Wedding photographers: the 8-hour wedding is a 40-hour job. Free, no signup.
Editing is the silent killer. Most full-day weddings need 20 to 40 hours of culling, color work, and gallery delivery. Time yourself on your last one and enter the real number.
Overhead covers gear replacement, software, insurance, marketing, and taxes admin. Planning estimates only.
Set your bar first: the minimum dollars per hour you will work for ($100 default). This tool counts every hour, not just wedding-day hours, and the note warns that editing is the silent killer: most full-day weddings need 20 to 40 hours of culling, color work, and gallery delivery, so time your last wedding and enter the real number. Fill the package card: package price, coverage hours, editing hours, unpaid hours (consults, timeline, travel on the day), and engagement session hours including its editing. In job costs enter second shooter pay, album and print out-of-pocket, travel, other costs (assistant, rentals, insurance share), and business overhead per wedding, which is your yearly overhead divided by weddings per year. Results show a line-item breakdown, true total hours with an invisible hours line for everything not on the wedding day, your true hourly rate, and a verdict: PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE BUT LEAKING, or UNDERPRICED, each with the exact dollar raise needed to hit your rate. The bookings planner shows weddings per year needed at this price for your income goal.
Example only, not typical pricing. $2,500 package against a $100 bar: 8 coverage + 30 editing + 4 unpaid + 3 engagement = 45 real hours, of which 37 are invisible hours not on the wedding day. Costs of $1,000 (second shooter $400, album $150, travel $100, other $50, overhead $300) leave $1,500 kept, so the true rate is $33.33 per hour: UNDERPRICED, needing $5,500 to hit the bar (100 x 45 + 1,000). A $60,000 yearly goal needs 40 weddings at $1,500 kept each.
**Why do wedding packages underprice so consistently?** Photographers quote the 8 coverage hours and forget the 20 to 40 editing hours plus consults and travel. This tool puts editing hours front and center because that line is what turns a profitable package into a $33 per hour job.
**What goes into overhead per wedding?** Gear replacement, software, insurance, marketing, and tax admin for the year, divided by your weddings per year. It is a per-wedding share of costs that exist whether you shoot or not.
**Should I count the engagement session?** Yes, including its editing. If it is baked into the package price, it is part of the job, and it often adds 3 or more hours nobody prices in.
**What is the invisible hours line for?** It is everything not on the wedding day: editing, consults, timeline work, travel. Clients buy the gallery, not the wedding day, and most of your real hours live in that line.
**Is this a pricing recommendation?** No, it is a reality check against your own bar. Enter your own numbers; the tool only tells you what rate your price actually pays.