The archers fire in front of them , don ' t stand jn front of them when they ' re casting that particular move <| sep |> For an off season referral from a close friend or relative , or a last minute gig I will be incredibly flexible in pricing . The last wedding I shot for the season was a very low budget affair , but they were referred to me by a very close family friend . I this case , I had no idea of what their budget would be , and I didn ' t want to overunder quote , so I simply asked them to give me a number they would be happy with . They gladly paid $ 1100 for 212 hours on a Sunday which was probably more than they spent on the rest of their wedding . <| sep |> Also a drop out . Thankfully experience and talent are trending over a piece of paper in the HR world these days . There are loads of things you can do and excel at without a degree . I ' m a facility manager for instance . After deciding it probably wouldn ' t be prudent for me to go back to school for a second year , I went back to work for a family HVAC biz . That led me to eventually taking a facility technician job and then moved up from there . There ' s lots of networking in between , but that ' s the fun part . If you don ' t already have an innate skill you loved taking apart engines as a kid for example , pick something you ' re marginally capable of understanding and build on that . Make sure it ' s something you can live with doing for the bulk of your life . This is going to sound crazy but once you pick something and start your apprenticeship and get into the rhythm of work and learning , go out and get a job at a bar or restaurant in the city part time . It ' s critical to do this when you ' re young as you can live off 4 hours of sleep much easier . This becomes your networking link . You ' ll meet lots of business people and develop relationships with them that will hopefully turn into a job opportunity in the future . If not , you ' ll at least learn that you should tip 20 % no matter how shitty the service is . There are lots of other important life lessons learned in the service industry too . I ' m rambling now but this is how I ended up going from lugging boilers into basements and cutting up oil tanks , to running office buildings and high tech labs . It ' s been a great life and I have 0 student debt . Feel free to PM with any specific questions . Good luck !