The Wedding Profit Calculator

Enter what the job pays and what it costs. See what you actually keep.

This finds your floor — the number below which a booking loses you money. Your ceiling is set by your market: I wrote about how to read yours.

i.

The job

The full contract value — package, album, video, and add-ons combined.

ii.

The shooters

Who's holding the cameras, and what they cost. Leave any line at 0 if it doesn't apply.

Who shoots lead?
What you'd pay someone to do your job. Counting it keeps your margin honest — and survives the day you delegate.
iii.

Video

iv.

Post-production

v.

The albums

Every album in the package — the couple's, and one for each set of parents. Pick a type and the cost fills in; fine-tune it to your lab's numbers.

vi.

Everything else

Travel, permits, assistants, meals — the costs that hide in the margins.

vii.

The honest math

Optional — but this is where the truth lives. Add your fixed costs and your real hours to see what this wedding actually pays.

Insurance, gear, software, marketing, studio rent — what the business costs every month, even when you don't shoot.
All of it — shooting, editing, emails, gallery prep, travel. The whole wedding's worth of your life.
Read Your Number

Where healthy begins.

This is job-level margin — before overhead. Insurance, gear, software, marketing, and taxes take another 20–30 points after this. That's why 50% isn't ambition. It's the floor.

Below 40%
Losing Money

After overhead takes its share, there's nothing left — or worse. You're paying for the privilege of working.

40–50%
Danger Territory

Feels profitable on paper. It mostly isn't. One surprise cost and the job goes underwater.

50–65%
Market Healthy

The range a sustainable studio lives in. Everyone's paid — including the business.

Above 65%
Luxury Economics

Strong studio margins with room to reinvest, raise your ceiling, and say no to the wrong jobs.