wedding book prices

A modest Blurb book might be 40 pages or so - anything less than that will look a bit thin. I'd suggest specifying Premium paper as well, so the result will be as good as possible.

You can also offer softcover, hardcover with dust jacket and wrap-around hardcover as options. I always offer all three. It gives the buyer a choice of how much they spend.

Hi John

Do you have any experience with the standard paper in a a blurb book as I was creating my first book and it's around 200 pages (and there is a limit of 160 pages with premium paper). I'm not sure if I should trim the book down or go for standard printing? Appreciate the benefit of your experience here

Apologies for the off topic hijacking but as the blurb topic had come up I thought I should ask here

I've only ever used Premium paper, the logic being there's no point in not having the best result.

I have spoken to people who have used both, and they say that the Premium is distictly better quality. Rather a subjective statement I'm afraid, but I hope it helps.

Thanks John - I agree about best quality. There is a suggestion on the blurb web-site that they may soon be offering books with up to 300 pages so I will wait

In my agreement I insisted on premium!

We offer a Pre-wedding shoot so we get to know the couple and they get to know us. We can then prepare them for the day and we tell them that we are in charge and we have priority over all the shots. It is up to us whether we let Great Aunt Maud take photographs or not. The happy couple are happy to know that we are in charge of the day. Yes it is extra pressure on us but that's how we like it!


For a small modest book you are looking at 20 pages. You can usually get 6 images on a page. Extra pages can cost you £10 each. We charge the customer £30 per extra page.
So for a 20 page book you will get 120 images in.

Who have you decided to go with?

Paul

Ah, then I guess the books you are looking at aren't the books that I am looking at! I'm not talking about the company in Italy that I use.
All books I have used do not use paper even if it is premium. They use a stiff card type page.

I suggest going with John's suggestion. Sorry if I have confused things

Yep, Blurb it is.

Thanks again guys for all your help.

Incidentally, the second couple have pulled out. Seems she hadn't checked with him - he doesn't want a photographer at all!

But the first couple are very happy, and love the look of the Blurb book.

I'm going with two non-refundable retainers before the event and the balance on submission of low-res JPEGs. Followed by separate payments for the various extras, like the book.

I personally, have been asked to do a “cut price” wedding shoot, and I have great admiration for the guys who do it “Professionally” I would not do a wedding at any price, far to many things can and do go wrong, a couple of friends do it as a business and the amount of work that has to be done is not for me, and to be honest not worth the hassle, so this is one part of Photography that I leave to professionals, and another small point most pro’s are covered, or should be, by insurance (3rd party).

Good point - insurance - firstly you need to be covered by public liability and secondly photographer's insurance (changed since I did wedding photographs as I was doing film and bowel motions were irregular until the prints and negs arrived back in one piece, now you have to cover equipment failure more so...) - that insurance only covers disasters and not photographer error...

Darkmunk - best of luck with your enterprise

Exactly!!!

See people that shoot weddings even as amatuers need both insurance and most of all public liability.
Imagine a child running around and happens to trip over and break his ankle. The first one to get sued is the photographer.
I wouldn't ever do a wedding without it. My liabilty is set at £4million.

Hope that hasn't put you off at all

Paul

hmm... insurance - one of my pet hates.
Forgive my naivity
If I am not taking any studio lights or mains equipment, just wandering around with my camera, am I any more likely than anyone else to harm someone?
Surely they can sue who they like but unless someone was negligent or caused the accident the case will be thrown out?

I mean, I am much more likely to cause someone harm in my everyday life than when carefully going around taking pictures at a wedding? Why do I suddenly become more liable than anyone else? Does the law not take common sense into account?

There are some tricky questions there....I'd rather not find out the hard way.

Just imagine you put your camera bag down for a minute, move to re-arrange a group and then someone falls over your bag and breaks a leg. Unlikely? Maybe, but things like that do happen.

You're on the way to the venue and your car breaks down. You miss the wedding. How much to re-stage the event to take the photos?

The possibilities are endless, and will certainly never happen unless you have no insurance.

John is spot on there.

Here's a scenario and this happened to me;

I was at an event the other day taking photographs of a French band in a street. I was carrying 2 cameras one with a short lens and the other with a biggy. The large lens and camera were over my shoulder. I turned round and walloped a child in the face with the lens.

I apologised straight away and very luckily the mother knew it was an accident and didn't persue it.

This "could" of turned very nasty for me as I "could" of gotten sued for disfiguring a childs face.

See we live in a society much like America where people are sued for anything nowadays. To say that I was bricking it would of been an understatement. Yes I have public liability but its that initial shock.


All I say is, for a couple of hundred pound you could get the insurance, public liability and personal indemnity and total piece of mind!


Paul

I used to get asked to photograph weddings a lot and always refused.

With a normal pro job, it was a client and if anything went wrong, well you lose some business.

But with a friend's wedding, there's a much heavier responsibility. If things were to go wrong, you've upset friends and possibly lost a friendship.