How long do you need a photographer for?

How many hours is your ceremony and reception? I'm only hiring my photographer for 5 hours to capture the first look, ceremony, and majority of the reception. They just will not be there the last hour and half because i feel i can use that additional money elsewhere and by then i will have the toasts, cake cutting, first dances, etc done.

So 6-8 hours?

Then you need to have him from before your ceremony to the end of your reception. What's your timeline for the day?

I'm a little confused by your question. If you want getting ready pictures thru end of day, then that is how long you need your photographer. You have to work out a timeline first for when you are arriving at venue/getting ready thru what time does your reception end.

For example, our timeline was basically:

4pm - arrive at venue, finish getting ready

4:30 pm - first look

4:45 pm - bride and groom pictures

5:30 pm - family pictures

6:00 pm - downtime before ceremony

6:30 pm - ceremony begins

6:45 pm - cocktails begin

7:30 pm - dinner served

8:30 pm - cake cut

8:45 pm - bouquet toss

11:00 pm - reception ends

We chose to have our photographer for 5 hours from 4-9 pm.

Hope that helps!

We need 10 hours to capture start to finish. And, I'll have my hair and makeup done when she arrives.

Yes what PP said - you need a work out a timeline.

My photographer is only going to be there from getting ready to pictures after the ceremony. We are not having him come to the reception because he would charge more. Instead we are having my amateur family friend photographer take pictures at the reception. We feel like we will get more pictures this way anyways. And we don't have to worry about the copyright.

My photographer recommended having an hour available for the 'getting ready photos,' before arriving at our ceremony venue, which is a church for us. She also suggested more time if we wanted to do a first look. I am having a photographer for 12 hours, but this is because of the events we have going on at midnight since its a NYE's wedding. We discussed that ordinarily the photographer would stay through the meal, then cake-cutting, first dances, bouquet toss, etc. then leave once general dancing had started.

All of the photographers I spoke with based the cost on the number of hours, so as other comments state, I would think first about your total timeline and how many hours you would like the photographer to be available.

Best of luck!

You probably need 10ish hours assuming there is no gap.

Ours is for 6 hours, but ill probably hire him for an extra hour or two if the budget ends up having room.

We're not doing getting ready photos (I just don't like them) so my photographer is hired for three hours with the option of a fourth (well really she said she'll stick around as long as we need her, or come earlier if we need her). I think 3.5 hours is probably our max.

It depends on your timeline for the day. I consider 8-10 hours normal. We usually start during bridal prep and usually leave after cake-cutting. I don't recommend setting your timeline based solely on your photographer.

We are doing 8 hours with ours. We are having him get there at 1:00pm. All the get ready and formal photos before the ceremony at 5pm. Then he will be leaving at 9pm.

We hired ours for 8 hours, but after looking at our timeline I'll probably end up needing her for 10 hours.

We have ours for 10 hours. She will be there from when we start getting dressed to grand exit.

Our wedding was from 3:30pm-10. We had the photograhers from 12pm-9pm so we could get the photos involving getting ready, the 1st look, the venue without people, and then all the ceremony and reception activities.

We went for the 6 hours. We are having a small ceremony and I didn't want getting ready pictures, so that option worked best for us.

Our photography package gives us six hours of coverage. I'd go with what you can afford, and talk with your photographer about the most important moments that you want captured. Some brides really want getting ready pictures, and some would rather have more reception/dancing pictures.

We had a photographer for the ceremony and reception. We had her for 8 hours.

We're having ours for 6 hours. That's from first look through toasts at the reception. I also don't like the getting ready shots and we're not having a dance.