build up their wedding portfolio and experiences to charge higher amounts in future

Dove Release at St Tewdrics House, South Wales

While it definitely is possible to find a diamond in the rough, experience is king in the weird world of wedding photography. Booking an experienced photographer who has weathered every storm can mean the difference between memories that last a lifetime and photos that you might out-right refuse to post on social media.

Knowing how the day plays out from keeping things flowing when organizing a large crowd of two hundred for the main group-shot to dealing with sudden bad weather is vital for the success of the final product. Experienced photographers also know how important battle-tested and quality gear is to keep things running smoothly, especially when ensuring the safety of your photos through multiple backups as the day goes on.

After being tried and tested with everything the day could throw at them, quality, consistency and professionalism is what separates the budget option from the premium. Now that we know why photographers differ in price, let’s explore why they charge their prices to begin with.

2. Cost of Running a Wedding Photography Business:

How a wedding photographers time is spent. Source: Your Perfect Wedding Photographer

Glancing at the statistics above, you might be shocked to learn that the thing wedding photographers seem to do the least is actually capture the weddings themselves!

The majority of UK wedding photographers are classed as sole traders, meaning almost everything in the business is done by one person from the time-consuming admin and accounting to creative editing and marketing. Imagine being at a table-service restaurant of 30 people and having the chef seat you, take your order, run back to the kitchen, cook the food, serve it, finally handing you the bill with one hand whilst simultaneously cleaning off the pan with the other. That would be a challenge! (and pretty impressive).

Making a living:

The average wedding photographer captures around 28 weddings per year. While this might be lower than expected, they’re often limited by their availability for popular dates. Often, new inquiries result in conflicts of previously booked weddings which means that photographers turn down a ton of potential business. Because of this, a wedding photographer has to make their bread and butter in those 28 days of work or be forced to find another career path.

“28 days?! I’d love to only work 28 days a year!” I hear you say. Well, wedding photographers will shout back “so would we!”.

Thanks to the chart, we can see that 55% of a photographers time is spent solely on editing. Getting through a years worth of weddings can take months which ensures that their working days go way beyond the wedding its self. We haven’t even begun to talk about the costs of business.

The Confetti Walk at Loughborough Endowed School Weddings

Equipment costs:

The equipment needed to fully capture your wedding day can run into the tens of thousands. Reliable transport to and from the venue is a given of course, a photographer breaking down on their way to the wedding could be devastating if they’re coming from a distance. They’ll also have a beefy computer ready to chew through the huge files cameras spit out and a subscription to their favourite photo editing software.

Next is the cameras & lenses and as any professional knows, an identical backup is essential should the first one fail. While your iPhone definitely delivers fantastic shots, there are certain features and qualities that professional cameras deliver that make them necessary to own before even booking your first wedding.

The ability to quickly switch lenses to change the creative style of an image or to capture a specific shot is a game-changer. Not to mention their excellent performance in low light and enough megapixels to crop in on any image has saved more images than any photographer can count. These cameras should also be able to perform in any environment flawlessly, never missing a beat while taking a few knocks along the way. All these qualities definitely won’t come cheap and when it comes time to acquire the correct insurance, it can be a pretty big roiling cost.

Marketing:

This is a big one. Unless you know of a wedding photographer through family or friends, the next best tool is always Google. For businesses, being found is the biggest hurdle to success, if you’ve stumbled across your dream wedding photographer online then that definitely wasn’t an accident.

Google is amazing at always showing you exactly what you want right on the front page, you’ve probably never had to go past the second page unless you’re looking for something really obscure. What you don’t see is the time, money and effort that went into getting that website on the front page in the first place.

There’s two ways of getting to that magical first spot.

The first way is to design your website in a way that tells Google exactly what its looking at. While this makes sense on paper, it doesn’t always translate well for human viewing pleasure. You’ll often see strange designs with odd wording littered throughout the website all in aid of trying to get googles attention.

Once you have it, Google needs to know it can trust you. It manages this by checking what reputable websites link to yours as proof that you’re a legitimate business. This is easier said than done, the most realistic and common way is to start throwing piles of money at companies in hope that they can mention your website on theirs.

The second way is to throw even more piles of money at google to just put you in that first spot through ads.. so there’s definitely no escaping that money part. With the second way, however, you can design your website exactly how you would like. The budget varies between photographers but on average, just to get a single inquiry usually costs around £50+ of marketing.

Tree Swing at Gellifawr Woodland Retreat, South Wales

3. Location of the Wedding Photographer:

You’re probably thinking “why wouldn’t I just book some close to me? Wouldn’t that just be easier and cheaper?”

This factor is quite complex, I’ll break it down.

Location has a rather large influence over the price of the package for several factors, the main reason being the cost of living in that area and another being what people are willing to pay. For this reason, the difference in average price between different parts of the UK is almost £600!

While a lot of wedding photographers have a firm policy of not travelling “x” miles outside their area. Others (including myself) are willing to travel all over the UK to capture your day. This can give you a ton of options when it comes to finding the exact style and budget you’re looking for.

If your photographer is travelling quite the distance, you may be asked to contribute a small travel fee to cover the fuel costs, or a hotel if they’re driving more than 5 hours away. In my personal experience, the cost of a 600 mile round trip with hotel included can add around £100 to the price of the package, which may still be the far cheaper option when comparing others in your area.

The changing price based on location makes it difficult to compare photographers skill level and offerings, so below I’ll lay out an easy way on how to translate your photographers price into their expected performance.

Emotional Moment Between Mum and Daughter at Rock Village Hall, Worcestershire

Breaking Down Package Prices:

Let’s give you a rough idea of what to expect based on your wedding photographers package prices. I’ll also make notes if a certain price might be influenced by the area. These will be based on full-day package prices, usually from bride prep to first dance.

Wedding Photography Package Prices Between £0-299:

I’d hate to start off negative, but be careful with anyone in this price range. If someone is just starting out, they’ll usually price themselves slightly higher as they would not even break even at this cost after marketing, fuel, second photographer pay, etc.

If they’re pricing themselves this low, that means they might be struggling to find bookings elsewhere for other reasons you may not be aware of. They’re highly unlikely to use professional equipment or have proper backup procedures in place. be sure to keep in constant communication to be sure they’re still in the industry a year later to capture your day.

Wedding Photography Package Prices Between £300-599:

This is the price that most beginners start at. Look carefully at their reviews and portfolio, a quick google reverse image search can give you peace of mind that they aren’t from another photographer (sometimes second photographers may be allowed to use their photos from other weddings, however). If photography isn’t a huge deal to you or you’re going for a nice, little budget wedding then this could be a good option for you.

Be sure to ask about equipment, previous wedding photography experience and how they plan to conduct the day. It’s definitely a gamble as the price usually reflects performance but there might be a rising star who can give you exactly what you need. If someone looks too good to be true at this price point, check they aren’t charging a day fee with the option for you to buy your photos later.

Wedding Photography Package Prices Around £750:

This is the bracket for your intermediate level of wedding photographers. photo portfolio should be at a decent level with a few positive reviews and testimonials from other couples. If someone doesn’t tick these two boxes at this price, avoid them. This is a tough category because not only is there still some risk involved but now there’s also a lot of money on the line. Something is holding these photographers back from charging what they should be, these could be the following reasons.

It’s possible that they haven’t quite gathered the confidence yet and don’t want the pressure and expectations of capturing a wedding with a budget of over £1,000. They may also pose some risk of cutting corners to undercut the market by using cheap equipment, no backup cameras and could be lacking the correct insurance. This could also be an option for someone looking to book a last-minute photographer as they’re likely to have availability.

Wedding Photography Package Prices Between £1,000-1,600:

This is the sweet spot in my opinion, not only because its also my price range but because above this range, you’ll be getting some diminishing returns on your investment. This is the ideal range with some fantastic photographers and amazing prices. At this level, they should have correct, up-to-date equipment with several backup options in place to ensure the day goes smoothly with no chance of losing your photos. You’re guaranteed to have great results.

Several reviews should be backing up their work and their portfolio should be filled with tons of interesting and diverse photos with an immaculate editing style. These wedding photographers usually get booked up a year in advance but may have some cancellations for same year weddings.

Wedding Photography Package Prices Around £1,750 or above.

This is the level at where you might start to see diminishing returns. These photographers have been in the industry a very long time which guarantees great results however their price may be influenced by status or location. At this level, the package should include a second photographer at no extra cost to catch the areas where the main photographer might miss.

Be sure that a photographer at this level has a perfect and detailed portfolio with hundreds of reviews. Be sure to check the packages for extra features which may have inflated the price beyond the sweet spot such as albums or engagement shoots.

Father & Son at Ocean Gower View, South Wales

In Conclusion:

Now that you’ve learned more about what and why wedding photographers charge what they do, now is the time to get booking! Always take caution with every business and do your research first, there’s a lot of money on the line and it would be heartbreaking to have made the wrong decision for a day that can’t be repeated.

When looking for the best deal, compare multiple photographers and make sure you aren’t being overcharged. Look further afield for great deals and always make sure they’re fully covered with all the necessary insurance. While some may place wedding photographers as one of their lower priorities, it’s the ones that do the research and book the right photographers that love their photos the most.

This is a day that can never be repeated and someone with an iPhone can’t quite do it the justice it deserves. The photographer you book will be by your side for almost 12 hours of the wedding day, finding someone who you can connect with on style and vision will only serve to enhance your day.

If you have any questions about booking a wedding photographer, (even if its not myself!) Just shoot me an email here I’ll be more than happy to help you out, regardless of the inquiry!

Alternatively, if you’ve enjoyed looking at my photos while reading then I might be a great fit for you! Check out all my packages here.

Thanks for reading!

by Cameron Jones

Wedding Photographer & Videographer of Bright Sight Photography.