The short answer
Price wedding photography packages from your own costs, not from someone else's price list: add up the cost of one shoot day (crew, travel, equipment) and the cost of each booking (editing, album, storage and delivery), add the margin you need, then build three package tiers and a short list of add-ons. Put that into a rate card in Picsora Studio CRM, so every quotation uses the same prices and you can see what each booking actually earned.
Why a method beats a copied price list
Two studios can charge the same price and earn very different profits. One pays freelancers more, travels further, or prints heavier albums. If you copy a price without knowing your own costs, you may be losing money on every multi-day wedding without noticing, because the advance hides it until the album bills arrive. A method also makes you confident on the call. When a family asks for a discount, you know exactly how much room you have and which add-on you can drop instead.
Step 1: Work out your cost per shoot day
List everything a single shoot day costs you, even the parts you do yourself.
- Crew: your own day rate plus every photographer, cinematographer and assistant on that day
- Travel and food for the team, including outstation days for destination weddings
- Equipment: rentals, plus a share of wear and repairs on your own gear
- Drone operator and permissions, only if you offer drone coverage
Step 2: Add the costs of each booking
Some costs come once per booking, not per day. These are easy to forget and they are often the biggest.
- Photo editing and colour work, in-house or outsourced
- Film editing: highlight film, full film, teaser or reel
- Album design and printing
- Storage and online delivery of photos to the couple and guests
- Your time on calls, quotations, client selection and revisions
A worked example: a 2-day wedding package
Here is the full method on one package. Every number below is an example to show the calculation, not a market rate. Use your own figures.
| Item | Basis | Example cost |
|---|---|---|
| Lead photographer (your day rate) | ₹8,000 x 2 days | ₹16,000 |
| Second photographer | ₹5,000 x 2 days | ₹10,000 |
| Cinematographer | ₹6,000 x 2 days | ₹12,000 |
| Assistant | ₹2,000 x 2 days | ₹4,000 |
| Travel and food | ₹3,000 x 2 days | ₹6,000 |
| Equipment wear and rental | ₹2,000 x 2 days | ₹4,000 |
| Photo editing | Per booking | ₹8,000 |
| Film editing | Per booking | ₹15,000 |
| Album design and printing | Per booking | ₹12,000 |
| Storage and online delivery | Share of your yearly plan | ₹1,000 |
| Total cost | ₹88,000 | |
| Price at 35% target margin | ₹88,000 ÷ 0.65 = ₹1,35,385 | Round to ₹1,40,000 |
| Profit | ₹1,40,000 - ₹88,000 | ₹52,000 (about 37%) |
Example only. All amounts are illustrations of the method, not suggested prices or market data.
Step 3: Add your margin the right way
Margin is profit as a share of the price, not a markup on cost. To get a 35% margin, divide your cost by 0.65, not multiply it by 1.35. On the example above, multiplying by 1.35 would give about ₹1,18,800 and a margin closer to 26%. Pick a margin that covers your slow months, marketing, software and savings for new gear. Then round to a clean number the family can remember.
Step 4: Build three package tiers and a few add-ons
Three tiers make choosing easy: one entry option, one you expect most couples to take, and one premium. Build each tier from the same per-day and per-booking costs, so every tier has a real margin.
| Tier (example) | Coverage | Deliverables | Example price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | 1 day, 2 photographers | Edited photos, online gallery | ₹75,000 |
| Signature | 2 days, 2 photographers + 1 cinematographer | Edited photos, album, highlight film, online gallery | ₹1,40,000 |
| Grand | 3 days, full photo and film team, drone if offered | Edited photos, 2 albums, highlight + full film, teaser, online gallery | ₹2,40,000 |
Example tiers and prices only. Work out each tier from your own costs using the method above.
Add-ons and advance
Add-ons let the family customise without you discounting the package. Price each one from its own cost plus margin. Common add-ons are an extra function day, a pre-wedding shoot, an extra album, a same-day teaser, drone coverage if you offer it, and extra hours beyond the quoted coverage. Then fix your payment schedule. One example: 30% advance to block the date, 40% before the first function and 30% on delivery. Write it into every quotation, as shown in our photography quotation format guide.
Turn your prices into a rate card and quotations in Picsora
Once the numbers are worked out, put them in one place so nobody quotes from memory.
- Set up your packages, per-day coverage and add-ons as a rate card in Studio CRM
- Build each quotation from the rate card and send it as a branded PDF on WhatsApp, in 6 designs and 12 colour themes
- Turn an accepted quote into a multi-day booking in one click, and assign crew per day with clash warnings
- Track advances and instalments, and log expenses like freelancers, travel and albums against the booking
- Use revenue and profit reports to check whether real bookings match the margin you planned
Review every season, and price your next package with Picsora
Your costs change: freelancer rates go up, album suppliers change, and destination weddings add travel. After each season, compare what bookings actually cost with your rate card and adjust. Our guides to expense tracking and revenue reporting and crew payouts show how to keep those numbers honest. On the delivery side, an AI Gallery plan is one yearly storage-based price (Mini ₹4,499/yr for 50 GB), which makes the storage line easy to spread across bookings. Work through the method once with your real costs, set up the rate card, and send your next quotation from it. Studio CRM's free plan covers 5 leads, 5 quotations and 5 bookings, so you can test your new prices on real enquiries. Start with the free trial.
Quick answers
How do I calculate the price of a wedding photography package?
Add your cost per shoot day (crew, travel, equipment) times the number of days, add per-booking costs (editing, album, storage and delivery), then divide by one minus your target margin. Picsora Studio CRM stores the result as a rate card so every quotation uses the same prices.
How many packages should a wedding photographer offer?
Three tiers usually work best: an entry package, a main package and a premium one, plus a short list of add-ons. In Picsora Studio CRM you keep the tiers and add-ons in your rate card and pick them when building a quotation.
How much advance should I take for a wedding booking?
Choose a schedule that covers your early costs and blocks the date, for example 30% to book, 40% before the first function and 30% on delivery. Picsora Studio CRM tracks advances and instalments and sends payment reminders on WhatsApp.
How do I know if my wedding packages are profitable?
Compare what each booking really cost with what it earned. Picsora Studio CRM lets you log expenses against bookings and shows revenue and profit reports, so you can see which packages work.
