We will do it. No travel fees and not only will they get two photographers and disc of hi-res, I'll give them a massive print credit (or a nice large format) just because we love SF so much.
OMG! It MUST be so nice to be a couple and have access or know of FM. Getting married in all places (SF, Bay Area) and only have $2,500 for entire days coverage and wanting the "FULL HI RES" files (meaning no additional sales) and getting a huge response like this... talk about supply and demand!!! Some people are even throwing in travel expenses & print credit
huge win for couples, BIG loss for the "craft" of photography & business. No wonder places like Bella Pictures are booming. Every time someone post about a low budget couple wanting hi-res files the response is HUGE here. One could probably make a better living posting those weddings here & taking a $300-500 commission per wedding.
It always amazes me how some people don't put their prices on their site but yet post their site on a public forum like this. If anyone googles your site name it will more then likely lead them to this post tying you in to this type of coverage/travel/price-point and worst of all, almost seeming desperate to shoot something.
I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for making this post and be labeled a "troll/hater/etc". Honestly, some of you do great work. And starting a negative/downward bidding war is not good. It puts you all in as a low level commodity.
I don't blame some couples for only budgeting 1-2.5k for photography and just wanting a "disk". You would think w/ a budget like that the wedding would be in the middle of no where, but no. It's in the San Francisco Bay Area.
If the people supplying the product don't see the value/invest/time in it, why should the couple? I also know the story about people not having time/money etc. ONE very important lesson that I've learned, is that people NEVER buy NEEDS, they buy WANTS. And if people valued and wanted photography, believe me, one way or another they would find a way to invest in it. But with the supply/demand that posts like these show it gives people extra reasons not to.
Anyhow, I know this is capitalism and I'm thankful that everyone has the freedom to make their money anyway they can & choose to. Best of luck to everybody,
For us, we have personal feelings toward Sf so shooting for $2500, though not very profitable for us, makes sense for us.
On the other end of the spectrum we just booked out our October this year with the least expensive being $3000 for a few hours and no add-ons right in our tiny town. One of the others is in Hawaii for a tidy sum.
Just wanted to say that it's not desperation that motivates us. There's more to the story sometimes. If our willingness to shoot in SF and give a print credit are somehow taking the photography business under, we are definitely getting far too much credit.
