Here's a link to some interesting wedding stats. I haven't gone all through it yet, but they have a forecast for the future and you can also look up your own area by zipcode.

http://www.theweddingreport.com/us.html

$922 for video for the average wedding in 2006? Ouch.

At that price, a videographer would have to book at least 50 weddings a year, essentially every weekend unavailable. That doesn't look too promising for a videographer looking to charge $4000 per video. I want to be able to do 2 weddings a month. That's more than enough for me.

Thanks for the link Mark, I thing market research is extremely important to keep up on, I haven't bought the specific report for my region but am planning to do so, very interesting.

Eric Hansen
www.ehansenproductions.com

$922 for video for the average wedding in 2006? Ouch.

At that price, a videographer would have to book at least 50 weddings a year, essentially every weekend unavailable. That doesn't look too promising for a videographer looking to charge $4000 per video. I want to be able to do 2 weddings a month. That's more than enough for me.

Hi Josie,

You don't have to settle for the average, especially if your video doesn't look average. What are the photographers charging in your area? In my area, Tulsa, OK, they charge between $400-$13,500. My price points are $2500, $5500, and $10,500. I have several friends in the Southern California area the are getting the $4000 you mentioned and some are getting double and tripple that, so it can be done.

Earlier in my career I discovered that I did not want to work every weekend, so I steered my business in a direction that I would just shoot 25-30 weddings a year. Now to do that it meant I couldn't price myself based on the average, but develop a product and market it as the premium service that it is.

I'm not saying the approach I took is the only way, but it has worked for us.