Wedding Photography Spend

[kiwi]

FYI

Australian couples are splurging more than $36,000 on their dream wedding, business analysts IBISWorld say.

- Average wedding spend $36,200, up 6.5 pct on 2010/11
- 119,000 couples expected to get married in 2011, up 0.8 pct on 2010
- Average age of couples is 29 for women and 32 for men
- 60 pct of couples blow their wedding budget
- Australia's wedding industry worth $4.3 billion, expected to be $4.7b by 2016/17

Breakdown of wedding industry:
Percentage of wedding expenditure Revenue generated
Venue hire 33.4 pct $1.44 bln
Wedding dresses, clothing 21.9 pct $942.3 mln
Food 15.5 pct $668.3 mln
Photography, filming 11.6 pct $498.3 mln
Flowers, stationery, etc 17.6 pct $758.3 mln

Source: IBISWorld

[JM Tran]

Interesting percentages

Havent had much clients who have spent below that average budget of 36k. Although those that spend over 6 figures that I have worked with.....most of the time I fail to see its justification, but whatever makes them happy really.

If and when I do get married, hopefully it would be under 10k Or just elope somewhere

[atky]

$4200 for Photography and vidio each wedding?

[rellik666]

Blimey!

Have to admit, I wanted to spend loads on my photographer, but with a budget of $5000 all up. I couldn't justify it.

Wonder where all the money is coming from, just can't see why you would spend that on a day that now, whcih was only 6 months ago tomorrow, seems like a lifetime ago!

[Tjfrnds]

It is amazing how much people spend on weddings. I got married in Feb this year and we came in around $7k. We were extremely lucky with monetary gifts from guests and got about half that back. On the other hand, a close friend got married a few months later and spent around $35, for the same number of guests! Each to their own I suppose, but with us building a house at the same time, I too couldn't justify spending so much money on one day....oh and my wedding dress only cost me $300

[Mark L]

Apart from wondering how people can afford it, I think the most interesting stat is the average age.

[johndom]

Why do you find that interesting?

Dont forget that median is a better guide than average in much of these statistics, averages get distorted by the extreme top end, which in the case of wedding spending would involve some crazy amounts.

[arthurking83]

I'll see your average of 36K per wedding and up the ante to 37K for the average cost of legal fees for when it all goes pear shaped
(not that I'd know anything about that )

but the average recycling period for average marriage-kids-separation-divorce seems to be approximately in the order of about 10 years.. so that when these 30 years olds find themselves at the other end of the averaged out life cycle, they're back into the groove at about the 40-45 year old age threshold.

That means that the average Joe and Joanne possibly contribute about 7K each per year over a 20 year period to the Aussie economy, just to be at a point in their lives where they were 20 years prior.

This doesn't take into account that the average life time has increased to about 75 or 80years old now, so that there is more life left in us even tho we will be old buggas and still making the same fundamental mistakes as we did 40 or 60 years prior.
if there are 20million of us at any one point in time, this subsequently translates to (approximate) figures of something like AU141 Billion dollars, which would pay off the national debt of the USA (considering the current exchange rate).. so we may all be better off postponing that wedding for a year or two, lend all this money to the Yanks to help get them out of the pooper for a couple of years, hit them for a 7.55% low doc, variable low interest rate mortgage and then kick back and watch the slush fund grow exponentially for the rest of eternity.
The government can then offer those of us still hell bent on self destruction .. I mean marriage .. free lifetime marriage packages for the rest of our lives. There would subsequently be a glut of wedding photography opportunities for the glut of photographers out there, and the simple fact that this will now be a government subsidised endeavour means that the days of the sub $3.5K wedding are over, and all photographers in Australia live happily ever after ..


.. Oh maaan! .... I should have run for Treasurer

[Lucas]

Hmm, I'm guessing your post is made with your tongue firmly in your cheek, but wouldn't you need something like AU$15 TRILLION to pay off the US national debt (considering the current exchange rate which is now below parity...)?
Even if we all made $70K p.a., and donated our entire wage to the yanks, we STILL wouldn't quite make it. lol

[beau]

I'm off to a wedding next weekend in the Hunter Valley. They're paying well over $30k by the time you add everything up, but they're skimping on the photography. The bride has an uncle who has a has an entry level DSLR with kit lenses and he has offered to do the photos for them. It's his first SLR and he's had it for 3 months. He's never photographed a wedding before.

I hope they're not expecting anything like what they've seen in the magazines.

They asked me to do it and I offered to do it for $600, with all pics retouched and supplied hi-res on disc. I've shot about 30 weddings over the years and usually charge a lot more than that. I thought I was doing them a favour... now they think I was ripping them off since the uncle has been telling them how easy it is with these wonderful new cameras and how they take perfect shots in auto mode and you don't need a real photographer. He doesn't even own a flash unit and will be using the built in flash. I haven't bothered to tell him his battery won't get through the day. He can learn the hard way.

I'm glad I don't try and make a living out of shooting weddings. This stuff must go on all the time now.

[kiwi]

It must, still a sad story.

[KeeFy]

I got married last year november and i spent about $20k all in for 50 people.

A photographer who covered 4 days worth - $1k
Provided lodging for people from overseas - $5k
Wedding dress - $500
Suit - $150
Tea reception - $3k
Dinner and rental - $8k
We did our own wedding invitation cards, photobooks, decorations, flowers, cake bla bla bla, 1st day bbq - $ rest of the sum.

Considering it was a four day event at Margaret River, Western Australia. It was well worth it! But spending $36k on a few hours? Gosh that must be some wedding or they were majorly ripped off.

[rellik666]

I'm off to a wedding next weekend in the Hunter Valley. They're paying well over $30k by the time you add everything up, but they're skimping on the photography. The bride has an uncle who has a has an entry level DSLR with kit lenses and he has offered to do the photos for them. It's his first SLR and he's had it for 3 months. He's never photographed a wedding before.

I hope they're not expecting anything like what they've seen in the magazines.

They asked me to do it and I offered to do it for $600, with all pics retouched and supplied hi-res on disc. I've shot about 30 weddings over the years and usually charge a lot more than that. I thought I was doing them a favour... now they think I was ripping them off since the uncle has been telling them how easy it is with these wonderful new cameras and how they take perfect shots in auto mode and you don't need a real photographer. He doesn't even own a flash unit and will be using the built in flash. I haven't bothered to tell him his battery won't get through the day. He can learn the hard way.

I'm glad I don't try and make a living out of shooting weddings. This stuff must go on all the time now.

That is sad, if I had had $10K to spend I would have happily spent $2K on the photographer, but I knew what I was getting.

It is sad to see all these "professionals" on facebook and the web and these photos are really bad. But I suppose if people are happy with them and the price then who are we to complain. But to spent $36K on a wedding and then scrimp on the photographer is really sad. It is the one thing that you will have forever to remember the day.

[Redbaron]

Mine was a few years ago, but I got away with around 10 grand thanks to knowing people...

my uncle & aunt- photographers
the bloke who gave her away bought the dresses, and we used his car
venue - we knew the owner (restaurant) and he did it for around $50 p/head - great food, drink
cake - bridesmaid(s) bought as a gift

I'm told my speech was priceless though - and the divorce a few years ago cost a LOT more.... C'est la vie.

[JM Tran]

What these numbers dont show - is that Asian weddings tend to spend quite a bit, 100k weddings are nothing new to me, but the bonus of being Asian is that they tend to re-coup most if not all of their expenses back via guests.

For an average Asian sized wedding of 500-600 guests, at the expected guest present of $200 per guests, you are looking at 100 to 120k there already, with close friends and families giving over a thousand easily.

With that in mind, it may or may not skew the results quite a bit.....

[William]

No wonder I'm living in sin, 22yrs with my partner , Married twice , First cost $1500 for 15 months in 1973 , Second cost $300 bucks for 10 yrs in 1980, No way I'm getting married again these days

[kiwi]

youre certianly gettng better value for money there william as you get better at it

[reaction]

For an average Asian sized wedding of 500-600 guests, at the expected guest present of $200 per guests, you are looking at 100 to 120k there already, with close friends and families giving over a thousand easily.

I think you've just had rich clientelle.

The various Asian weddings I've been to had guests from 50-200. In mine the cost for the dinner was $150/head and the gifts we got back median $100/head, with a general range of $50-$150. Close family friends may give $500-1000 for the whole family which could be 2-5 ppl. Some relatives also gave $1000 but couldn't attend. No red packet was over $1000.

Then again, all my friends may just be from the 'other' side of town.

[JM Tran]

I think you've just had rich clientelle.

The various Asian weddings I've been to had guests from 50-200. In mine the cost for the dinner was $150/head and the gifts we got back median $100/head, with a general range of $50-$150. Close family friends may give $500-1000 for the whole family which could be 2-5 ppl. Some relatives also gave $1000 but couldn't attend. No red packet was over $1000.

Then again, all my friends may just be from the 'other' side of town.

that honestly is quite small for a true asian wedding, these days it would be considered embarrassing and a 'loss of face' if one were to give anything under $150, let alone $50 bucks! Asian clients make up about 60% of my wedding clientele, and only 1 out of 10 of my asian weddings are under 200 guests.

For me personally whenever I attend an Asian wedding, and same for my parents - it would be $200 per person roughly.

[KeeFy]

that honestly is quite small for a true asian wedding, these days it would be considered embarrassing and a 'loss of face' if one were to give anything under $150, let alone $50 bucks! Asian clients make up about 60% of my wedding clientele, and only 1 out of 10 of my asian weddings are under 200 guests.

For me personally whenever I attend an Asian wedding, and same for my parents - it would be $200 per person roughly.

It used to be so, but these days with the current generation people from where i'm from don't work that way. I've attended loads of wedding and how much we give is dependent on the cost of the wedding, ie if we know the wedding at the particular venue costs $150 we'll give $150 ppx.

For my wedding the most given was from a close friend $800 for 2 people. The rest gave $150 ppx or there abouts. Food cost about $220 per person for 3 days not considering lodging. Imagine the "loss" i made. But it's only monetary loss, memories can't be bought nor friendship . Out of the 50 people 20 were friends from overseas and 10 family members also from overseas. At the end of the day we were down about $15k without family, with family blessings it was getting close to breaking even short by a few grand.

I guess differnt type of Asians? LoL