- Hey guys, my name is Matt Johnson.
And one of the most common questions I receive
from new filmmakers is,
how much should I charge for my first wedding video?
You're asking me this because a friend
or family member saw that you own a camera and said,
hey, I'm getting married,
will you film it?
To what you said, sure.
How hard could it be?
Then they asked you how much you charge?
And you said, I'll let you know.
Then you went to YouTube,
typed in, how much should you charge to film a wedding?
And here you are.
And you're in luck.
Today, I'm going to answer that question for you.
I filmed my first wedding in 2010.
Yes, I've been filming weddings for over a decade,
possibly just like you,
I was in college.
A girl I knew in one of my classes was engaged,
and she knew that I had a camera and made videos.
She asked me to film her wedding.
And whenever she asked what I would charge to do it,
I said, I've never filmed a wedding before,
I'll do the best that I can.
How does $500 sound?
You're now thinking great.
Matt said he charged $500 for his first wedding,
I'll charge $500 too.
Well, hold on just a second.
That $500 number isn't actually that important.
But here's what it is.
Wedding films, just like photography, painting, sculpture,
basically any art,
where you're being paid to make something for someone else,
more important than the price you charge,
is the expectation that you're setting for your client.
If someone hired Picasso to paint a painting,
you better believe they're expecting
to receive a Picasso-quality painting
that is as good his other work.
And if a couple hires you to film their wedding,
they expect you to make them a wedding video,
but because this is your first wedding,
this couple doesn't have a portfolio of wedding videos
that you've made, to know what to expect.
You're now thinking great, Matt,
I know that I don't have a portfolio of wedding films
to show my couples.
How do I set their expectations for what they're getting?
And what the heck does that have to do
with what I should charge?
Here's your answer.
A couple's expectations
are directly related to the price the you charge.
When I filmed that first wedding in 2010,
the couple had a healthy wedding budget,
with a beautiful ceremony venue,
nice reception hall,
and I guarantee you
that their photographer charged multiple thousands
of dollars more than me.
I would bet too that if I told that bride
that I wanted to charge her 2000 to $3,000
or more to film her wedding,
she probably would have had room in her budget
to pay me that.
But remember, expectations are directly related to price.
If I told that couple that I was gonna charge them $3,000
to film their wedding,
they could have looked at other videographers work
that charged $3,000,
and expected, oh, we'll probably get a wedding film
that looks something like this.
Instead, I did the opposite.
I told them that I was brand new to filming weddings,
and I charged them low.
And that's exactly what I would recommend
that you do too for your first wedding.
Now, you may be thinking Matt,
I can knock this wedding out of the park.
I've seen $3,000 wedding videos that don't look that good.
I bet I could do better.
Talk to any wedding videographer,
a lot of us start out believing that.
Filming a wedding may sound easy to you,
but watch any of my wedding filmmaking,
behind the scenes videos,
if you want that illusion to be broken very quickly.
Whatever can go wrong on a wedding day will go wrong.
And if you don't have the filmmaking experience
to know how to handle when the poop hits the fan,
you're going to be in trouble.
You should set your couples expectations low.
And because the expectations are tied to the price,
you should charge low too.
How low?
Well, for me, I charge $500 to a couple
that could probably have easily afforded six times
or more that amount.
For you, it may need to be lower.
How does free sound?
If you don't charge your first couple any money at all,
that's okay.
By charging low or free,
you'll be free from a couple's expectations
of what their wedding film should be.
You probably won't be making a film
that looks as good as something that a videographer,
that charges two or $3,000 could make, but that's okay,
because you charged much lower than them.
This couple won't expect as much,
which is gonna give you a safe environment to learn,
as you film your first wedding.
Plus, if you do end up making them
a really awesome-looking film,
it's gonna completely blow them out of the water
because they weren't expecting much.
Let's look to the future now.
You're probably thinking, Matt,
I want to turn wedding filmmaking into a business.
How do I do that if I'm charging free
or basically free for a wedding film?
It's time to change your perspective.
More important than you making money
with your first wedding film,
your focus should be on starting
to build a portfolio of work
that you can show to future couples.
If you film your first wedding for free,
and you make a couple of great film that you're proud of,
you are now gonna have a film in your portfolio
that you can show to the next couple
that reaches out to you.
You now have proof of your talent
and capabilities in this first wedding film.
And you can now show it to your next couple
that wants you to film their wedding,
and they're going to want to spend more money on you.
So, don't try to charge a lot for your first wedding film.
Remember, a couple's expectations
are tied to the price you charge.
So, it's a good idea to set your price low.
Focus on learning, gaining experience,
and starting to build a portfolio
that you can use to charge more
for your future wedding films.
Now, if you've reached this part of the video,
you're probably wondering, what are the next steps?
You know, you need to start building your portfolio
and charging more money,
but there are a lot of unanswered questions.
How do you turn filming your first wedding
into a sustainable business?
How do you set your prices in a way
to actually start making a profit?
When do you raise your prices?
And how much should you raise them?
I've created a course called,
Learn wedding film pricing,
that's gonna answer all these questions, and more.
This course is gonna show you a proven method
to price your wedding films,
that has worked for me
for over a decade.
You can check out learn wedding film pricing,
at Learnweddingfilmpricing.com,
or the link down in the video description.
Also, if you want to book more couples,
which is an essential part
of building a successful wedding filmmaking business,
I've created a free guide
that's gonna give you some practical steps
that you can take right now in your business
to start booking more couples.
It's a free gift to you.
You can download it
at the link down in the video description.
Thanks so much for watching.
Please like this video and subscribe,
if you wanna see more videos like this in the future,
and have a great day.