How many hours does wedding photography take?

• Emails: from the initial enquiry, to consultations, sending contracts and invoices, planning engagement sessions, discussing timings and key photos, delivery of your sneak peek images, and final gallery delivery. On average, 20 to 30 emails per wedding = 2 to 3 hours
• Booking, contracts and invoices = 1 hour
• Pre-wedding consultation = 1 hour
• Planning and final preparation = 1 hour
• Travelling: to and from the first meeting or venue scouting (if I’ve not shot there before), travel to the engagement shoot, or wedding. Depending on how far all the locations are = 2 to 8 hours
• Shooting = 5 to 12 hours
• Backing up images = 0.5 to 1 hour
• Editing = 8 to 20 hours
• Gallery preparation and delivery = 1 hour

Total = 24 to 40 hours per wedding

Wedding photographer business costs behind the scenes

• Travel expenses: to and from the venue, any meetings, engagement shoot location, etc. Hotel stay if required.
• Business insurance: most venues require public liability insurance up to £5 million. Then there’s insurance for all my equipment too. My current policy is £1,000 per year. This rises every year.
• Internet connection and phone: to reply to your emails, upload your images, and contact you when out and about (and on the day if needed) = £600 per year
• Online gallery and client management software fees: hosting your memories in a beautiful online gallery, and keeping everything you need in one place = £600 per year
• Editing software: my subscription to Lightroom and Photoshop costs £180 per year

The equipment and backups I bring to every wedding

• 2 x cameras + 1 backup
• 3 x lenses + 1 backup
• 3 x flashes
• Memory cards + backups
• Batteries + backups
• Top spec editing laptop or PC
• Hard drives + backups
  
  This list isn’t exhaustive, but it covers the bulk of my gear.
  
  Altogether, my equipment is worth around £20,000+ and needs replacing or upgrading every 3 to 5 years. That’s £4,000+ per year in outlay.

Experience matters because weddings do not repeat

• Training and workshops: I invest in training to keep my skills sharp, learn new techniques, and stay up to date with new technology so I can do the best job possible for you. For example, a course I took recently cost £720. I try to do at least a couple of these a year.
• Skills and experience: it has taken me thousands of hours of training and practice to do what I do. Like anyone who trains in a field, you expect higher pay for specialist skills and experience.
• Pressure: being a wedding photographer is high pressure. No one’s life is on the line, but it is one of the biggest days of your life, and you can’t redo it if it goes wrong. Jobs with more pressure and risk command higher fees.

Why marketing costs affect wedding photography prices

• Advertising: in a recent year, I spent £2,100 on online advertising
• Wedding fairs: in a recent year, I spent £1,800 on wedding fairs and open days
• Printed material: leaflets, business cards, etc = £300 per year
• Website = £600 per year
  
  Taking photos is only around 10 to 20% of the work. Around 50% is time spent editing, and the rest is split between travelling and admin.
  
  My business costs run at around £20,000 per year, which averages around £500 per wedding if I photograph 40 weddings a year.
  
  To put this into context, my 10-hour package (around 30 hours total work on average) works out at £66.67 per hour, with my take-home pay after expenses being £53 per hour. Then subtract around 25% for tax and 10% for pension. Let’s call it £35 per hour take-home pay
  
  And remember, most photographers are self-employed. That means no company pension, no holiday pay, and no sick pay. If something big hits and weddings stop, I do not get paid. I rely on savings. So I also put money aside as a safety net.
  
  To put it into perspective, I’m aiming to earn around £45,000 to £50,000 per year before tax.
  
  The latest Office for National Statistics data puts median gross annual earnings for full-time employees at £39,039 (April 2025).
  
  This means you’re getting strong value for someone with my specialist skills. How much per hour would a solicitor charge you? Or a plumber or electrician? Often the same, if not more.

So, what is a “reasonably priced” wedding photographer?

I hear it a lot.

“Wedding photographers aren’t reasonably priced.”

If you’ve read this far, I hope you can see what sits behind the fee.

Don’t get me wrong, we all start somewhere.

I shot my first wedding for £400.

But I didn’t have the kit I have now, my insurance was lower, and I had far less experience.

Average cost of a wedding photographer in the UK

You’ll see a lot of “average” figures quoted online, and a commonly quoted UK average is around £1,500.

But averages lag behind real pricing. They’re usually based on past seasons, broad surveys, and a mix of everything from part-timers to full-time pros.

In reality, full-day coverage often sits higher once you factor in experience, editing time, backups, and demand, especially for peak Saturdays and popular venues.

Before you decide to book a cheap photographer, ask yourself why they’re cheap.

Are they cutting corners?

Ask them:

• Are you insured?
• Do you have backup cameras and lenses?
• How do you back up files on the day?
• What happens if you’re ill?
• Can I see 2 to 3 full galleries?

I understand that sometimes budgets are tight and you might want to hire someone cheaper.

But I’m a big believer in you get what you pay for. If someone is dirt cheap, it’s usually for a reason.

Maybe they are inexperienced. Maybe they have no backup kit. Maybe they’re a hobbyist.

It’s often recommended you spend around 10 to 20% of your overall budget on your photographer, sometimes more for smaller weddings and elopements.