Do My Wedding Packages Make Sense?

[Arthur Gannis]

16 hour weddings ? That reminds me when I was starting out video shooting up in Montreal Canada.
Greek, Arabic and Macedonian weddings. Ever tried them.?
OK, typically I leave my house at 7am to get to the bride's hairdresser at 8 am. Stay with her till around 8:30 till the make-up comes. Leave after the make-up with her around 9:30. Arrive at her house for dress fitting, guests coming at her house,video with photog as she and family are photographed. Yes, she wants video of all that. Leave her house to go to groom's house. Same story there. Leave with the groom back to the bride's house ( Arabic groom picks up bride at her house and gets in limo for park photos/video. Now it's around 2 PM and we stay at the park till 4 PM. Arrive at the venue or church or ceremony place. Venue finishes around 2 am ( Arabic wedding has a guest photo lineup at midnight lasts over an hour). Greek weddings in Montreal especially from Crete do breaking plates way after midnight. Macedonian, forget about it, the don't stop dancing until they drop. Or you drop whichever comes first. And you better not miss any part of any dance.
Get home finally around 3 or 4 am.
How many hours ?? roughly 20-21 hours.
Many times a back to back Greek one Saturday and Sunday.
That's one of the main reasons I moved out.

[Noa Put]

I just can't see how you can do this every weekend, that would mean having a continuous workingshift of over 40 hours with maybe 2 hours sleep, that is physically almost not possible without a serious loss of concentration on day 2, you also would need to recover from that the following days.

[Arthur Gannis]

No, not every weekend thank God, but there were many times that happened.
Compared to weddings that I took years back in Florida where you start like around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the venues ends at 10 PM. On many occasions they would cut the cake as soon after the opening dance, do a few dances afterwards, toast and get done way before 9PM. Those were the jolly good days.
My typical wedding ends here at around 11 pm after an average of 9 or 10 hour day. I really don't do any bridal prep at her house and the only bridal prep I do if it is all in one place dressing at the venue. Happens often enough. Groom prep ? not any more regardless where he dresses.

[Arthur Gannis]

No, not every weekend thank God, but there were many times that happened.
Compared to weddings that I took years back in Florida where you start like around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the venues ends at 10 PM. On many occasions they would cut the cake as soon after the opening dance, do a few dances afterwards, toast and get done way before 9PM. Those were the jolly good days.
My typical wedding ends here at around 11 pm after an average of 9 or 10 hour day. I really don't do any bridal prep at her house and the only bridal prep I do if it is all in one place dressing at the venue. Happens often enough. Groom prep ? not any more regardless where he dresses.

[Chris Harding]

I'm simply getting too old to do that kinda stuff. I need grandpa bedtimes not young teenager hours! We basically do a ceremony to end of first dance which is usually 3:30pm to 9:30pm (so around 6 bours) My kinda working hours! We do add bridal prep too occasionally but the thing that used to drain me was the extra hours between 9pm and midnight ...by the time the bride leaves and you film the limo driving away into the night and pack up and drive home it's maybe 1:30am - 2:00am so you are lucky if you get to sleep before 3:00am

Glad those days are over!!!

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Reading these war stories remind me why I don't do a lot of weddings anymore. I've done some greek and middle eastern and have had similar experiences. But it just confirms what I've said hours of coverage should always clearly delineated. Give a flat price and suffer the consequences.

[Steve Burkett]

I have packages that determine hours that I work. Only my top package would have me working from say 8am till midnight or 1am if required. Such long days are rare but manageable. Hours alone don't make a Wedding hard in my experience. I've done tougher Weddings that were 6 hours long for me than some that lasted 15. Other factors are how many venues you're working at.

I often wondered if I should charge more for church Weddings than for civil Weddings as the ceremony is often longer and if you're filming Bridal Preps, there's that stress of car parking if in a city centre and of course the stress of more travel during the day to different locations. When Bridal Preps, Ceremony and Reception is all at 1 venue, the day is so much easier.

I'd also love to charge an extra fee for those Weddings whose Speeches last more than 40 minutes. I would call it the waffling surcharge.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve

I have always had flat rate prices which cover from event to event (like ceremony to end of first dance) but quite often that can equate to more than what it should be in terms of hours! A ceremony at 3pm assumes a first dance at 9pm (so 6 hours) but it doesn't always work out that way. The problem is if you specify hours, what happens if there is a delay ? Do you charge them per extra hour regardless even if you are there only 30 minutes over time. I have seen a photog who said "times up" just before the cake cutting and refused to shoot any more unless she paid for an extra hour!

Maybe cost out for say 10 hours for something the you estimate at 8 hours so if it goes over time and you stay on you are seen as the good guy???

[Steve Burkett]

Hi Chris,

Actually my packages are:

Ceremony to 1st Dance
Ceremony to 10pm
Bridal Preps to 10pm (Bridal Preps filming start time no earlier than 10am)
Full Day coverage from 8am till midnight or later if agreed in advance.

This balances for me between determining packages by hours and those by events.

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Steve

Just asking cos I had a ceremony to first dance one a few years ago and they had the ceremony at 3 and the first dance ended up at 11pm!! I only costed in 6 hours as all dances are normally at 9pm!! Had to wait an extra 2 hours as I was specific that I would cover to the end of the first dance and they just ignored the timeline and kept delaying the first dance (and cake) which I had to get. Most stick to the rules though.

I wondered if you has a clause like "up to the end of the first dance provided it's done by 9pm" or similar or if they delay it, do you have a clause that allows you to charge extra if they go way past the supposed time ?

[Steve Burkett]

If the 1st Dance goes beyond 9 then they have to pay until 10. That said if they have a late ceremony, I can be more flexible on that front as I did a few days ago as the Ceremony was at 4.

[Kyle Root]

On solo vs team shooting - there are a ton of benefits when shooting with a second and third shooter, if done properly.

I know every time I do a wedding solo, invariably, the final quality suffers a bit, because it's impossible to be everywhere. A lot of it depends on the size of the wedding and how many locations there are though.

For smaller weddings where it's all in one place (preps, ceremony, and reception) it's a lot easier vs traveling to a hotel for brides, grooms house for guys, then to the ceremony site, and then to a different reception site.

My pricing kind of takes that into account by how I have structured them with 3 hours, 6 hours, and 10 hours with each higher package including additional help - 1 shooter, 2 shooters, 3-4 shooters, because I know the 6 and 10 hour days will likely have multiple locations. And if they don't, all the better for me because I won't need to have the whole team there all day.

[Steve Burkett]

In an ideal world, I would work as some plumbers do, have an hourly rate and present my bill after I had finished the job. This then would take into account any extra hours worked on the Wedding Day, time spent editing and all fees and costs incurred. This would ensure I would be fully reimbursed for those Weddings that needed extra time editing to cover processing of low light footage, longer than expected Ceremony and Speeches and any issues with audio on the day. Whilst I can predict how much time any given Wedding can need, the fact is some Weddings take longer to edit than others and it's only when I edit these Weddings, this extra work becomes apparent.

In the end, I charge I rate that covers an average amount of work per package, with the view that some will require less and others will require more.

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Thanks Steve

Just asking cos I had a ceremony to first dance one a few years ago and they had the ceremony at 3 and the first dance ended up at 11pm!! I only costed in 6 hours as all dances are normally at 9pm!! Had to wait an extra 2 hours as I was specific that I would cover to the end of the first dance and they just ignored the timeline and kept delaying the first dance (and cake) which I had to get. Most stick to the rules though.

I wondered if you has a clause like "up to the end of the first dance provided it's done by 9pm" or similar or if they delay it, do you have a clause that allows you to charge extra if they go way past the supposed time ?

The First Dance can wind up later than promised sometimes by many hours later (e.g. waiting for the drunk bride who is throwing up in the toilets to sober up!). Some videographers have penal overtime rates to deter time slippage on the day.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Nigel

I still prefer to get all my money up front and have a firm price. How would you do that IF that sort of thing happened? I think we all know that brides are flat broke after the wedding so I would be loathe to invoice her for an extra 2 hours as I probably wouldn't get paid. In fact I have a bridal pack sitting on my shelf and it's been there for 24 months now, all because the bride has an outstanding of a mere $200 ! She refuses to pay and I refuse to deliver ..I doubt whether she will EVER pay (or get her video and photos) Sometimes I think it's better to cost in a delay in the event so you are covered. If she actually finishes early you could always score brownie points by giving her something extra in the package (without telling her why) So cost out a 6 hour wedding at 8 hours and if it falls within the schedule, give her a little extra bonus as a thank you.