Wedding Videographer Costs 2018

”There is no such thing as an average wedding, every couple has a different budget. Some large, some small.”

Posted by Eoin Healy on January 17, 2018 / Comments

How Much Does A Wedding Videographer Cost Ireland 2018

--- Article Updated: March 2019 ---

According to One Fab Day in January 2018 the average wedding in Ireland costs €31,000 with Wedding Videography costing on average between €2000 and €4000, which translates to between 6.5% and 13% of the average wedding budget. These costs are on par with Wedding Photography.

There is no such thing as an average wedding though - every couple has a unique budget. Some large, some small. So working with the percentage of total budget, between 6.5% and 13% of your total budget - depending on how high you prioritise video over other suppliers - is a great way to ensure you are maximising the quality of videographer you can afford.

You can find wedding videographers who will offer their services for less than €2000, however, for the style conscious bride or groom or those who are looking for a high quality video, €2000-€4000 is a good range to start building into your wedding budget. This range would be in line with our own pricing at Hitched Films, and lots of other top class Irish wedding videographers.

Why Does Wedding Videography Cost So Much?

Wedding Videography has undergone a dramatic change in the past 6 years. What was once a relatively simple, point and shoot style has been transformed by many new highly qualified and upskilling videographers. It’s not uncommon to now find wedding videographers with University degrees in film or media, which has pushed the revolution we’ve seen towards complex wedding films, often on par with TV documentaries, commercials and short films. These videos are more engaging and more emotional - family heirlooms that couples will want to watch again and again.

Making these types of videos takes a lot of training, skill, specialised equipment and above all, time in the edit room. Here at Hitched Films, once we have actually filmed a full wedding day (which is typically a 12 hours day plus travel), it takes us on average one week in the edit room to produce the Highlights and Documentary edits. This labour time makes up the majority of our average wedding cost, but there are plenty of others including: insurance, business overheads, accounting fees, production equipment costs (cameras, audio, lighting, tripods) and computer costs. Computer costs is one worth stopping to consider. A high end Wedding Videographer will need a computer (or more depending on team size) many times more powerful than an average person needs. Editing is one of the most computationally intensive tasks out there, and it’s common to find Wedding Videographers spend €3,000-€10,000 on a single system. Storage is also another large cost which Wedding Videographers must absorb, and when you consider the need for Backup, this cost grows exponentially.

Availability And Its Impact On Cost

Unlike a lot of other suppliers, Wedding Videographers typically have a limited resource each year. That resource is time. Depending on how long a Wedding Videographer is prepared to spend on the edit after each wedding, you will usually find that it affects how many weddings that Wedding Videographer can take on per year. Compared to individual Florists or Bridal Boutiques who can usually work to your budget regardless of size, individual Wedding Videographers are likely going to have to stick to a particular price range based on the offering and edit time they committed themselves to for each wedding. In this regard, most Wedding Videographers are unlikely to offer significant (or any) discounts on their pricing. If you find your original budget is below the pricing of a Wedding Videographer you really want, it’s usually best either to start looking at cheaper videographers or to move things around in your budget elsewhere and find the extra couple of hundred you need to book the Videographer you really want.

Don’t forget that after the wedding day, once the cake has been eaten and the flowers have withered, your wedding video will remain. And you’ll have to believe us on this - that video will only become more important to you and your family as the months and years pass by.