Wedding day, arguably being the most important day of your life, the wedding pictures are a big deal — choosing the right wedding photographer, an even bigger deal to ensure you’ll have beautiful photos to cherish forever to come.

Even though we’re living in the digital age of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. most couples these days look for a professional wedding photographer to document their big day. Sure, it would be easy for friends and family to snap a few cute shots, put a filter on it and post it to Instagram, but professional wedding photographers are trained to capture the most beautiful moments of the big day.

But, how much is it going to cost you?

The average cost of a wedding photographer is not even 1/4th of the whole wedding budget and yet people have second thoughts. So, the average wedding now runs over 20-25 lakhs with couples spending an average of 0.5-1 lakh on a wedding photographer. Maybe it’s because a greater attention is given to visual media and the digital connectivity but only few couples are willing to pay more for wedding photographers.

When you scout for wedding photographers, you will find a large variation in prices. In fact, we have wedding photographers ready to cover your grand Indian wedding at price points as low as 5000 bucks a day.

Why there’s a big fluctuation in wedding photographer prices?

If you’re wondering why a wedding photographer’s price quote can swing so widely, then here is the answer;

* Time, just like any other hourly service, fewer hours could mean a lesser cost when it comes to wedding photography, vice versa

* Wedding-related events, Greater the number of events, more the charges. If you have a no-frill wedding, obviously the photographer will spend less number of hours covering your event. On the other hand, a wedding with sangeet, cocktail party and a grand reception and bidaii would mean engaging the photographer for a longer time

* Labor, a photographer has to pay their assistant or a second shooter for the additional hours

*Quality, clicking good photos is only half of the whole work. The other half starts with the post processing of the photos. Trust me, post processing is not a 2-3 hours job

*Equipment, the most important of all the above factors. The equipment such as the high end cameras, lenses, lights, tripods, etc. that they use, costs 3-4 times more than what you pay them. If the equipment are rented, then there's a small risk of damage which if unfortunately happens, will make the photographer suffer a huge loss

In short, there’s always more to the wedding photography prices than what you just see on your photographer's rate card.

A talented wedding photographer certainly doesn't come cheap. But fortunately, on such an important day as your wedding where your budget may already be stretched to the max, you can have your cake and eat it too.

At the end of the day, you just get what you pay for!

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