I do weddings part time, and I have enjoyed alot of success for me, doing around 16 weddings a year at 1500.00 for the full package. This year I slightly changed my brochure, offering H.D with my price being 2000.00. I only have 4 weds booked, and the phone isnt ringing. I live in the reno nv area, which really isnt that big, but I thought I'd pick up more work from the faire i attend, but Im not getting much action at all. It seems that noone wants to spend any money. Last year I got a 3 hundred dollar tip, this year noones asking about H.D, their only trying to low ball me, and the quality of my work has only improved. Anyone else experiencing this, or do I need to recheck myself. Is the differtence between 1500 and 2000 that substantial, I did not think so, but instead of getting free hotel rooms thrown in for free, and getting told how great I am, Im getting ignored and its really working my ego over!!
Thanks everyone

I can't agree more with the sticker shock. I've ben told many times to double my prices, but you just can't do that when you have brides recommending you. Part of that recommendation is how great the product was for the price. The same can be said for a $5000 video as well as a $1500. Each bride feels like they got their money's worth. I was going to raise my prices by $300 this year but I think I might only go $100. I'm in this for the long haul. No point in burning my referral base.

As far as advertising HD, I don't think it really has any real effect on bookings. Maybe a nice HD demo on Blu-Ray disc would help...but then again, how many brides have Blu-Ray players at this point??

In Reply To

Hey Uncle Rusty ... When do you think we'll be able to start charging a premium for HD over SD so's we can make some money back on the investment? Maybe when 50% of the clients have HD TVs?

These figures don't look good:

"Consumer expectations in America have plummeted to their lowest level since the Watergate crisis and the oil embargo in 1973 ... The most shocking data was for the "Expectations Index". It crashed to a level last seen in December 1973 ...
"People are faced with rising gasoline and food prices, and the credit crunch has made it much harder to get a home equity loan."
Americans have scant reserves to tide them through.
The savings rate fell below zero last year for the first time since the 1930s and mortgage debt is now greater than total home equity for the first time ever."

"A separate report from the Conference Board said that consumer confidence dropped to 64.5 in March from a revised 76.4 in February. The reading was far below the 73.0 expected by analysts."

"A year-on-year ten percent drop in home prices is a huge hit to the net worth of home-owning Americans. Forget about the economic stimulus checks due in May -- nothing is more likely to convince the American consumer to cut back on spending, pay off their credit car bills, and put off buying that new car or HD flat screen than the sense that the value of their home is declining."

Nothing will hurt the economy worse than a bunch of whinny people foretelling doom and gloom and convincing people that a dire result is inevitable, so you don't even need to try.

It only takes one Idiot to offer the same quality product at a cheaper price to spoil it for everyone else. That is the nature of Business. These Idiots will always be around. Typically they get overwhelmed and can not handle the increase, there quality will suffer and they will be forced to reestablish or lets hope disappear. It may take a little time, but they will go under. So you need to hang in there and maintain your business, look for other ways of creating income. When the dust settles the ones who maintain there quality and service will survive. You can not possibly maintain the quality of a wedding video if other people are editing and shooting, it is to personal and creative. Then what are you selling? A generic assembly line of wedding video's. Sorry my clients want my attention and creative input throughout the entire process. As a industry we need to raise our prices and prove to our clients the value of our work. $1995. $1999. what the heck are you selling a camcoder? It may take sometime but the Idiots will be wedded out and finally the value of our work will rise above the cost of photography.
So let it be written, So let it be done...

In Reply To

Even greater bull shite!!
The only 'idiot' is someone calling anyone else an 'idiot' simply because they offer a similar product at a better price! Do you look for the higest price supplier of a particular camera or deck or tripod or light or mike because anyone else offering the identical cam cheaper must be an idiot!??? Do you look for the higest priced gas cause the rest must be idiots!??
Wow, You win the dumbest post of the month, congratulations.
You are totally clueless if that is your spin on the 'nature of business'
You must have been doing something else when in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade they talked about supply and demand and the very basis of all free enterprise called "Competition"
The other method is called 'price fixing' and is outlawed for good reason.

Gee sport, before you call me and everyone that happens to be lower priced than you "idiots" why don't you correct the multitude of spelling errors on your web site along with the basket full of grammatical errors also.
Then you can come back and back and try again to tell us how smart you are.