I have a mid-week upcharge and a holiday upcharge for dates close to holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Dates like New Years I wouldn't charge for because they are not really "family" holidays on my calendar. In both cases, I would upcharge about $500 for each incident. I actually had a client inquire about Christmas week and agree to the charges but failed to follow through when it came down to booking.
Charge enough extra so that you are happy to be working.
If you don't charge any extra, then in the back of your head you'll be thinking "this sucks to work on New Years".
If you carge double, then you'll be saying "this is great".
There is somewhere in between that is your tipping point...where it goes from a burden to a good deal. I'd guess that is somewhere between 10 and 30%.
Another way you could think about it is...
-how much would it cost to pay for a great evening & hotel for you and your wife? or
-how much would I need to fund the next lens I want?
Sam Hassas wrote:
I booked a wedding on the 4th of July 09'. I would have marked it up but it's gonna be on a yatch in S.F Bay. Tit for tat.
Normally I would though.
~Sam
Me too. I had like 5 inquiries for that date. Who gets married on July 4th??
We have a wedding on the Valentines Day long weekend ("they" call it Family Day in Ontario)... Should have charged extra.
When we booked it we figured that it was in town and just a short day. Since booking though, we have decided to move and will be living about 4.5 hours away. On the bright side, I know that DH will be "taking me away" for Valentines day. (Gotta find a silver lining somewhere......)
We had one on Thanksgiving weekend, and also have a wedding for this Sunday (Dec 21.), and Jan 3. Last year we had one for Canada Day long weekend. This tells me that we are the only people in the area that don't charge extra and that we need to start.... Any idea how to convince DH that its not ripping people off?
A reasonable way to calculate the upcharge would be to take the portion of the package price that is your take home pay and do it time and a half. It's east to justify that to the client because if you worked an hourly job, your employer would likely use that to calculate your holiday pay.
Price is price. I don't charge less for wednseday or more for saturday, more for fat brides or less for spectacular locations.
I've worked thanksgiving weekend, fourth of july, just about every Memorial/Labor Day weekend and yesterday booked Valentines Day.
Work is work. Perhaps it comes from my past - I remember not working, being poor and hungry, etc. My wife's job is at a hospital - 24/7/365. I'd rather work that sit home and do laundry while watching Oprah.
Now if I could upcharge for stupidity that i'd do. "I'd like to ask about wedding photographt. Can we meet Saturday - is that OK? I mean, do you work weekends?" ChaChing!
But depends on the date
