If you are nervous about raising your prices but know in your heart it’s the right time, this is for you, friend! I want to share a few tips for raising your wedding photography price so you can get to that next level of being a luxury wedding photographer!

One of our photography coaching clients recently raised her wedding photography prices. She’s amazing, a total boss babe! But raising her prices scared her!

I totally get it! I’ve been there. Every time you raise your prices your heart races a little more! But I talked her through it and help show her the value she’s providing to her clients. Sometimes you just need an outside perspective.

(Pssttt..grab our FREE hourly pricing calculator to help you figure out what you need to be charging!)

5 Tips for Raising your Wedding Photography Prices

From your experience photographing weddings to your confidence, there is A LOT that goes into raising your prices! Here are our 5 tips for raising your wedding photography prices.

1. Start With Experience

Your experience is everything with weddings! Just because you can take pretty photos does not mean you know how to handle a wedding day. Photographing weddings is hard work and curveballs are constantly thrown at you! It’s not until you’ve seen almost every scenario play out that you learn how to manage those tough situations.

– What happens if the officiant is an hour late? How are you going to manage your perfectly planned photo timeline when your couple didn’t want to do a first look? 
– What if you show up and the bride has changed her mind about wanting any getting ready photos? 

– How about if one of the family members breaks her ankle during family photos and it rushed off to the hospital? Yikes! 

– Or maybe the hair and makeup team showed up late and all of sudden there is no time for photos before the ceremony. You have to squeeze all the portraits in 45 minutes after the ceremony! 

Would you believe me if I told you ALL of these things have happened to us over the years?! 

In the beginning, after every wedding I shot, I raised my prices. Every wedding was preparing me and giving me the experience I needed to become a luxury Houston wedding photographer.

Even if it’s just a matter of $100 – $300, raise your prices a little bit with each wedding you photograph.

2. Consider your hourly rate

I think this is one thing that wedding photographers just don’t take the time to figure out. Tracking your time may seem tedious but it’s so necessary when you are just getting started. Once you finally have a system down, you’ll know exactly how long it’s going to take you to cull through an 8-hour wedding and exactly how long it will take you to put together their wedding album.

Once we have these timeframes, you can figure out your hourly rate per wedding pretty easily. This will help you decide if your pricing is where it should be or if you really do need to raise your prices.

Grab our FREE hourly rate calculator here! 

3. Elevate your client experience

Every time you raise your prices, you should also be thinking, “what can I do to elevate my client experience?”

Maybe that means you upgrade to a luxury wedding album company?

Maybe that means you send a nicer client welcome gift?

Or maybe it’s time to finally have a complete wedding workflow and automated system to help make that happen!

Check out our wedding workflow down here! 

Whatever it is, you just want to find ways to better your business and the client experience so you can reach that luxury tier!

 

4. Make sure your wedding photography & branding are consistent!

The more you raise your wedding photography prices, the more will be expected of you! Your clients expect and deserve consistency! That’s why they are paying MORE for YOU!

If clients see warm and bright photographs on your website and Instagram but you end up delivering something different, maybe photos with a darker or moodier style, you’ll end up with unhappy clients!

If you have a warm, friendly website but every other touchpoint of communication is cold and corporate, you’re going to want to change that! Your branding from start to finish needs to feel cohesive, just like your photography!

 

5. Be confident!

I know this is a tough one but truly, it’s the most important! You need to be confident in your pricing! Don’t look at other photographers and think you need to be charging what they charging. Stay in your lane! Do what works for you!

Make sure you feel confident saying “Yes, my collections start at $X!” You have to believe in what you are selling and know that you will back it up 100%!

Our Cotton promise is that we want our clients to 110% happy no matter what and we stand behind that! If they aren’t happy with a print, we reprint it. If we make a mistake, we fix it. No matter what, they are right and we are here to make sure they are over the moon with us as luxury wedding photographers.

So what do you think, friends? Are you ready to raise your prices?

If you recently raised your wedding photography prices and panic is setting in, this message is for you!

You are awesome! Your work is INCREDIBLE and worth every penny! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! Believe in what you are selling because it is freakin’ GOLD! You are giving these sweet wedding clients of yours something to cherish forever! Believe & trust! You CAN DO THIS!

Have any questions? Comment below or email us at hello@thecottoncollective.com! We are here for you, friend!

And if you need an amazing “excuse” to raise your prices while you uplevel your client experience AND automate your business, you need our done-for-you Cotton workflows in your life! Click below to snag them!

XO,