The Average Cost of Wedding Videography
How much does a Wedding Videography Cost?
“The cost of wedding videography varies depending on several factors, such as the videographer’s experience and reputation, the location of the wedding, the length of the video, and the type of package or services you choose. On average, couples in the United States spend between $1,500 and $3,500 for wedding videography services. However, prices can range from as low as $500 to as high as $10,000 or more.”
If you have come to this article, it is because you are planning your wedding and you are trying to understand how to do it best, trying to have a clear idea of the budget to spend on each supplier. Especially the wedding videographer cost.
Meanwhile congratulations on your engagement and you upcoming wedding.
Among the many suppliers involved in organizing your wedding, one of those not to be underestimated is the wedding videographer.
So, you may be wondering what the average cost of a wedding videographer.
Wedding videography cost is variable and depends on various factors. While it’s possible to find a videographer in the $1,200 – $1,500 range, with high-end packages starting around $7,000, average costs can fall somewhere in between.
Each videographer is different in filming style, experience, quality of service offered. Because of this, there are many different wedding videographer prices and the average cost of wedding videography varies greatly.
So, how much is a wedding videographer?
Factors that Affect Wedding Videography Cost
We can summarize the videographer prices for wedding in five categories:
- From $1.000 to $1.500. Those are the beginner wedding videographer prices. It is likely that this is a person who has just started doing this job and is selling at a low price because he needs to build and increase his portfolio and does not have much experience.
- Furthermore, this type of video maker does not have adequate and professional equipment.
It is clear that all this will have a strong impact on the quality of your wedding film. So, it’s important that you ask yourself: how important is the wedding video to you?
If the answer is that is important to you, I advise you to avoid entrusting your video service to this type of videographer. - From $2.000 to $2.500. In this case they are most likely amateurs or in any case people who carry out this profession as a hobby (carrying out another primary activity).
This means that they do not dedicate the time required to work as a wedding videographer and this can clearly impact the quality of response and delivery times as well as availability.
They are videographers who are still perfecting their style and workflow.
Again, all these elements will influence the final result of your video but also the management and organization of the work. - From $3.000 to $3.900. Those who fall within this cost range are expert videographers who carry out the profession as a second job. The final product will be a good compromise between quality and price. This solution might be for you if video isn’t high on your priorities but you don’t want a beginner.
- From $4.000 to $6.000. If video is really important to you and you want top quality, you’re going to want to hire a wedding industry professional or even a luxury wedding videographer. The videographers who fall into this price range are professionals in the sector, people with several years of experience and who carry out this as a full-time profession. These are professionals who take care of every detail in providing the service. They offer customized packages and carefully designed packages to meet the most diverse needs. Theirs is an identifiably refined and personal style. In addition to a beautiful film, professional wedding videographers typically give a seamless experience in all facets of the booking and planning process leading up to your day and have professional level options for delivery. If the wedding film has a special mean for you because you believe it will represent the memory of your special day for a lifetime then this is the service right for you!
- $7.000+ Luxury experience. This is a wedding professional specializing in luxury or destination weddings. Because of this, their films and filming style are in ultra-high demand. These films offer a few bonus extras including same-day edits, multi-day shoots, and larger crews to create a more cinematic effect.
Freelance videographer prices depend on different aspects, especially the quality of the final product which is the film but also on the reliability and experience of the professionals.
Understanding Wedding Videography Package and Pricing
As already mentioned previously the more experienced a videographer is and knows how to do his job well, the more articulated and detailed the service offering will be.
The services offered by a professional videographer range from wedding proposals, to engagements, to save-the-dates, up to the wedding service, without neglecting the extra events that often precede or follow the wedding itself such as welcome dinners, parties specials, brunches etc.
The wedding videography cost also depends on the packages offered and chosen by customers. Wedding videographers often offer packages from the most basic to full optional in their offer.
What do these wedding videography packages include?
Each package specifies the number of hours-of-service coverage which can vary from 5 hours to 12 hours. And gradually all the optional extras such as aerial shots, number of videographers in the team, complete edit of the speeches, delivery of the original files, fast delivery etc.
The prices of each package will depend on how many extras it includes. The “à la carte” option allows you to choose and customize your package in more detail.
The wedding videographer cost per hour can vary from $200 to $500.
Videography for wedding cost could have a relatively important weight.
Is Wedding Videography Worth the Cost?
How much do wedding videographers make is a wedding videographer worth it. Like any other professional vendor, you hire for your wedding, it’s a good idea to weigh the pros and cons. Be sure to think about the costs and benefits of a wedding videographer before to choose.
While planning your wedding video you need to ask yourself if you want to allocate part of your budget to the videographer. How important is your wedding video to you? Do you think it’s useless and a cost to avoid? Why?
Only by answering these questions will you be able to make a list of your priority and what matters most to you for your wedding, what you really don’t want to do without and what you consider important and what you consider futile and waste of money.
Pricing for wedding videography depend on many factors that are often underestimated. The video production can be expensive for videographers, both in time and actual expenses. Videographers pay for music subscriptions, editing software, cameras, lenses, computers, drones, audio equipment, second videographers, taxes, retirement etc.
Then you have to consider the time spent to edit each film, an average of around 20 hours per wedding to which you have to add the time spent on planning, emails, filming on the wedding day. You can easily reach around 80 hours for each wedding.
From this careful analysis of all the factors that affect the quality of a wedding film, it can be deduced that the budget will have a profound effect on the quality received.
There is no right or wrong choice, it all depends on you and what matters most to you.
However, I would like to point out that of all the money spent on organizing your event, the money spent on your wedding video can leave you with a tangible memory of that day.
The cost of videography for wedding will therefore depend on you!
Tips for Saving Money on Wedding Videography
It is clear that hiring a wedding planner such as a wedding videographer can be very expensive. But I offer you here. Some useful tips to save money on the wedding video service:
- Reducing the numbers of hours, you film;
- Booking during an “off season” or an “off day” (any da besides Saturday);
- Going with the most basic package;
- Hiring someone who is just getting started in the business.
How to Find Affordable Wedding Videography Services
The best way to find a videographer (or any other wedding vendors) is through your immediate network of friends and family.
The contacts proposed by wedding planners and wedding venues are also to be considered when looking for a reliable and good wedding videographer.
Then social medias are also excellent way to search and connect with good professionals. Especially Instagram trough which you can watch the works produced and published.
But if you are looking for the affordable wedding videography services you should ask a wedding planner or ask the wedding venue if it can provide its own videographer.
The key is to keep things simple and basic. You could ask your friends or family if they have someone, they know that they can use. You don’t need to capture every single moment of your special day – just ask a trusted friend or family member to help.
As you can see, the wedding videography cost can be modeled on your needs.