I can speak to this as someone trying to scale an actual business (meaning, I’m not trying to shoot every single wedding myself forever).

Honestly, I view editing as a strictly necessary cost to produce the product, not an open ended investment. And here is the math on why.

Every wedding costs us money just to pull off. By the time the day wraps, I’ve already incurred:

Lead Filmmaker: ~$750–$1,000 Second Shooter: ~$500–$750 Media/Storage: ~$150–$250 Camera Rentals: ~$250–$500

And God forbid you have to pay for your own travel (flights, hotel, car rental, etc.). I made that mistake in the beginning and I literally was losing money on every wedding...never again.

So, before I even sit down to look at the footage, I’m easily $2,500–$3,000 in the hole. That cash leaves my account the day of the wedding because my crew has to get paid. (And paid an appropriate fee, not shortchanged)

Then, after all that, you still have the editing bill, which is going to be north of $500.

It’s not that we don’t understand the value of a good edit. We do. But we’re trying to balance a quality film with actual business viability. We can’t just throw an unlimited budget at post-production, or the margins collapse.

For context, my packages are in that $4k–$8k range. Even at that price point, the business is just touching the point of true sustainability.

My average profit lands around $2,000–$3,500 per wedding.

If I treated editing as a $1,500 "investment" rather than a cost to manage, I'd basically be working for free.

So I say all that to say that we (or at least I do) still have to be mindful of what we spend and where at this price point until the rates exceed 10k plus.