What It Actually
Costs
Real numbers, and where the money goes.
The honest ranges
Nationally, wedding videography typically runs from around $1,200 for short single-shooter coverage to $5,000+ for a full-day, two-person cinematic production. Photography spans a similar range. In expensive metros, the top end goes considerably higher.
Booking both from one studio almost always costs less than booking two — which is why combined collections exist. Our own pricing starts at $1,200 for film and $1,500 for photography, with combined collections from $3,000, and a $500 deposit reserves the date.
What actually drives the price
Hours. The biggest single lever.
Number of shooters. A second shooter is roughly the cost of an extra person's whole day.
Editing time. This is the part couples never see. A highlight film can take 20–40 hours to cut. A photo gallery of 600 images takes days to cull and colour-grade. You are mostly paying for the work that happens after the wedding.
Experience. A shooter who has done 200 weddings knows exactly where to stand when the doors open. That's what you're really buying.
The fees that show up late
Get these in writing before you sign: travel fees (some studios charge hundreds once you're an hour away — we don't charge them at all), overtime, second shooter as an add-on, raw footage as an upsell, rush delivery, and album or print costs.
A $2,000 quote with four of those attached is not a $2,000 quote.
How to spend a smaller budget well
Buy skill, then buy hours. A great photographer for six hours beats an average one for ten.
Cut the day, not the format. Coverage that ends after the first dance still captures everything that matters. The last hour of dancing is the least valuable footage of the night.
Do a first look — it compresses your timeline and lets you book fewer hours.
Book off-peak. A Friday or a November date is cheaper across every vendor category.
What's worth paying more for
Two things, in our honest opinion. A second shooter, because one camera cannot see your face and your partner's face at the same time during the vows. And enough hours to reach golden hour, because that's where your best portraits will come from.
Everything else — albums, drone, extra edits — can wait. Those two cannot be bought back later.
Planning your wedding?
We shoot photo and film nationwide — a local team, no travel fees, raw footage in every collection. A $500 deposit reserves your date.
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