There are several reports out this time of year looking at the average cost of a wedding. BridePop came out with this chart listing their average cost for a wedding and honeymoon at $38,466. In this study, the photography portion their average wedding was $2,283. Another report from The Wedding Report shows that the average wedding cost from 2008 was at $21,814 and that spending in 2009 dropped 10.2% to $19,581. The good news for many of us is that spending on photography rose by 16% according to The Wedding Report.

Averages rarely tell you the whole story. Different markets are going to have different averages. And similarly, different clients are going to have different budgets based on their tastes and the emphasis they put on photography. I’ve been part of weddings that even a large package was only a small percent of the overall budget and weddings where a basic package was one of the largest expenditures of the day. But as a photographer and an entrepreneur, none of that should matter. What should matter is whether or not you are pricing yourself so that you can enjoy what you are doing, are fairly paid for your services, can reinvest into your profession and so that you can survive to continue to offer your services to your clients. In the coming few ‘Pricing’ posts we’ll explore some different ways of calculating your pricing.