Help needed for photography coverage!!

How long will your reception be? it also depends on what exactly you want to do at your reception for instance will you be having any kind of grand exits and what not?

We have two photographers in our package. We're a Sunday wedding booked with an 8-hour package, but because we're Sunday, we negotiated full coverage with the lead photographer. So the second photog. will be there for 8 hours, but the lead will stay until everything is over. Can you try to negotiate something like that, where you have partial coverage for longer?

I think it depends on what moments of the reception you want to cover. We had our photographers for 10 hours. That is what was standard with their packages. Our photographers arrived at noon and left at 10 pm when the reception ended. Our ceremony started at 4:30 pm. They took getting ready photos, detail photos, first look with my dad, first look with my husband and I, me with my bridesmaids, and my husband with his groomsmen before the ceremony started. After the ceremony we took, family photos, full bridal party photos, and some additional photos of my husband and I. They were there for the entire reception as well.

Our reception has dinner at 6pm with dancing more than likely starting at 6pm. We have to be out of the venue at 12am so more than likely dancing will wrap up around 11pm. We will be having grand entrances but I don't know about an exit yet. Our venue is located downtown so my parents mentioned having an after party at a local bar but my FH and I do not drink so that might not happen haha.

I had my photographer from 2pm until i don't know i want to say 10pm. so i think 8 hours is substantial enough but again, that really depends on creating a timeline for yourself first of the day and seeing how many hours that is for the time you'd need photography for

If your first look is nearby the venue(s) and you don’t account for travel time. Think about how long before that you’ll have to be getting ready. Ask yourself if you want to pay for a photographer for 2 extra hours for photos of getting makeup and hair done. (I don’t but everyone is different.). So most likely that gets you to noon or before. Reception starts at 6-cocktail hour, grand entrance etc mean you won’t be sitting down for dinner until maybe 7. Then first dance, speeches, etc. do you want casual pictures people dancing, hanging out, etc? I don’t think I need pictures or videos until bitter end but if you’re doing a grand exit your at 11 or later. That’s at least 11 hours of photography.

We had 2 photographers. We did a first look. We had 6 hours of coverage and it was plenty of time. That being said, I only had our photographers take about 10 minutes of getting ready photos. I really only cared about photos of our parents helping us get dressed. I didn't need photos of me and my friends in our PJs.