There’s A TON of things to think about when planning your wedding, trust me…I planned my own wedding back in 2018. And something I found out really quickly is that your budget all of a sudden just disappears, especially if you are planning a destination wedding.

I’m an upfront and honest person from the beginning, I never want you to all of a sudden be hit with hidden fees or expect to pay more half way down the line when you already planned out the budget and the wedding for that matter.

So I’m going to break down the typical things you should expect to pay for your destination wedding photographer so that you can feel prepared to ask your photographer the right questions and know exactly what you will be paying for your destination wedding photographer.

COVERAGE

Let’s talk about the amount of hours you will be needing for your wedding day. This is the first thing to figure out, decide, and contemplate for yourself. Think of the day of events that you are planning and what ones you prefer for them to get captured. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I have a rehearsal dinner and do I want my photographer there to capture that event?
2. Do I want getting ready photos?
3. Do I want photos of a sparkler exit or our getaway car?
4. Do I want a day after shoot?

These are all important questions to ask yourself when deciding on the amount of hours you’ll need from your photographer. If you are wanting getting ready photos, ceremony, reception, and your grand exit, you’re probably looking at a more of an 8-10 hour coverage. But if you are wanting getting ready photos, and intimate ceremony, and a small dinner; you’re probably looking at more of 4-6 hours of coverage. It all depends on what events you are doing in the day, how long each event generally will take place and, what events you want captured by your destination wedding photographer.

Most photographer will help you decide what may be best coverage wise, be careful to hear their reasoning on why they believe you need certain coverage. You want to make sure your destination wedding photographer has your best interest and not their own interest in mind.

I always give my clients a questionnaire that helps us both realize the events and the events wanted to be captured, so that way we can come up with a plan together on what is going to be perfect for your destination wedding day. Do I want more hours? Of course. But that’s not my priority. My priority is making sure you have a stress-free and dreamy wedding day that you imagined and then capturing that perfectly for YOU. You are the bride and you deserve the day to be yours + your partners. It should NEVER be about the photographer.

TRAVEL FEES

Alright, here’s where things will fluctuate based off of the destination wedding photographer you choose. Some destination wedding photographers have a base local, national, and international travel fee pricing that stays constant no matter where you book your wedding. And other destination wedding photographers will give you a quote and charge you at or below the quote given based on how much it cost to travel there. I don’t think either one is right or wrong, it’s just the different way people do business. But I personally give my brides a quote. I hate to charge someone more when my travel fees could cost less. So I quote you on EXACTLY what you will be paying for; which for me is:

• a round-trip ticket to your destination
• a rental car + gas
• two nights in a hotel (5 days if international)
• food for those two days (5 days if international)

This is pretty basic travel fees for most photographers, but it’s definitely a question you can ask your destination wedding photographer on what exactly are you paying for with their travel fees.

Some general questions you can ask about a destination wedding photographer’s travel fees are:

1. How do you charge travel fees? Are they a base price or do you give me a quote?
2. What am I paying for with your travel fees?
3. When am I invoiced your travel fees? Is it separate from my package cost or is it included?

Never be afraid to ask more questions about the services you are paying for, you deserve the right to know!

EXTRAS

For all photographers there’s always those add-ons or extra things to a wedding. So here are some extra things you can add-on or get from me – which will be very similar to other photographers add-ons:

• Second Shooters – this is a must for me for any wedding that has booked 6 hours of coverage or more. Second shooters will help fill in your gallery that you receive with all those extra moments you desire that maybe I couldn’t have captured because we were taking portraits or I was getting the main photos. They also help relieve stress for you and the main photographer by getting things you need and/or helping the family photos to go a lot quicker and smoother.
• Prints – I personally don’t have prints as an add-on to packages, but I know that a lot of photographers do. So if that’s something you are interested in then you can ask them about that.
• Film Photos – This has been something I’ve been dabling in here and there. I always give my clients polaroids, but I have been working on getting a film add-on for my wedding collection, especially with how popular film has been in the wedding industry. So ask your photographer about this, if this is something you are interested in as well.
• Day after/day before sessions – these are almost like couple photos (can be with your wedding attire or not), this can be added on to create your gallery even more complete but also to capture more memories. I personally have a destination wedding adventure package where it includes a couple session with your wedding day coverage. I do this because most of the time when traveling to a gorgeous destination we want ALL those beautiful photos of our love story in another state or country. These sessions just help capture more of the memories or give you the full photos you may be looking for that you weren’t able to capture on your actual wedding day.

So alot of these ‘Extras’ can possibly be included in your pricing or some photographers do an ‘a la carte’ style where you can add on all these extra things to your base package pricing. So make sure to ask your photographer what the full package you are interested in will get you.

I hope that this was helpful for you in understanding what to expect to pay for your destination wedding photographer. I always hope to guide and help any bride out there. Because when I was a bride I felt like everyone expected me to just all of a sudden know how to plan a wedding or what perfect questions to ask. But most of us have never planned a wedding before, let alone a big event, so I’m here to help guide any bride in knowledge they may need to make good and informative decisions that will be best for themselves.

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If you are planning your destination wedding now and are interested in my services or you have more questions about destination wedding planning….then let’s freaking chat!! Fill out my form below and let’s hop on a call to plan your gorgeous destination wedding together!

If you are wanting to check out my pricing for your destination wedding, then check out my investment page!