I had a client request from a fellow alum (we don't know each other) who is getting married at my alma mater. There is absolutely nothing I would love more in the world than to go back and shoot a wedding there. This would open up opportunities to shoot with other alums and make connections outside of my current location.

I am the primary and sometimes only shooter with my company, although my husband helps out. If we get this gig, we'll likely spend a week or more in the area since my husband has family and I have lots of friends there.

I'm thinking of charging only for my travel expenses unless she specifically requests a second shooter. I would personally pay for my husband's expenses (plane flight) if I wish to have him join me. If she wants an official second shooter I could either charge for his flight or charge enough that I could bring someone in from the area. Is that possible? I would really like to get this gig.

Here's what I think I need to charge:

Flight for Me
Travel -- either car or train/taxi
Hotel for the #of days up to and including wedding
Food $ for me for #of days up to and including wedding

Will I need a rental car? I can get to the area by train, but the less expensive hotels are a drive away (and I will have a lot of equipement with me). I also like the freedom that a car offers, but if I stay in the central hotel next to campus, I wouldn't need any transportation. After the wedding we would stay with my husband's family just down the road.

I plan on sending her an information packet with our prices as well as estimated travel costs -- or at least what they would be expected to pay for. Thanks!

What I typically do is:
- look up the cost of plane tickets and charge slightly higher than the lowest price (in case they go up)
- charge $175/day for hotel
- charge $100/day for food/car/whatever

The travel prices never bend. If it's something we REALLY REALLY want, then i'll either give money off my hourly rate. I never give discounts on things that cost me money though, like travel stuff, albums, ect...

How many days in advance do you go? I include a free engagement session with each couple and I would let the couple decide if they want to:

(a) fly me up early to take shots
(b) fly to me to take shots
(c) take shots right before wedding
(d) do a day after session in lieu of engagement session

If they don't need a session right before the wedding, I would go up at least two days before- - to give myself one full day in the area to get settled. That would mean three hotel nights or more. Hmmm...

Do you charge for your wife? Or leave her at home?

If the wedding is on a Saturday, I get there by Thursday. In case of flight delays, it's non-negotiable for me.

It depends if my wife can go or not. She works full time. Most people expect two of us though (since that's how I market things), so the only extra cost is plane tickets, since we both stay and drive together.

yep. I'm thinking along those very lines. Actually, I work full time, but I have tons of vacation time and work's fairly flexible. Thanks!

That Thurs flight is interesting. I have always left on Friday am, but from Atlanta, I have always had several flights after, if I ever got bumped. Ihave not got bumped, yet. Once I flew into Cincinnati for a Louisville wedding (weather in Louisville), but it is a realatively short drive.

$175 for hotel. Must be some pretty decent digs; unless your are in high priced market like NYC or SF. I typically stay @ Hampton, Fairfield or Embassy. I just charge my client whatever I am charged for hotel, car and $30/day for food. N margin in expenses. I eat pretty cheap. Perhaps, I should change to Thurs and do some sight seeing.

Tom

Well I live in Philadelphia, where 6 months out of the year there's snow potential.... and we're the home to US Air.... the world's least timely airline. Everyone around here understands my Thursday requests

Concerning hotels... most of the time that I travel to a wedding, it's because the clients are having a wedding in a cool spot. For example, I have a few coming up this year in Baltimore's inner harbor. Are there $100 hotels around Baltimore? Sure. But the last thing I want to do after a wedding is drive 20 miles to the hotel. If the wedding is in the inner harbor, we just stay in the inner harbor. Hence the $175 fee.

I probably wouldn't travel 2 or 3 hours for a wedding in a place that wasn't exciting.

I figure I will be losing Friday anyway, so better to fly out Thursday night. I had to sleep in the atlanta airport on my way to a friend's wedding and showed up the morning of (this was before my photography days), so I don't take any chances. We don't have any snow problems here, but we have hurricane season which can slow down outgoing flights. Fog has been known to do that, too.

Susan Stripling has a great video on DWF about determining costs for destination weddings. There are a lot of things you don't consider - such as parking, gas, exchange rates, extra days of shooting, etc. For this wedding, I looked up flights, figured $50/person/full day for food (we would only have one full day where food wouldn't be provided), estimated rental car, gas, and hotel prices (it was cheaper to stay 5 minutes down the road and rent a car than stay across from campus -- like $130 vs. $260/night), and then added 10% because I know we left stuff out.

It also depends on when they want you there. I would show up a day early to shoot an engagement session or stay a day later to shoot a day after session. So I'll have to wait until I know what a couple wants before I can give a full estimate. All I can do is give an estimate for Thursday through Sunday.

Flat national travel fee. All travel expenses inclusive.

I stopped breaking down every expense. No thinking involved for anyone because there are more factors involved such as time, planning, resources, etc. I put a number on it and don't worry about it anymore.

Easier for me and has worked for all of my clients without any complaints.

/asim

Yes Tony every market is different and hotels are much less expensive in SE and midwest, where I normally travel than NE. Being close to the venue is also quite important.

I agree with Asim here... it's too much of a hassle to go book the tickets, book the rental car, book the hotel and then count it all up. This will vary contract to contract. It's better to just have one set rate within which you can cover everything. I will say though, I think it's fair to make the rate something that efficiently covers travel costs - some people make it too low and some people make it too high where they start to make a profit off of it (which I think is unfair).