Two questions:
How do you (or do you?) market toward the destination wedding? And,
I'm curious, how do you price for travel/destination weddings? Do you always have a set figure no matter what for destination wedding or do you find out all the specifics and then price specifically from there? I'd love to hear how you figure it out. I have a bride interested in booking me (I would need to fly) and I'm not sure where to begin.

Thanks!
Jen

I continually plant seeds with my current clients that I am willing to travel for their friends weddings. I haven't marketed toward the destination wedding market in particular, but I do travel for many of my weddings, based on my current location and where my demand is.

When I started out, I tried the thing where the client picks up the costs- or books the room and the airfare, but after a while I found that it was often a pain trying to coordinate those items with a bride and groom who already had way too much on their minds.

Now I have a set travel fee based on the distance. If the travel is within 100 miles of me- meaning that I can drive there and back without getting a hotel room, it's included in my costs. If the travel is between 100-250 miles and will still be within driving distance, but may require two hotel nights, I charge $300 (this may increase as gas prices increase.) If the location is beyond 250 miles, but still within the continental US and I will need to fly, rent a car, and have at least two hotel nights, than the fee is $800. These are the figures that I've determined work for me... it may be more or less for you. For clients who wish to take me out of the country, or off the mainland, I provide an estimate by putting together a package on Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, Orbitz.. etc. and then build in an extra $100-$200 for incidentals like parking fees, valet, taxes, etc. I then make sure that the money needed for travel is collected 90 days in advance so that I can provide my clients with my travel itinerary.

when i was in xtreme seminar with jessica/liana we went over this and jessica told us that she basicly has set fees for particular locations. she'll price how much hotels/airfare/expenses will be for say bermuda, hawaii, etc and each location will have a set fee. for example say it costs $400 for me to have airfare to hawaii, $200/night for hotel for two nights, plus $100 for food and car per day x2 if you want to bring a second shooter. so thats $1400 so your fee to travel to hawaii would be at least $1400.

in addition she has seperate package prices for destinations that i believe are twice her normal prices (because then she cant do a saturday and a sunday wedding)

hope this helps

If you go the flat-fee route based on location, be sure to set your fee for that location based on peak season fares. Travel to Bermuda in August is VERY different than travel to Bermuda in January. If you're not sure what is "peak season", call a travel agent; they'll tell you.

In terms of marketing to destination clients, I just hooked up with an exclusive Hawaiian wedding planner for '08 and I let all of my current clients know that I shoot everywhere

For NYC weddings, which is a common destination for my area, I add $1000 flat-rate to the package. For other places, when the client comes to me through a referral or my normal website, I add custom charges, usually $800-$2500. When you figure out pricing make sure that you add in hotel, car, cab, taxi, tolls, fees/permits, flight, train, tips, taxes, meals and time. Get on location before you think you need to and have enough in the budget for all unexpected expenses.

The Hawaiian wedding packages are flat rate and are completely different from the three packages on my website, as they include payment for all of the extra days that I am on the island.

Email me if you want to see the Hawaiian destination prices.

We end up traveling quite a bit as well, this year we'll be in Mexico, Hawaii, Colorado, Vegas, New York, Connecticut, and Arkansas, etc...

We always price out things according to the big five:

1. Airfare
2. Hotel
3. Rental Car
4. Food
5. TIME.

The 5th one is a biggie, yet few seem to factor that in. That's totally up to you, but particularly if you're driving long distances then that's time out of the office and lost productivity and you really need to factor those types of things in.

I would say our average traveling fee ranges from $1,000 to $1,500 on top of our normal package prices. If you're just breaking into a destination market, and the travel expenses are going to be a significant percentage of the package amount then you may want to make exceptions just to get those first few booked so you can have portfolio images on your site.

One little tip is always to book your own travel arrangements. You don't want to get stuck at a Motel 6 or on a red eye flight cause it saves the couple money. Charge what you need to charge to travel the way you feel most comfortable.

The key is finding a client who is willing to pay you a lot more than a photographer who is local to that destination. If you can do that, it's pretty much irrelevant what the actual extra cost is.

We customize every wedding via travel/hotel on Expedia, and then, of course, the normal price of our package on top of that. I don't charge for lost time, etc - I rarely shoot back-to-back weddings because I find it altogether too exhausting, and it's nice to have a Sunday away from editing photos, a nice chance to explore a new city, etc.

We have a spreadsheet that calculates the cost of gas for our Gulfstream V jet and pilot costs.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Shame on me!

Good thread though...

funny guy, you.. i was actually BELIEVING that as I first read through it!!

The real question is the gulfstream a hybrid like your cars??