Pricing out a Save The Date
 

How do those of you who do Save The Dates decide on a price.

We're torn between just charging a flat rate, or having it vary based on the breadth of the project and what the couples' desire are!

Also, do you just put it on a DVD for them to copy and mail out themselves, or do you handle that end of it as well? I'd imagine that affects the price.

We're thinking of just passing along one DVD of the Save The Date and then leaving it up to them to print out the proper number for their out of townies and mailing them out.

Thanks!

why not give options? have a basic price, and indicate what that gets them, then have other prices to add on for more shooting hours, longer edits, plot based etc.

as for the dvd why not have that as an option as well? basic pricing will get tehm one dvd to copy themselves, or they can have you do the duplication for $X per dvd.

The down side of having a client in charge of duplication is mistakes & screw ups. What if they burn at 16x and some DVD players for their family cannot play it? Then the family thinks the product is bad from your end.

Even though I just finished printing, burning, & lightscribing 44 discs for a HS graduation and it was a considerable hassle, I would still rather do this, than leave it up to a client because my reputation is at stake.

What kind prices are you guys setting for this? I'm thinking we should charge 1/3 of your normal wedding package..

What seems like a good approach would be to have a few StD shoots already planned & worked out (as in you have shot a few of these before Like Travis with his Save The Date). If the customer wants to basically shoot the same StD as an existing client's, except with them as the actors, then they get the lower cost option, because you've done this shoot before and should have worked out the kinks.

If they want to go crazy like mine did, then consider a higher price, possibly based on number of scenes / locations x number of minutes, etc.

Note, I have no solid plan here because I have yet to receive a paying customer for my StD shoot.

I wish I could help you figure out how to price a StD, but I have yet to sell one myself. I guess the best thing to do is to figure out how much you think it will cost, and then discount it slighty for marketing value. Every market is probably going to be different too. Whatever you do, though, don't sell yourself short. If you think it's worth $1,200, then maybe sell it for $950, but don't drop it to $600 or you're going to hate yourself later.

Thanks for all of the advice, everyone! I appreciate it...As we start trawling for '09 couples, we want to at least offer it...and if we get a bite, we wanna wanna know what to tell them, while still being fair!