So, after my most successful (busiest) wedding season, I've come to the end of the year where I analyze my experiences. Put simply, my $500 weddings are a hell of a lot more fun, and of course much simpler than my $5000 weddings.

I'm seriously considering only offering $500 weddings next year! I live in a rather urban/agriculture/country environment, but am only about an hour from a city of about 300K people so I do get some business from that region.

Here is my thought. I've proven that I can shoot the $5000 weddings this year, offer the high end components, and have happy clients that love their photography. BUT, It seems like I work 10X as hard for every dollar with these weddings as I do for the simple $500 wedding. (Which would make since, because they pay 10X as much...) Here is what I'm discovering though. The couples that pay the larger amounts act like they own you. They call constantly and assume you have no other clients but them...(which I work hard to let them feel like they are my only concern in my life)...but of course they are not.

My $500 clients think I'm the greatest gift to man...which I'm not, but they are extremely grateful to acquire my (upscale photography talents - their words, not mine) service and are remarkably more fun during their weddings - which translates into better candid images. Of course I'm only there for 4 hours, and by the following day all their images are uploaded online for their family and friends to view and place orders from...So I usually make another $300- $500 in print orders that are handled for me through a third party vendor. (pictage). If they want to purchase a CD/DVD of their images for making prints then I charge $495 right away, or if they are willing to wait till JAN/FEB I offer a 50% off deal (my slow season). Many do wait till then for the better deal, and I often still make many of my print sales in the mean time.

Long story short, during the ($500 wedding) I work approx. 10-12 hours between the wedding, processing and uploading their images, and make about $1200 average per event when it's all said and done. The only expenses are for my travel, time, and equipment maintenance. My $5000 are just that...it includes an allowance to put towards products I offer, and often can take over 100 hours by the time I design, assemble albums and other products. Per hour I make much less...and they usually don't need to buy anything further.

Does it makes sense to pursue the big $$ weddings, when I enjoy the smaller $ weddings more, and even make more profit most of the time per hour? It seems like the pursuit of the $10K weddings would require a level of effort that may or may not be profitable - despite the large price tag.