Somewhere around a year out, most couples have three photography quotes open in three tabs: one for eight hours with a second shooter, one for ten hours with an album, one at an hourly rate with the editing extra. The question that follows is always the same. Which of these is our budget? The honest answer is none of them, yet. A quote is a price for one version of the day, from someone who would like to be chosen. A budget line is a decision. Treat the first as the second and the total starts to drift the day the next quote arrives.
First, a target for the category
Before comparing anything, give photography a number of its own: what you are prepared to spend on it, decided against the rest of the wedding rather than against the quotes. If the venue and the food have already taken their share, the target is part of what is left for the people, and the photographer is one of them. Write it down. It is the line the quotes are measured against, and it stays put until you decide to move it, ideally by taking the difference from another line.
Keep the quotes as quotes
Every quote goes into the budget the day it arrives, but as a quote: recorded, visible, and not counted. Three photographers at once should not make the wedding look three photographers more expensive, and they should not quietly collapse into one number either, the one you happen to remember. Until you have chosen, the committed total does not move.
Compare like for like
Make every quote answer the same five questions
Hours
Coverage from when to when. Eight hours that start at the ceremony miss the morning; ten that start at hair and makeup may not reach the first dance. A price per hour only means something once the hours are the same hours.
Edited images
How many, or roughly how many, and how long until delivery. A quote that promises “all the good ones” is a quote to ask a second question about.
A second shooter
Included, optional or not offered. It decides what is photographed from two places at the same moment, and it is often the largest difference between two prices.
Travel
Mileage, accommodation, a travel day. Often missing from the first figure and present on the invoice.
The album
Included, an extra, or a credit towards one. Prints and an engagement session belong on the same row.
Put the answers side by side and fill each gap with what the missing part would cost. A cheaper quote without a second shooter or an album is only cheaper if you were never going to have them. Once every quote is priced for the same day, the comparison is usually short.
A quote is a price for a version of the day. A budget line is the version you chose.
Then the one you choose becomes the number
When you book, the chosen quote becomes the photography line and the others go back to being quotes: kept, in case you need them, and not counted. Now hold the chosen number against the target. If it is over, decide in the same week where the difference comes from, while the reason is fresh. Pay the deposit, record it, and keep the contract with the line, so that in month eleven you know exactly what was agreed about hours and travel.
How this works in UNSTAGED
On the web, in the budget
Set the target
Type it into the Estimated column on the Photography row. Committed, beside it, counts only what you have decided on.
Add each quote as a quote
In the category, choose “Upload quote” and leave the document type on Quote. It is listed with the category's quotes, marked as not counted, and the committed total stays where it was. A row added by hand with “Add line item” counts straight away; switch its “In budget” toggle off to keep it as a quote.
Compare
Once the category has two rows with an amount, press Compare. Up to three options sit side by side, each with what it covers (full day, second shooter, engagement shoot, album) and the cheapest other row in the category filling anything it leaves out. What a quote covers is read from the uploaded document, or ticked by hand under Edit.
“Choose this one”
Puts that option, and any rows filling its gaps, into the budget, and sets the other compared options back to quotes. Rows that already have payments against them are never changed.
Attach the quote afterwards
Open the row with Edit and add the file in the Quote slot. A revised quote can go on the same row, so the first version stays with it. The contract has a slot of its own.
On iPhone, “+ QUOTE” in the budget saves a quote the same way, outside the committed total, and the budget shows how many quotes are pending a decision. On the vendor's page, “Add to budget” moves a quote in, “Remove from budget” takes it out again, and “Attach quote” adds the document after the fact. Logging the first deposit against a quote counts it too, since a deposit is a booking. The category's estimate and the side-by-side comparison are set on the web.
Quotes, the estimate and Compare all live in the budget in UNSTAGED.
Set the target before the quotes, keep the quotes as quotes, and let only the chosen one count. Three tabs become one number, and it is the right one.
— The UNSTAGED Studio
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