Before contacting photographers I searched /r/weddingplanning for info on hiring photographers by the hour for a tiny wedding/elopement and I didn’t find much. So I’m posting this in case somebody else is looking for this info down the road! I am planning a tiny wedding (5 guests) on a Monday in Santa Barbara, California. I need only 3 hours of photography. I expected that the quotes would be all in the same ballpark but I was wrong, they were all over the place!Some photographers post a price for a full-day package on their website (or at least a “starting at” price) but very few post pricing for an elopement or hourly prices. Because of this, I contacted eight photographers to get quotes. (I feel a little guilty for contacting so many because I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time but it’s a big purchase and when nobody posts prices on their website, you leave me no choice but to email and ask!) I only contacted photographers whose portfolios I really loved. I think there are definitely cheaper photographers out there but I wasn’t looking for the cheapest deal so much as looking for photos I loved. To search for photographers I used Google, Instagram (by searching #santabararaweddings and similar), and weddingwire.Here are the quotes I received for 3 hours of photography, together with the photographer’s pricing structure:$750 ($250 per hour)$1200 (Set price for a 3-hour elopement package)$1350 ($450 per hour)$1450 ($1000 set price for a 2-hour elopement package plus $450 for the extra hour)$1600 ($500 per hour plus a $100 travel fee because this photographer is based out of San Luis Obispo)$1700 ($1500 set price for 3 hours of photography plus $200 travel fee because photographer is based in San Luis Obispo)$1800 ($700 for first hour, $550 for each extra hour)$3500 (This package includes 3 hours, a custom bound album and some large fine art prints. I probably could have emailed back and asked for the price without the album and prints but this was so far beyond my budget it felt pointless. She sent along her whole pricing guide and full day wedding coverage at $10k soooo I think this one is for a people in a different tax bracket than me lol)The average is $1400. (Not counting the $3500 quote, which I’m calling a statistical outlier and/or just crazy). One thing that surprised me is that I expected the photographers with tons of reviews on weddingwire and tons of Instagram followers to be more expensive (I guess I figured they were more in demand so they’d charge more?) but that was not the case. Reviews/followers seemed to have no correlation to price.I eliminated those over $1500 because that was my max budget and then set up phone calls with my two favorites portfolios under $1500. I eventually went with the $1200 one after talking to her on the phone, she has a lot of experience shooting at my venue and seemed like a chill person to have around on the big day. I’m really excited about my pick! If anyone wants any info on specific photographers I contacted, feel free to DM me.(As a note, I realize that some on this subreddit here feel strongly that the word elopement is only for a secret wedding with no guests. Most photographers call any package less than 4 hours an "elopement package." Similarly, venues with packages for like 20 guests or less call them elopement packages. So I'm using that word here because that's what vendors call my wedding and also "tiny destination wedding" is kind of a mouthful). via /r/weddingplanning http://ift.tt/2sNSWK2
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