You have a large number of wedding photographers in Roanoke and the Roanoke Valley to choose from, ranging from just a few hundred bucks to upwards of $10,000!

But what’s the best to choose, is it based on price, experience, or quality?

Today, we’ll give you some answers and insights into the local wedding photography industry.

How Many Wedding Photographers are in Our Region?

While no one has an exact number, we do have some generalized baselines from a few sources. According to Roanoke City, there are 78 business licenses with photography in mind, although not all 78 do weddings, at least not exclusively. Roanoke County, Franklin County and Bedford, you have another 80-85, the number varies from time to time.

Now,that doesn’t include other regions like Floyd, The New River Valley, Craig and Botetourt counties, but it’s safe to say that we have a lot in our region.

Don’t Ask Others How Much They Spent and Here’s Why

Asking others what they spent on wedding photography is like asking how much they spent on a car or a house, honestly, it's going to be different for every couple and that’s because every couple’s budget is different.

Most larger websites like Wedding Wire and the Knot explain that you should spend a range not a flat amount for your wedding vendors and that’s true.

According to Wedding Wire, spending about 12% of your budget seems to be average for most, the Knot says closer to 10% but that’s a great range to start with.

That means 10-12% of your overall wedding budget should be spent on wedding photography. If you have a $10,000 budget, $1,000-$1,200 should be your target.

If you have a $25,000 wedding, then $2,500-$3,000 is your key target.

If you don’t know how much you’re overall wedding budget is, you need to head back to square one and use our online wedding budget tool.

The key is not to overspend on services.

Many times wedding photographers will draw you in by the emotion of what they offer rather than your budget.

I’ve seen couples spend $3,600 on a wedding photographer when they truly should have spent closer to $1,900 for someone that could do equally as good work. I’ve also seen couples spend $500 when they should have spent closer to $1,500.

Most wedding photographers hate when I educate couples about the business because they feel like it will hurt getting the most return from a couple.

Truth be told, I’m not in the business to be part of some club or click, I’m in the wedding business because I love doing what I do and I’d rather couples make great educated decisions about what they do rather than emotional ones they truly can’t afford.

If you visited the online budget tool and have an idea, you can input that into the app below and get your range.

Okay, I have a budget in mind, now what should I look for in a wedding photographer?

Once you have that range, you can start to narrow your search by doing online Google searches for them.

You can start with a couple of great queries that include:

You’ll see a great start to various wedding photographers.

You can also try using our local Facebook Wedding Group in order to do a search.

If you do, be specific in your query.

For example, don’t say something like this:

“Looking for a wedding photographer for my wedding next Spring.”

Use something like this:

“Looking for a wedding photographer in the $1,400-$1,700 range for my wedding on March 21st, 2022 at the Patrick Henry in Roanoke".

Immediately, you will have criteria to narrow down and you should get some good results to follow up with too.

What key elements should we look for when booking a wedding photographer in Roanoke or SWVA?

First, you want someone with a good amount of experience under their belts. Someone with two years' experience will be better than someone with 1 year and someone with 30 years' experience will be much better than someone with 10 years.

Wedding Photographers in Roanoke VA

Experience, the Mistakes they make and Pricing

Why do you ask?

Because the more experience they have, the less likely you’ll have any problems plus when an issue comes up, the more experience usually means the better they can handle the situation at hand.

Experience is not the only key you should look for either.

You want to find someone with a positive attitude that will be friendly and happy to work with.

No one wants to work with a sourpuss or someone with a bad attitude on their wedding day.

That doesn’t mean they should ‘act’ like they’re your best friend, TRUST me, I’ve seen many wedding photographers that try to treat their clients like they’re BFF’s because they spent $4,000 to hire them.

You want someone professional that can capture those moments, not be apart of them on the dance floor.

“I remember filming a wedding in Blacksburg where the wedding photographer was dancing on the reception floor, grinding up on people like it was some sort of night club, it wasn’t professional and many guests seemed to be turned off by it, all the while the photographer couple didn’t realize this.” (That’s where experience again comes into play)

Finally, you want to find someone that makes great, clear, clean images.

They don’t have to be over the top, but they need to be good with a few things to keep in mind.

Images that are in focus
Images that are not blurry
Photos that are well lit and easy to see

Part of that is the gear they have if they are using manual mode or automatic and their experience behind the camera. You want to hire someone that will take the camera out of the automatic settings and work in manual mode and that’s hard to find.

Is there anything we should look out for when booking a Roanoke wedding photographer?

Generally speaking, no.

There are several groups or clicks of photographers that band together, you have closed-door politics, there are a few that are arrogant and act like they’re better than everyone else and there are a few in the business that simply doesn’t practice good business in general.

However, most photographers, roughly 90% truly love the craft of taking photographs.

We also recommend that you do the two following things when researching them.