How To Charge For Travel Costs For Wedding Photography
I recently moved my wedding photography business from Illinois to Colorado, and as I still had wedding inquiries coming in for Illinois, I was faced with a new question:
“How do I charge for travel costs for wedding photography?”
I totally get it, asking for MORE money on top of your usual wedding photography package can be extremely difficult sometimes, especially when it’s somewhere you really want to shoot. But you really need to factor travel into your overall package prices - sometimes, the cost of plane tickets, hotels, car rentals, and food can add up to be over half of your overall package price!
Because of this tricky situation, I’m sitting down to help you walk through how to figure out what you should be charging for travel, how to charge for travel, and ways you can save yourself and your clients some money!
Either have an estimated travel cost or a set travel cost for all weddings. For my travel, I usually give my brides an estimate on how much travel will cost based on location, time of year, etc, and state that the final price will be decided once everything is booked. I always estimate higher so I don’t ever give them the wrong impression and end up charging them more than they expected. Some people just decide on a lump sum they will charge for each wedding (usually somewhere between $500-$1000) - this is helpful because your brides will know exactly how much it will cost upfront.
Make travel cost clear in your contract. In my contract I explicitly state that travel cost will be determined and applied once bookings are placed. You want to make sure this is clear upfront so you don’t run into any trouble once the wedding day is getting closer.
Try to use the same airline. Using the same airline will allow to you rack up points or rewards - which you can use for personal travel like vacation, or business travel, like that workshop you’ve been eyeing for a while.
Make sure you take ALL travel costs into account. You aren’t just buying a plane ticket - you also will probably need a couple nights stay in a hotel, a rental car, GAS, and food for your trip - make sure you are thinking about all of these factors when you come up with your travel cost estimates.
Think about ways you can SAVE your brides money. I’m all about serving the client the best way possible, so I will try everything to ensure that I spend the least amount of excess money on travel. If I’m flying back to Illinois, I only charge for the flights and rental car, since I usually stay with a family member or friend. If you have a list of DREAM places you want to visit/photograph/vacation at, think about cutting down or completely cutting out travel costs for a short time for those specific places. This can also help you expand your business, especially if you are wanting to start more travel photography.
Charging for travel wedding photography can be tricky, but it’s a necessary part of business. You’ll also probably get the pleasure of having some SUPER awesome couples, since they love you and your work so much that they will pay to fly you to their wedding! Don’t be afraid of charging to help keep your business afloat :)
