Pricing an Indian Wedding

[KennyG]

I have been approached about shooting the three major wedding events of a weeklong Indian wedding. This would begin with the Henna Ceremony. I am trying to figure out how to price this compared to my standard wedding rates. Does anyone have any helpful information?

[Breezy]

I bet Sachin can help as he shoots lots of Indian Weddings

[ngoduyviet]

Originally Posted by Breezy

I bet Sachin can help as he shoots lots of Indian Weddings

Yeah, where the heck is he when you need him

[Breezy]

right lol

[LoungeLizard]

Simple, really. You have an hourly rate and you have a la carte prices for all the product they'll want. Number of hours times hourly rate plus product prices. Offer a discount for buying in bulk/pre-payment/whatever you want to call it if you want to. Done.

Pricing stuff is not difficult if you have some basic building blocks in place. Everything you do or offer should have a stand-alone price. You build upon that.

Oh...remember, all those hours of shooting is going to generate that much more wear/tear on your gear, that much more processing time, that much more storage, etc. Do not under estimate that!

[r0chelle]

not really helping with pricing, but I saw the most amazing Indian wedding on one of those million dollar wedding shows; the bride had 6 (? I think) different dresses, and the groom arrived in a helicopter to the main ceremony, accompanied by dancing.

It'd be nice to get a cut of that million...

[lscottpht]

I have no idea how to price one, but commenting on the above comment. I shot an Indian wedding last year with Humza. It was a 4 day one, and they must have spent a fortune! The bride had a variety of different dresses, all stunning, and the groom arrived to the ceremony by helicopter and boarded an elephant. The groomsmen were on horses, all followed by dancing. It was amazing!

[r0chelle]

Originally Posted by lscottpht

...and boarded an elephant. The groomsmen were on horses, all followed by dancing. It was amazing!

I totally just had flashbacks to the scene when (Disney's) Aladdin arrives in town aboard an elephant with the genie dancing and singing ahead of him in this giant parade.

[lscottpht]

Originally Posted by r0chelle

I totally just had flashbacks to the scene when (Disney's) Aladdin arrives in town aboard an elephant with the genie dancing and singing ahead of him in this giant parade.

That's exactly what it reminded me of!

[laawaaris]

i hired a wedding photographer to do my sisters Indian wedding last november ... different things were included in the final deal, but he shot for 3 days worth of events and provided a second photographer on the main day

PM me your email address and I will send you the contracts we signed with him ...

[stacyreeves]

mist has shot several Indian weddings. It just depends on what they want you to shoot, how many photographers, and for how long.. If they want you for 2-3 hours, consider charging them what you would charge for a rehearsal dinner.. If they want you for more like 6-7 hours, consider charging what you would charge for a small wedding.

You will probably be putting in twice the amount of time that you would for a normal wedding, so maybe consider quoting them twice what you would charge for a normal wedding.

[wjmphoto]

Things to remember with an Indian wedding.

It is true that they will normally treat you very well, like family, but you will also be treated like family and expected to do more than your contract states. Even if you are hired for a set number of hours, it really does not mean much to the client. If they are running late, they will still expect you to stay until the job is done or work the extra hours without extra $$$. It will entail a lot more work than a normal wedding because of the extra shooters needed at multiple locations if you are shooting multi-day events. You will have tons of files that have to be PP'd which means a lot of work to get down to you final # of files.

If you have albums in you price list you may also wamt to place a stipulation in prcing multiday events that 2 albums are required because a 20 - 40 page album is not going to cut it and you don't want to be force dot pack a ton of images intot he album and make it look like crap. One thing that I do with all album is limit the number of images per 2-page spread and have the customer sign off on it because I hate to make an album that is cluttered and looks just plain terrible.

These hings are a lot of work - more than a traditional type of wedding and you should be paid farly for it. If you are going to shoot Idian weddings you really need to have a seperate set of pricing for them since they almost alway entail multiple days and multiple shooters. Set an hourly rate per shooter and do not include a lot of extras or any at all for the hourly rate. That should just be the charge for shooting. Then price out options like prints, files, books, etc on an a-la-carte menu. Be sure to include the fact that you will probably put in a few extra hours for no extra $$$ in your hourly rate. Get exact details on hours, times, locations and everything before you quote the event. Be sure to incude an extra hours claue in the agreement with a signature line for that clause itself inside the agreement stating that you will bill for the extra hours and not deliver products until those hours are paid.

One last thing to remember is that when you present the quote, there is a good chance they they will try and haggle the price. If that happens, you really need to stand firm on the price because you are going to have a ton of work from this and should get paid fairly without feeling used after you are done with the wedding or taken advantage of.

I will reiterate that these will probably be some of the nicest people you will work with, but you have to cover yourself in the negotiations so that you get paid fairly and don't end up angry after the fact for what you actually make versus the hours that you really end up working. Stand firm on your pricing, because haggling is something that they will try and do. If they like your work and really value it they will pay for your sevices in the end.

In the end, the best thing you can do is have a strong contract with EVERYTHING in writing and itemized so there is no ambiguity as to what the customer can expect to get from you and what you will not be providing. Be sure that you go over the contract witht he customer when they sign it and then stick to the contract with every customer and you won't have trouble.

[sbp]

Originally Posted by ngoduyviet

Yeah, where the heck is he when you need him

I was out of town in training.

It is exactly like "wjmphoto" said. they will treat you good but you have to work more then you have promise.
Don't expect that everything will be on-time. mostly it will late.
many people will ask you to take photo by themself and you know that click is useless because you never use it and they will never buy it but you click anyway. If you become friend with them next time when they have event they will not look around and will call you.

Like he said most time they will try to haggle prise down so it is up to you what to do.

It will be long long did I said long events.

If you need help call me pm me. If I am free that weekend I will happy to help you.

[AndrewCCM]

Send a message to Humza. Hayasin on TPF. I have shot them with him and gotta say...although the scenery is nice and such, it is a total beating to shoot them. I don't think I'll be doing any more in the future.

As mentioned, STRONG CONTRACT needed. I believe they were priced anywhere from $8k - $15k

Just remember, they'll probably want you for several days, want thousands of images, several full albums, etc... It WILL be a LOT of work. A LOT. Your costs will be significantly higher as well. And you'll have to pay a second and/or third shooter to cover larger ones.

Oh, and the haggling of price is an understatement...Expect it. And then expect it again. ;)

Good luck.

[LoungeLizard]

This year I have already done two and have two more booked with a potential for a third. Last year I did three. Next year, I already have one booked and have a target of doing six for the year. I may be strange, but I enjoy them.

Humza is great at this stuff and he'll re-iterate everything that's been said already.

Now, what the customer wants and the customer gets is all a matter of conversation, education, contract - and customer selection! I have had the "I want 2,000 image" bride talk with me and I simply say "sorry, that's not my style". My contracts are to the point of stating how many images (on average) they'll get per album page - and THEY WRITE THAT IN THEIR OWN HANDWRITTING AND SIGN IT. Andrew's words are key "STRONG CONTRACT" - and even stronger will to enforce it if necessary.

Negotiation WILL happen. I had one come back and say "I talked with someone who could do it for half what you quoted". I immediately replied "I would book him as quickly as possible before someone else does." They booked me. I had one tell me "I get so much more for the money with the others though your quality is better." I simply replied with "oh, the tradeoffs you have to make in planning a wedding. This is just one of them. When you decide, let me know."

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Oh, by the way, there is NOTHING wrong with negotiating. It's simply a business practice and it is up to you if it is one of your accepted practices or not.