Is 4 hours enough?

Are you willing to forgo pictures of certain parts of the day? How important are things like getting ready photos, or photos of people dancing at the reception, or photos of you guys leaving the reception?

Do you want getting ready pictures? First look? How long is your ceremony and reception? Are you doing cocktail hour? If you have a 15 minute ceremony, cocktail hour and cut the cake 2 hours into the reception and don't have any pre-ceremony pictures, then I think that's plenty. But if you want anything pre-ceremony you will be cutting it tight.

Honestly, I am not having a photographer while I am getting ready and all that. I figured iPhones will be sufficient for the pre-wedding festivities, however we will be doing our first look and a lot of pictures from 1-3, the ceremony will be at 3:30, and then I would say the photographers will stick around for most of the reception too. So probably over 6 hours I would guess for mine. I think it's all on preference honestly, plus you will have tons of people snapping photos of you as well.

Yeah we are willing to be without certain ones. The most important ones are the moments between us, first look, family shots, the ceremony, and some of the reception. We don't care too much about pictures of us leaving just want some beautiful photos to remember our day of love.

It could be. If you really love them, book them. You're looking at a prime date and most of us would choose to book a longer day.

I'd probably do a bit of getting ready, a first look, ceremony, intros and fake a cake cutting. There are only so many photos of people dancing that can be taken.....

Our 'small wedding' photographers typically do 3-4 hours tops.

Yeah @ Natalie g I agree about "getting ready" photos, those aren't terribly important to me. Since our venue blocked an hour for photos in or schedule we would do that and then are having a 15-20 min ceremony and cocktail hour then reception.

@ Celia thanks for the input it's good to know that 3-4 hours should be sufficient for a smaller wedding. I do love their photos so I think we are going to go with them

We had out photographer for 6 hours for a small wedding. It was just enough time to get the tail end of getting ready all the way through cutting the cake right after dinner. If you're willing to shave off getting ready pics and most of the reception activities since you're doing a first look, it might work. But, I'm pretty sure it will fall short of toasts and cake cutting pics.

I think if you're willing to live without those getting ready pics, and leaving pics (which I will probably do without I think--I hadn't even thought about those), then 4 hours should be enough, depending on the length of your ceremony. Are you doing family pics during cocktail hour? Because a lot of time at the beginning of the reception is spent eating, and really, who wants a lot of pictures of people eat (lol)?

Point is it is definitely doable, you just have to make sure you know exactly what pictures you *do* want, and when. Do you want cake cutting? Are the family shots taking place before the wedding with first look pictures so you can mingle during cocktail hour? etc...

I'd rather have fewer amazing photos from a stellar photographer than a lot of passable photos from a mediocre photographer.

I wouldnt be long enough for me. I didnt have getting ready photos but my photographer was there for 7 or 8 hours. If you mainly want your ceremony and just some reception shots, it is enough. I wanted the photographer onsite for the entire reception though

@Beutivant yes I totally agree! And @taneisha23 haha yes I don't want an album full of guests eating lol so we will do family pics somewhere in the middle I guess

I think it will be fine.

Guy w/Camera here :-) Typically an 8 hour day of the photographer is enough for all day coverage, assuming a ceremony around 5pm and a dinner reception 1-2 hours later. We start around 2pm which is enough to capture the last of the makeup, getting into the dress, then first look, ceremony prep, etc. 8-9pm is usually the last of the needed coverage, such as the cake cutting and boquet toss. We'll stick around and get a few from the reception but only need half hour or so to do this. The longer the night drags on, the more drunk guests get, and the image quality declines from there.

As to using iPhones to capture getting ready, yes you can pose people in good light and get a decent image, but good luck capturing stuff as it happens in the journalistic sense in low light and with control over depth to blur out cluttered backgrounds that are often in a makeup/dressing room.