Featured Post

Ask The Experts: Fantastic Flower Tips For Your Wedding
When it comes to weddings, the flowers have to be one of my favourite aspects....
18
Dec
2013
As a wedding supplier myself, one of my bug bear’s is when people say that suppliers add-on extra fees when they quote for a wedding opposed to a party. I hear this a lot and it always gets me in a tiz ever time I hear it. Some suppliers may do this and others may not, I guess it depends on what area of the wedding industry you are looking at. BUT if they do there is always good reason why.
Today I have invited DJ Mark van den Berg of Mighty Fine Entertainment to give you some in site into his world and why fees may differ from job to job.
A few months ago, you may have encountered a piece in the Daily Mail entitled “Great wedding rip off” based on “research” undertaken by Which?. The premise of the article was that a journalist was sent to ask various suppliers for quotes for a party. The chosen suppliers were then separately asked for quotes for a wedding with the same numbers etc. and the differences in price were recorded and reported.
It is easy, as a customer, to feel outraged over the discrepancies in party and wedding costs, particularly when, on the surface of things, the two jobs are the same. Or are they?
I can only speak for my own industry as an entertainer, but there are some major differences in cost and service that should be highlighted before wedding suppliers with different prices for parties and weddings are dismissed as opportunistic con artists.
(Photo by Jackson & Co Photography. Full wedding HERE)
(Photo by Jess Petrie. Full wedding HERE)
Breaking all of these factors down into financial investments, the hours put into a wedding vastly exceed those put into a party purely due to the nature of the event. I won’t bore you with the sums, but my net rate for 40 hours (the average amount of time spent on one wedding) of work is less than £20 per hour. Arguably a fair rate for a highly specialised job.
The key difference in the two prices is the level of service – weddings and parties have different needs, and catering to a wedding party’s needs takes more time and work. We’re not saying that there aren’t any charlatans out there, but in an industry that requires a standard of nothing less than perfection, you do get what you pay for.
So next time you see two different prices advertised for two services that look similar, ask your supplier what the different services include and why the prices are different. If they have priced themselves that way, we bet there will be a justification that will leave you happy and comfortable to leave the biggest day of your life in their hands.
(Photo by Philip Hearing. Full wedding HERE)
www.mfent.co.uk
FACEBOOK
@MightyFineEnt
Great article! I also get tired of hearing people complaining about unreasonable ‘wedding mark up’ without considering that weddings actually do involve so much more effort, time and resources than other events – and therefore genuinely do cost much more for a supplier to deliver.
Quite right! The amount of time required, as a photographer, to invest into a wedding is entirely different to a party. For a party I’ll probably chat on the phone to the client beforehand, send a couple of emails, attend the party for, say, four hours and then do a clean and straightforward edit, which probably takes another couple of hours
For a wedding, there’s so much more that goes into the time I invest in getting to know the couple, the pre wedding consultations, site visits, pre wedding shoot – and that’s even before the wedding day. On the day itself, I’l be there for maybe ten hours, maybe twelve, maybe more. The editing is a fine art process that will probably take up to a week to complete; and then there’s album design, meetings to help the client proof the images, and so on. And let’s not forget that the wedding day will doubtless include couple’s portraiture which requires additional lighting, equipment, editing time.
I bet I probably make more per hour from a party than a wedding! But, the time invested into a wedding day is wholly satisfying, particularly when the client is so enamoured with the result. I know which one I’d rather be doing, even if I end up earning less!
Again? They did it again? They had already published something similar (here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2342503/Wedding-couples-hit-extra-charges-venues-photographers-DJs-simply-getting-married.html). I agree with all that’s been said above. I had written a personal rant on the photography side of things on my blog as well, when the first article by Helen Lawson was published. I’m still puzzled at this.
Hi Martina,
It’s the same piece of “research”… I tried to contact Which? on a number of occassions but was met with “we’ve done our research and it’s right” attitude – obviously no reply from the editor either…
Wow, it’s baffling. One would think they’d know what they’re doing.
What a brilliant article! I own a wedding cake company and hear this old chestnut time and time again. Anything required for a wedding takes tenfold the amount of time, research and planning as any other celebration. For starters people booking birthday cakes don’t get 3 tasting consultations, design sketches, Pinterest boards, email updates, day before the event meetings and then delivery and set up on the day. People as a whole think the wedding industry is one big rip off but the moment we all dropped our prices (and our standard of work respectively) they’d be up in arms. You do most certainly get what you pay for. It’s just a shame people don’t see it like that :(
DJ’s stress level for a casual party= 1
DJ’s stress level for a formal wedding= 9
There are formalities to be announced, playlists to be created, pre-wedding planning consultations and nothing better go wrong or you’re gonna have one ticked off bride telling all her friends how bad you suck!
Great article! Thank you so much for breaking down the differences.
xo
Coco
Due to an email issue if you have emailed me between the 2nd & 9th of December, please resend it.
Have you tried our fabulous wedding directory?
discover more