wedding packages?

[Jared Thomas]

hello.....ive invested in a xl1s from a fellow member of this board.....i will be using this camera to film alot of things but one of which bieng weddings. ive been thinking alot on what kind of packages to offer and what to charge for them. ive heard alot on offering a bronze, silver, gold thing and having basic increases in each package....or whatever.....but i wanted some input from you guys cause yall seem to have all the answers to everything else.....any help would be appreciated.

[John DeLuca]

Jared,

Pricing depends alot on where you are located. As you may have read, some people on this board, that have great work, can only get away with charging sub 1k, while others on here are up to 15k. A good idea is to bench mark your local competition so you have an idea on what to charge. In place of "silver" or "gold", you could put somthing along the lines of, "Our Wedding Day" or "Lifetime of Memories" wedding packages. It would be a good idea to do some weddings for free to get some experence before you charge to protect your rep. Dont forget about a good contract, and as you may soon find out, one of the hardest things in a business like this is finding good help. Good luck.


John

[Cesar Ruiz]

Jared,

Do not feel that you *have* to have packages. You may not need to, especially if you start charging low.

John is right about doing free weddings. Absolutely.

Having packages can sway clients towards your middle package (psychological).

If you're avoiding photo montages and the like, and would like to keep your services simple....have your packages dictate the number of hours of coverage that you offer.

Also, don't feel like you have to call your packages gold, silver, princess, etc. Sometimes a name like "Package II" does the trick and keeps it simple for everyone involved. Most clients will just refer to it as "the middle package" anyway.