If you’ve searched for a wedding videographer, you’ll probably have noticed that wedding videography prices can vary greatly from studio to studio. Some charge $1,000, some charge $10,000+. What makes them different? In this post, I’ll explain how I operate and why different studios charge what they do.
If your time is short, there is a summary at the bottom.
Gear Every wedding videographer will have various equipment to help them capture your love story. This equipment includes everything from cameras, lenses, microphones, recorders for those microphones, gimbles, computers, and even bags for all that gear. I use about $20,000+ worth of gear to craft your love story. Camera technology is constantly improving, and I try to upgrade my gear every 4-5 years to keep up with the latest, and to tell your love story as best as possible. A camera that meets my standards costs $3,000-$4,000.
Time | Editing Editing and crafting your film takes the most time out of everything. On average it takes around 40 hours to completely edit and perfect your highlight film, and about 5+ hours to edit your ceremony and speeches films. It also takes considerable time backing up all the footage and audio I capture on the day onto 3 separate hard drives and online, approximately 2 hours.
Time | Prep & Filming Before I even start filming a wedding, an average of 5 hours has been spent gathering info, in meetings with my couples, and preparing equipment the day before the wedding. I also spend an average of 10-12 hours filming every wedding. Total Approximate Time Spent On Every Wedding – 40 to 50 hours
Yearly expenses Yearly expenses can include everything from editing program costs, music licenses, business cards, and fuel costs. These all add up to more than $6000/year.
Cost Of Living But don’t forget the usual things like your videographers yearly cost of living. They most likely do wedding videography for a living and will need $45,000+/year for basic necessities.
Demand Another thing to consider is the wedding videographers talent and the demand for their services. I’ve been filming weddings since 2014 and I typically get booked 12-18 months in advance. In order to better improve my skill and talent, I regularly attend courses or take classes to constantly improve. These can cost anywhere from $2,000-$5,000/year.
A quick summary: $20,000+ in gear used for each wedding 40-50 hours on average spent on every wedding $6,000+ in yearly business expenses $2,000-$5,000/year for skill improvement The cost of living
So, how much should a wedding videographer cost? Well that depends on the value you put on having a wedding film. The average cost of a wedding videographer in Alberta, Canada is around $3,000. For more experienced filmmakers, the price is anywhere from $4,000-$10,000+. For newer and less experienced filmmakers it can range from $1,500 to $3,000. The old adage of “you get what you pay for” is very true for wedding videography and photography in general.
