Real life MMD: Can I up my quote for a friend's wedding photos?

ronangel

Just say you cant do it after all this time for the price of two years ago,and they should find somebody else cheaper localy, but you will as a friend beat any serious price from a pro if you can.when they find the cost, extras ect they will be happy to pay what you ask.But dont expect a wedding invite if it all goes wrong but do expect them on your doorstep the day before if it does....

_nate

If £500 is par for the course and £250 is cheap, I'm a bit stunned. What a rip-off. You should advise your friends to hire a photographer for an "event" and not tell them that it is a wedding. Then you won't have to suffer receiving a mere £250 for the goodwill job and they can save a fortune.

nonnatus

NO! You shouldn't increase the price! You agreed a reasonable price at the time. Your costs shouldn't have risen too much and as long as you are not making a LOSS, leave the price alone, or risk a lot of bad feeling.
Maybe treat it as a great publicity exercise? Do lots of networking on the day, hand out business cards, have people speaking positively about your service, instead of bad-mouthing you for trying to profit out of a friendship...
And maybe if profit is so important to you, have a policy of not working for family or friends?

sailorchief

What a cheaspskate! Do it for 'nowt as a present to the couple. Presumably they asked you for a 'cheap' job because they are short of the readies and postponed because they have been saving hard for two years. If you can'tkeep to the original price then cancel it and walk away if it matters sooooo much to you!

gaily

Personally, I wouldn't - they'd just be getting a better *me* for their money.

If i didn't know them, or when quoting for any referrals you get from it - then bump, bump, bump away!

Lunchtime edit - Having read some more opinions, I suppose for £250 whatever your skill level, the materials will have changed in price. Within whatever you've agreed for the couple make sure you've agreed what they will get from this - will you just hand them a SIM card at the end of the day, or do they get an album and x number of shots.

Maybe you could offer 'photoshopping', sepias or B&W etc as an extra serivce if they are interested in that.

bombini

Yes you should put the price up. It's not a friend and even if it was this is your business. What would your normal rate be ?

I am getting married in a few weeks, rough guide is £500 for half day or £1000 all day photographer and thats for a basic package!
We are going abroad as we couldn't afford a wedding here but I would be questioning how good the work is at £250.

Idiophreak

I think if you're going to bump, you have to have made it very clear in the first place when the quote was valid til. If you wrote on the last quote "valid until dec 2010" or something, you're perfectly within your rights to reissue the quote now.

If, on the other hand, no formal agreement or quote was given, I'd just leave it as is. Reputation's so important in the photography business...

Idiophreak

_nate wrote: »

If £500 is par for the course and £250 is cheap, I'm a bit stunned. What a rip-off. You should advise your friends to hire a photographer for an "event" and not tell them that it is a wedding. Then you won't have to suffer receiving a mere £250 for the goodwill job and they can save a fortune.

Actually, £500's still far below average cost for wedding photography...but I don't think it's (often) a rip-off. The amount of hours' work our photographers put in over the course of a number of months, and the quality of the results, made the amount we paid (although rather more than £500) very good value.

squirrelz

Tortle wrote: »

To be honest £250 doesn't seem like a bad days pay to me if you have to grin and bear it.

It's not just the time on the day you're paying for though, this is a common misconception. Even though photography is all digital nowadays, the images have to be post-processed, and this takes time.

The OP doesn't say whether the £250 includes any printed photos, or a wedding album. If it does, then it's very very cheap.

cuba2008

I don't see a problem with upping your quote if there's a two year delay between the original quote and the new wedding date. Can't quite believe that some are suggesting you shouldn't. Would anyone expect any company to honour a quote made two years previously? Of course not. If I were having double glazing installed and then decided to wait two years before going ahead I'd ask companies to re-quote. They are paying for your time and expertise and obviously expect a good job. Whether or not you are supplying a disc for them to copy themselves or prints doesn't matter. You will still have work to do before after the day itself before the finished product is handed over so charge what you believe is a fair price. Let them know now that the original quote won't be valid in two years time and that, nearer the time, they ask you to re-quote. Suggest to them that they also contact several other photographers at the same time so they can compare. And to nate's suggestion that they hire a photographer without telling them it's a wedding - sorry nate it doesn't work like that. The photographer will need to know the venue (bit of a give away) and usually arranges to meet the happy couple in advance to scout the area and get an idea of what's expected.