Ask a wedding vendor what they charge and you'll usually hear a number reverse-engineered from fear: a bit under whoever quoted last. The math that actually works runs the other direction. Minimum package = (annual overhead + target take-home income) ÷ weddings per year + per-wedding direct costs. A photographer with $10,000 of overhead, a $60,000 income target, 25 weddings, and $800 of direct costs per wedding needs at least $3,600 a wedding. Here's the formula, the overhead tables behind it, and worked examples for photographers, DJs, and coordinators.
Every solo wedding business has two kinds of costs. Overhead burns whether you book or not: insurance, software, gear amortization, marketing, accounting. Direct costs only exist when a wedding does: the second shooter, the album, the mileage. Your package price has to cover both plus the income you started the business to earn:
Price = (Overhead + Income) ÷ Weddings per year + Direct costs per wedding
The botch comes from three places. First, vendors price against the 8 hours of shooting instead of the 40 hours a wedding actually takes once editing, emails, and meetings count — that's how a $3,000 package quietly becomes $75 an hour before expenses. Second, they forget a business absorbs the insurance, software, and retirement a W-2 job used to carry. Third, they anchor on the cheapest listing in their market, which is usually a hobbyist with a spouse's health insurance and no gear to amortize. The result is the wedding industry's most common failure mode: a calendar that's full and a bank account that isn't.
Presets for photographers, videographers, DJs, planners, and coordinators — override overhead, income, volume, and hours with your real figures, and the calculator shows the floor plus the reality check.
Open the Wedding Vendor Pricing Calculator →Typical planning figures for a solo operation, by craft. Your accountant's numbers beat these; the point is that none of them are zero:
| Annual cost line | Photographer | Videographer | DJ | Full planner | Coordinator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance (liability + gear / E&O) | $1,000 | $1,000 | $800 | $1,200 | $900 |
| Software & subscriptions | $1,500 | $1,200 | $1,200 | $1,200 | $800 |
| Gear amortization | $4,000 | $5,000 | $2,300 | — | — |
| Website, marketing & shows | $2,500 | $2,500 | $2,000 | $3,000 | $2,300 |
| Accounting, contracts & education | $1,000 | $800 | $700 | $1,100 | $1,000 |
| Total | $10,000 | $10,500 | $7,000 | $6,500 | $5,000 |
Pair the totals with what each wedding really costs in time. Photographers put in about 40 hours per wedding (8 shooting, 32 editing and administering), videographers closer to 48, DJs about 12 once prep and setup count, full-service planners around 100 across the whole engagement, and month-of coordinators about 30. Capacity follows: 20-30 weddings a year for photo and video, 30-50 for DJs, 10-20 for full planners, 20-35 for coordinators — and in most US markets, two-thirds of those dates land between May and October, so capacity is really a question about Saturdays.
Solo photographer, $10,000 overhead, $60,000 target income, 25 weddings, $800 direct costs per wedding. Minimum = (10,000 + 60,000) ÷ 25 + 800 = $3,600. The reality check: 25 × $3,600 = $90,000 of revenue, minus $10,000 of overhead and $20,000 of direct costs, lands exactly on $60,000. Across 40 real hours per wedding, that's $90 an hour — which suddenly makes the couples-side average $3,000 package look like what it is: a working wage, not a windfall.
Now the uncomfortable half. The couples-side typical for a mid-size metro is $2,600. Charge that for 25 weddings and you net $65,000 − $10,000 − $20,000 = $35,000. That's $25,000 short of target, and only two levers close the gap: volume or price. At $2,600 you'd need 39 weddings a year — there aren't 39 premium Saturdays, and burnout would eat you before the calendar did. At 25 weddings you need the $3,600. This is the decision most vendors make by vibes; it's arithmetic.
Run the same math for a DJ — $7,000 overhead, $60,000 target, 40 weddings, $150 direct costs — and the minimum lands at $1,825, almost exactly the $1,800 couples-side national average. That's a well-set market: volume is high, hours per wedding are low, and the pricing holds up. DJs who push to 45 weddings a year can sustain at about $1,639.
Month-of coordination shows the other outcome. $5,000 overhead, $60,000 target, 30 weddings, $250 direct costs gives a $2,417 minimum — against a $1,700 market typical. At market price you'd need 45 weddings a year to clear $60,000, which nobody coordinates well. The honest conclusions: run coordination as a part-time lane, price it as an on-ramp while you build a full-service book (where $60,000 needs only 15 weddings at a $5,033 minimum), or move upmarket. The formula doesn't judge; it just refuses to let you pretend.
Couple-side research tells you what the market pays: about $3,000 for photography, $2,300 for video, $1,800 for a DJ, $3,800 for full-service planning. Vendor-side math tells you what you must charge. Use the bottom-up floor to stay solvent and the market range to check whether your floor is realistic where you work. When the floor sits above the market, something has to change — volume, costs, the offering, or the market itself. The vendor pricing calculator runs the floor; the couples-side photographer and DJ cost calculators show what your clients are comparing you against. Once the price is set, send it properly — the quote estimate builder and invoice generator handle the paperwork end.
Work bottom-up, not from what competitors charge. Minimum package = (annual overhead + target take-home income) ÷ weddings per year + per-wedding direct costs. A photographer with $10,000 overhead, a $60,000 income target, 25 weddings, and $800 of direct costs per wedding needs at least $3,600 a wedding. Only after you know your floor should you check the market — pricing below the floor means the year costs you money no matter how booked you are.
Three recurring mistakes. Pricing against the 8 shoot hours instead of the 30-50 hours each wedding actually takes once editing, emails, and meetings count. Forgetting that a solo business carries the insurance, software, gear, and retirement a W-2 job absorbs. And anchoring on the cheapest competitor, who is usually a hobbyist with a different cost structure. The result is a calendar that's full and a bank account that isn't.
Typical solo-operation planning figures run $5,000-$10,500 a year: liability and gear or E&O insurance ($800-$1,500), software and subscriptions such as editing suites, galleries, and a CRM ($800-$1,500), gear amortization ($2,300-$5,000 for photo and video; DJs amortize sound and lighting), website, marketing, and bridal shows ($2,000-$3,000), and accounting, contracts, and education ($700-$1,100). Planners skip gear but spend more on marketing.
Working norms: photographers and videographers 20-30 (each wedding carries 30-50 hours of editing), DJs 30-50 (10-15 hours per booking once prep and setup count), full-service planners 10-20 (about 100 hours per wedding across the engagement), month-of coordinators 20-35 (about 30 hours each). Two-thirds of the season lands May through October in most US markets, which is why capacity is really a question about Saturdays.
Raise when demand outruns capacity: booked out 12 months, inquiries you're declining, or a reality check that shows revenue minus overhead minus direct costs falling short of your income target. The classic move is raising the newest, least-differentiated package first and keeping a smaller entry option for the bookings that fill slow months. A vendor who raises 10% and loses 10% of bookings earns the same for less work.
Couple-side research tells you what the market pays — an average $3,000 for photography, $2,300 for video, $1,800 for a DJ. Vendor-side math tells you what you must charge. You need both: the bottom-up floor keeps you solvent, and the market range tells you whether your floor is realistic where you work. When the floor sits above the market, the fix is volume, leaner costs, a richer offering, or a different market — not hope.