So you dipped your toes into wedding photography and absolutely loved it. Maybe you’ve been second shooting for a while and you want to start your own wedding photography business. Maybe you just shot your first solo wedding and now you are hooked. Maybe you’re just flirting with the idea. Either way, I bet you NEVER knew these things about being a wedding photographer.
25+ things nobody tells you about being a wedding photographer, by Nadia Meli
Wedding photography is high up there on the list of very rewarding jobs. It’s fun, interesting and a happy job!
Yet there are some realities that most people don’t openly talk about and that might surprise you! If you are determined to go into wedding photography, it’s important to have a full picture of something you are going to spend a lot of years doing.
Having been in the wedding photography industry for 10 years brought a lot of new experiences into my life. Some of these might help you get a better idea of what it’s like to shoot weddings for a living. To gain even more perspective, I asked other photographers to share their own insights, and I’ve got it here - the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly
25 + surprising things about being a wedding photographer:
Your calendar will be booked out a year in advance, which means your time will sometimes feel like it’s not “yours” any longer. It can be quite scary having to plan a year ahead without knowing what will happen in your own life in that time.
You will miss out on a lot of social life: BBQ’s, friends’ weddings, family gatherings, hangouts, birthday parties all happen on the weekends and you’re not always going to be there. Make sure to plan quality time with your loved ones whenever you get a chance to.
You will have night dreams about weddings a lot - especially the day before a wedding (that one is usually a nightmare of some kind).
Everything around you is beautiful: the venues, people, places, decorations - and a source of inspiration.
The amount of money spent on memory cards and backup systems will make your eyes water.
Equally, the amount of money spent on lenses, bags, and insurance.
The perfect wedding shoes (comfy and stylish) are hard to find - when you do, buy them in bulk!
On the job, you are constantly surrounded by happy and excited people - who else can say the same about their job?
You get to travel, which is both fun and hard - but an incredible opportunity to see beautiful places!
The perfect camera bag doesn’t exist and yet you’ll spend years trying to find it.
Being a wedding photographer is really hard on your body. Take good care of it with food and movement. The day after shooting a wedding you’re going to feel like someone dragged you through a hedge. By your hair. On average you’ll walk 10k on a wedding day!
If you book back-to-back weddings (which you probably shouldn’t, but it happens to everyone at some point) you might end up only sleeping 2 hours in between those.
You are in control of your work schedule. Usually, you’re out shooting weddings only 1-3 days weekly. The rest of the week you can do what you please - edit, build your business, search for inspiration, or simply rest.
Drunk wedding guests love to hit on the photographer.
You will eat a lot of fast food while being on the road - make up for it during the times you are at home.
Your brides will often become your friends. This is one of the best experiences ever.
You get to work as part of a team with other vendors on a wedding day - which is a great way to mix up self-employed life.
If you want children, you might need to plan having them around wedding season. Good luck!
You will add many many new love songs to your Spotify playlist!
The wedding photography community is an incredibly tight-knit and a helpful one, we have each other’s backs!
No matter how tired you are after a wedding, nothing beats the thrill of saving those files and looking at them immediately. At midnight, in your hotel room.
You will have a supply of photos of you working - made by wedding guests!
Nobody really tells you this, but you probably won’t be a wedding photographer until retirement! Plan ahead, because this job has an expiry date (which is different for everyone): what other skills and passions can you explore? What other businesses and careers can you consider for the future?
Being a wedding photographer is the best bladder training there is. 8 hours and counting without going to the bathroom.
You will be a professional at getting brides into dresses, fixing veils, and calming everyone’s nerves.
You get really good at anticipating situations, events, and people’s emotions. A great life and business skill right here!
This one might surprise you: you will fall in love with LOVE more. Having a weekly reminder of why people make their love public is a beautiful side effect of this job.
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You can count yourself really lucky if you are a wedding photographer. It’s a big colourful mix of skills, events, places and people. Like any other job in the world it has its good and bad parts and you have to be aware of both.
In the end, it’s all about how much you love the good parts.