vegas weddings?

[dan_rosenberg1]

<p>Does anyone have any experience working for a Vegas wedding chapel? It's a volume gig at $50 per 15 minute wedding. On the surface is sounds kinda fun but what is it like and is it worth doing. I've done about 60 regular weddings but this would be different. Any thoughts? Dan R</p>

[fotografz]

<p>Depends on how much you need the money. $50. per 15 minutes may be misleading ... how much time will you really spend per wedding? What happens after you shoot the 15 minutes? Who processes the pics, and deals with the customer? Can you sell prints afterwards?</p>

<p>It is more likely that you'll do 2 per hour ... so the question is: does $800. for an 8 hour day sound good to you? </p>

<p>A "puppy mill" approach to shooting doesn't sound like fun to me at all ... especially at the same place over and over... but that's me. </p>

[ted_suss]

<p>Dan,<br>

Do you live in Vegas? This is something that's typically provided through the chapel, so you're working for the chapel on an onging basis. You also need to be able to print and deliver and album almost immediately.</p>

[melissapapajphotography]

<p>I would get so incredibly bored with it and feel like it is work and not fun anymore. I do my job because I love what I do :)</p>

[craig_gillette]

<p>Given the job market in Las Vegas, $800 for an 8 hour day is going to sound good to a lot of people. The devil's in the details. You'd need to get the specifics from the chapel as to what you're actually doing and the deliverables, time frames, etc. how many you'd expect to be doing, how often, etc. steady work that's reliable and pays the bills could allow enough side time to be an artist and not starve.</p>

[ejder]

<p>Never worked for them, but I live in Vegas so I have seen them many times. If it's one of the econo-chapels like the many lining the Strip around north or south ends, then most of them are very limited in aesthetics and the staff really just want people in and out. I don't believe it is terribly moral work, but I would probably work for that kind of pay if there was no required processing or take-home work.</p>

<p>I don't think many of the nicer resort chapel businesses (Cashman etc.) even pay that well. more like 30-50/hr?</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>If the choice is between doing this and waiting tables while you wait for better photo jobs to come along, go for it. You can always quit when it gets boring. If I owned one of these chapels, I would probably hire somebodyoff the street, provide them with a low-end DSLR and flash, teach them a dozen or so basic shots, and pay them as close to minimum wage as possible. It's not a situation where a real wedding photographer is going to be able to exercise his or her talents anyway, so why pay for more expertise than the job requires.</p>