The price of a wedding videographer compared to a plumber…

Being in the creative industry can have its challenges.

Some roles that people are used to in life are easily priced. We all know someone who is a joiner, builder of electrician and we can assess the cost for him or her to do work in our homes.

The wedding industry might have some vendors who are more concrete in their prices and easily comparable to other providers (for example, a singer for an hour might be X amount, and the difference in rates between singers doesn’t fluctuate too much).

As a wedding videographer I’m in the same boat as a wedding photographer when it comes to pricing myself.

I’ve talked before about the rising prices of weddings and how much a wedding videographer should cost in Northern Ireland. It’s a complicated subject and not one to be taken lightly.

Some people see the total price and not the work involved, and this blog post comes in response to a conversation I had with a friend of a friend who is a plumber.

For the purpose of this post I’ll call him ‘Gary’.

Gary is getting married next year in December.

He asked me how much I would be for my services.

“£1500 starting price”

Sharp intake of breath from Gary.

“That’s far too much”

“No problem Gary, thanks for asking”.

Now, Gary is a plumber. He charges £180 per day for labour alone.

If he were to spend 10 days working it would cost his client £1800.

His tools amount to £3500 in total.

He’s been in the business for 8 years.

People, including Gary himself, happily admit that plumbers are worth their day rate, and I agree.

If I hire a plumber (which i have, many times) then it’s to provide a solution based on his or her skill level and the complexity of the issue at hand.

If a plumber makes a mistake then it will cost him or her more time to rectify it.

I dont get a second chance to film your wedding. Everything has to be prepared and ready for the day well in advance.

As a wedding videographer I have 8 years experience.

It takes me a total of 10 days to prepare, film and edit a wedding day.

I bring with me the following:

Camera

Second camera

3 x lenses

6 x batteries

1 x tripod

1 x monopod

1 x drone and ancillaries

2 x light stands

2 x lights

1 x pocket light

1 x Shotgun microphone

2 x wireless lavalier microphones

1 x wired lavalier microphone

1 x light soft box

1 x camera stabiliser Gimbal

Various lens filters

1 x high end laptop

Various solid state and backup hard drives

If the kit to film one wedding doesn’t total £10,000 then I would be surprised. If my wife asks then it amounts to just a few hundred…

So for £1500, Gary gets an experienced wedding videographer for 10 days.

That’s £150 per day.

A lot cheaper than Gary.

Gary is spending £18,000 on his wedding day.

His flowers will wilt.

His suits will get returned.

He won’t remember what his father said during his speech.

He won’t remember what his sister said during his ceremony.

He won’t remember how his family and friends reacted when him and his new wife was called to dinner.

Not everyone has the budget for a wedding videographer. Not everyone can afford a plumber.

I’d never push my own services on someone, but what I realise is that the number one regret of newly married couples is not having a wedding videographer to capture everything.

Photographers are seen as a necessity during your day. I’ve blogged about the difference between wedding videography and photography, where I compare the two specialisations.

For a different perspective on the cost of a wedding videographer outside of Northern Ireland, take a look at Hitched.com and Look Back and Remember for more information.

I hope Gary has a great day and a happy marriage.

For now, I’m going to keep my rates cheaper than a plumber.

Thanks for reading!

For more information about my style of videography just check out my films here, and be sure to take a look at my packages to see how far your videography budget can go!

I cover weddings across Northern Ireland, Ireland and destination weddings across the globe. For more information just get in touch today. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Thanks,

Adam White 

Wedding Cinematographer