The Low-Budget Wedding

On the whole, the words “low-budget” and “wedding” are not words you’ll see used together. We often see wedding budgets soaring from $5,000 to $100,000. My mind boggles at the thought of forking out $100,000, or even $30,000 for a single day in your life.
For most, the wedding is supposed to be a “once-in-a-lifetime” event, but in today’s world the statistics show that this is often not the case. Sometimes, the second wedding is a larger more costly affair than the first was.
If the bride and groom and their parents have been preparing for the wedding day for a number of years, or if they are financially able to pull off a huge a costly wedding, then it is very likely in the hands of an efficient wedding planner, and all that is needed of the photographer is to show up and provide the services contracted for.
There are many reasons a couple might choose a low-budget affair, from lack of funds to just wanting to keep things simple. Not every couple wants to go into their married life with a huge loan to pay-off, and not every couple has parents whose financial situation can cover the cost of large and expensive wedding. And then you have those couples who just want to begin their life together, even if the wedding is a “day in the park”.
So how does the small-business photographer work with these couples? That of course depends on the willingness of the photographer to provide more for less.
Large photographic studios often cannot provide enough services to low-budget weddings: not necessarily because they don’t want to, but because of the expenses involved in running these studios. Store leases, utilities, insurance, equipment costs and employee wages (among other things) are all figured into the studio’s rates. In their case, it’s a matter of running an efficient business that can pay the bills at the end of the month.
Those of us who work from home offices & studios have less expense in terms of rents and utilities, and often don’t have employee costs. Though we do need to consider equipment, office , insurance and travel costs, these tend to be less since they are a percentage of the overall costs of running the home. This makes it easier to to work within budget constraints
Some advice for the couple looking for a photographer – in the case of photography, “you get what you pay for” isn’t always true. A lower cost home-based photographer can provide work as good, and as professional as the expensive studio. Not all expensive wedding photographers provide excellent work, either. High price is no guarantee for high-quality.
In terms of wedding photography, the importance of doing your homework cannot be stressed enough. Overall, what you want is a photographer who is willing to work with you and your budget, and whose final results are pleasing.
You should study samples of work from different photographers or studios in your area. Even if you can’t afford a large studio photographer for your wedding day, you should visit at least one. Most will have work on display, and you’ll be able to get some idea of the styles and quality of work they provide, as well as obtaining package or hourly costs.
Look for a couple of lower-cost wedding or portrait photographers in your area and make an appointment to discuss costs and services, and ask to see sample work. It costs nothing but your time to make an appointment and will give you the opportunity to meet personally with the photographer. This is one advantage of using a small-home photographer – you know who you’ll get showing up on the wedding day. You’ll have a chance to work with your photographer in advance of the wedding day.
In deciding on the photographer for your wedding day – cost should not be the deciding factor unless all other things are equal. In other words, if you visit 3 low-cost photographers and each provides excellent quality work, and you feel comfortable with each one in terms of “can I work with this person”, then you may consider opting for the lowest cost photographer on your list, and still feel confident you’ll be happy with the results.
Like almost everything today, there are wedding photographers out there for every situation and every budget. Explore your options ahead of time and do comparison shopping and you’ll find the right photographer for you.

Wedding Cards from Photography or Art

Here's an interesting sideline the wedding photographer can use to earn a little extra money, or to give their couple some custom thank you cards or invitations.

Using your photography or artwork, you can create custom designed cards with very little work and list them for sale, or order them for your couple - or they can order and send them directly from the site.

Where? The site I use is Greeting Card Universe. It's free to join the site and create a shop. You earn commissions from every card sold from your shop, but even better are the options for ordering your own creations. Shop owners get a discount when ordering their own cards, and you also earn a smaller commission on your own orders, plus when ordering in bulk, you get an additional discount.
Customers can order your cards as well (if you make them public - you have the option for private card galleries, making this a perfect place to send your custom card creations for your bride and groom), and also get discounts on bulk orders. The other thing that makes this a very useful spot for couples to order their cards is that they can select their own custom text for the inside of the card, and they can list names and addresses, and have Greeting Card Universe mail the cards directly to the recipients. Everything is done online, making this an easy-use option for sending invitations or thank you cards.

Creating special invitations that make use of holiday weddings, such as "Our Christmas Wedding" or "A Valentine Wedding" or any such holiday wedding can add a personalized touch that isn't readily available in many other places. Other wedding related cards that aren't often seen in shops are those special thank you cards to the Pastor or Official, or even to the photographer who did a great job. If you need a card for the fantastic caterer, you can get one of those too. There's even things like a special card for the bride, from her dad on her wedding day.

This would also be a useful resource for wedding planners if the bride and groom are in a time crunch. Pre-designed cards are available already in many shops at Greeting Card Universe, so selecting one and filling in the invitation details and providing a list of addresses makes this a huge time-saver. Cards can be mailed out as quickly as the next day.

Very popular in the US are cards that invite the members of the bridal party - "Be My Bridesmaid", "Be Our Groomsman", Maid of Honour, Flower Girls & Ringbearer invitations - these are some of the cards that sell most often out of my shop. For me, being a Canadian, it seems rather odd because we haven't seen much of this type of card here. But, since Greeting Card Universe is open to international sales it makes sense to create cards in categories that are popular. You can even create your wedding cards in multiple languages for different cultures.

Of course, you can create all different types of cards for a variety of occasions, but creating a shop specifically geared to weddings could be a good resource for couples and wedding planners, and bring a nice steady income to the photographer who makes use of this.




Personalized thank you card from the bride and groom with one of their wedding pictures on the front - the perfect end to the perfect wedding!