Only the ceremony price?

[Nathan Quattrini]

I will be filming a wedding on short notice (my first one) and as far as I know it will only be the ceremony and party afterwards. How much would that run as far as shooting/editing/dvd production? Also taking into account its my first wedding. I just don`t want to get ripped for not knowing any better.

[Drew Curran]

Nathan,
You could try telephoning other wedding videographers in your area (or get someone else to phone to avoid suspicion) and ask them for their prices, pretending to be a future client.

Or do what I did and ask friends/people who recently got married how much they were charged.

Drew

[Oren Arieli]

I still remember my first wedding video shoot (about 18 years ago). The cold sweat, the running around with gear I didn't need, the running around looking for gear I didn't have, the nagging feeling that tape wasn't rolling (VHS in those days, separate deck and a TUBE camera!). At the end of the day, it came out pretty good, but I didn't feel like I should charge for what was essentially a learning experience.

I have no doubt that if you are good at what you do, you will be able to make money doing it. You might want to consider the first one a 'wedding gift' to the couple and charge $0. HOWEVER, I wouldn't choose an arbitrary low-ball amount like $250 or $500. From experience, people tend to expect what they pay for and the ones who charge the least often get the most complaints. So you might want to charge a 'normal rate'...and throw in some extra DVD copies to boot.

Best of luck to you and let us all know how it went.

[Vince Lucena]

I really like your response "Oren"

I opened the doors to my business this year, and I still have the noobe monkey whispering in my ears. I did pretty much what you suggested and did some gigs for "Free" to aid in my development and build a portfolio.

Actually I consider this http://motionone.tv/video/wedding/lo...flvplayer.html
to be my first full fledged Wedding documentary, and I did it for free. Although I honestly feel I am far from considering my self a "Pro" I do have a great desire to learn from those before me and to hopefully develop into an expert in this craft I have always desired.

[Nathan Quattrini]

Well its a bit of a special circumstance. Its my bosses best friends wedding. So he offered to just put me on the clock since we work together. It is a learning experience and lacking alot of the equipment other than the H1. But I am sacraficing my saturday as well as alot of editing/dvd creation time, so I don`t want to be handed the short end of the stick just because he`s my boss. Unless editing the wedding can be done during work hours ... but its still just a regular paycheck at the end of the week :\

[Tim Harjo]

Just me... But I would still want to do it for free... for a number of reasons. The biggest one being that if something went wrong then it was for free anyway.

But if you still feel the need to be compinsated then I would charge like $200 dollars. More importantly than the money, you will get a video that you can show to future clients.

I live in Sacramento. I completed my first wedding vid for free and then took my highlights video to a Wedding Expo. From that I booked weddings from $1200 - $3000. (The scary part about this is that I now have booked several weddings but have only completed 2).

[Nathan Quattrini]

you guys are right. We settled on $150, and 'hopefully' I can eat while there. I won`t really have any help, it`ll just be me with 2 cameras (H1 in my hands/tripod all night, and a small panasonic for a wide master) My boss never picked up a lav, and the bride and groom said since it was free for them to 'Do whatever you want'... so I`m a little directionless. I made a slideshow story for my gf this year from our last 3 years of photos with a story to it so I can tell heart warming tales...but with a couple I know nothing about and it being my first wedding....a bit overwhelmed.