The three ways wedding editors charge
1. Per film (most common)
You pay a set price for each deliverable: highlight, full film, teaser, ceremony edit. It’s easy to compare and easy to build into your packages. Watch for length limits (“up to 5 minutes”) and what happens when you go over.
2. Monthly plan or subscription
A fixed monthly fee covers a set number of edits, often with a dedicated editor and faster turnaround. It’s good for steady volume, and less good if your bookings swing wildly by season, unless the plan can be paused.
3. Hourly
Common with freelancers. It can be cheaper for simple edits, but the total is hard to predict. Ask for a cap.
Typical price ranges by deliverable
Prices vary a lot. These are the deliverables you’ll see priced, with our own prices as a worked example.
| Deliverable | Typical length | Our price (example) | What drives the cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highlight film | 3–8 min | $349 (4–6 min) | Story work, music edit, grading |
| Full / documentary film | 30–90 min | $449 (45–90 min) | Multicam sync, audio continuity, hours of footage |
| Teaser / trailer | 30–90 sec | $149 (30–60 sec, 16:9 + 9:16) | Selection and pacing; vertical version |
| Ceremony edit | 15–60 min | $149 (up to 30 min) | Audio sync and cleanup |
| Speech edit | 10–45 min | $129 (up to 30 min) | Audio sync and cleanup |
| Social reel | 15–60 sec | from $99 | Vertical reframing |
| Monthly plan | Set number of edits | $899/mo (3 highlights) | Volume, dedicated editor |
For the market as a whole, the August 2026 update of The Yes Girls roundup lists highlight starting prices from about $130 at the budget end to over $600 at the premium end, with full-film starting prices running from about $210 to about $800.
What actually moves the price
- Length of the finished film. A 3-minute highlight and an 8-minute highlight are different jobs.
- Amount of footage and number of cameras. More angles and hours mean more syncing and more to watch.
- Audio complexity. Multiple lavs, recorders and a DJ feed take time to sync and balance.
- Style. Heavy sound design, motion graphics and intricate grading take longer than a clean documentary cut.
- Turnaround. Rush delivery almost always costs extra. Ours is +$99 to halve teaser or highlight turnaround.
- Revisions. How many rounds are included, and what extras cost.
- What’s bundled. Grading, music licensing and project files are sometimes included and sometimes not.
The hidden costs to check before you compare prices
Two editors can quote the same number and cost you very different amounts. Before you compare, ask:
- Is color grading included? If not, add it.
- Is music licensing included? A licensed track for every film adds up if you’re paying for a subscription yourself.
- How many revision rounds, and what does an extra one cost? (Ours: 2 or 3 included, $49 per extra round.)
- Will I get the project file? Without it, every small change costs a revision round.
- What’s the turnaround in writing? A cheap edit that arrives late can cost you a review.
- What happens if the film runs long? Get overage pricing upfront.
- Who covers the edit if your editor is unavailable? A single freelancer has no backup.
- What’s the footage and privacy policy? Not a dollar cost, but a real risk to your reputation.
How to work out your break-even point
The real question isn’t “is outsourcing cheap?” It’s “is outsourcing cheaper than my own time?”
Step 1: Time one wedding
Track every hour you spend editing a typical wedding: ingest and backup, culling, syncing, the cut, grading, sound, exports, client revisions. Be honest. Include the 11 p.m. sessions.
Step 2: Put a value on your hour
What would that hour earn you if you spent it on something else: shooting another wedding, sales calls, marketing, or second-shooting for someone else? If you’re turning down bookings because of editing, a simple method is your average profit per wedding divided by the hours you spend shooting and meeting the couple.
Step 3: Compare
Your editing hours × your hourly value versus the outsourced price for the same deliverables.
Step 4: Decide on what the freed time is worth
If outsourcing costs less than your time, every edit you hand off creates capacity you can sell. If it costs more, outsourcing can still make sense in peak season, or for the deliverables you like least.
Worksheet
| Line | Your number |
|---|---|
| A. Hours you spend editing one wedding | ___ |
| B. What one of your hours is worth ($) | ___ |
| C. Your cost to edit one wedding (A × B) | ___ |
| D. Outsourced price for the same films ($) | ___ |
| E. Your review and briefing time (hours) × B | ___ |
| F. Saving per wedding (C − D − E) | ___ |
| G. Weddings per year | ___ |
| H. Annual saving (F × G) | ___ |
Line E matters. Outsourcing isn’t zero time: you still write a brief and review drafts. It’s usually far less time than editing, but count it.
Is cheaper always worse?
Not always, but very low prices usually mean something has been removed: grading, music, revisions, a project file, a written turnaround, or a second person checking the work. Sometimes the editor is new and building a portfolio, which can be fine if you know it and test them first.
The safest way to judge any editor is to test them on one real wedding, with clear expectations, before you commit your season.
What about AI editing tools?
AI tools that assemble clips to music are cheap, and they’re improving. For wedding films, the expensive part is the judgment: which line from a speech carries the story, which reaction matters to this family, when to let a moment breathe. Today AI tools are most useful for speeding up technical steps like transcription and syncing, not for replacing the editor. Price them as a time-saver for your own editing, not as a like-for-like replacement for a finished film.
Ways to lower your editing cost per film
- Bundle deliverables from the same wedding. Our Complete Suite (teaser + highlight + full film) is $699, which saves $249 compared with ordering the three separately.
- Commit to steady volume. Our Studio Plan is $899 a month for three highlight edits with a dedicated editor.
- Write a strong brief. Fewer revision rounds means fewer extra-round fees. See how to write a style brief.
- Organize your footage. Clean folders by camera reduce errors and back-and-forth. See how to send footage to an editor.
- Price editing into your packages. Treat it as a cost per wedding, like a second shooter.
Try before you commit
Your first highlight film with us is $199 (regularly $349), covered by our 7-day money-back guarantee on the $199 trial: if you’re not satisfied with the first draft, email us for a full refund within 7 days of receiving it, provided you haven’t yet requested a revision or downloaded/approved the final video.
See all prices on the pricing page, or read the full guide to outsourcing your wedding editing.
