Photographer 6hrs or 8hrs coverage

Some things to consider is are you doing a first look, do you want getting ready pictures, are you getting ready at the venue, is it a long ceremony, are you doing a big send off that you want pro photos of, and other plans for the day. If you list these out it will give a better idea for people to help you with timing.

Our photographer actually said 6 would be plenty, talking us down from the 8 hour package. He doesn't need to take hours of dancing pics. He said he'd come around 2 to catch the end of getting ready, first look, ceremony at 3:30, and by 8:00 we'd be done with cakes and special dances. He did say if we went slightly over NBD, and if we wanted to add one hour we could. I'd do that and I'm sure they can accommodate more time being added, but would be less likely to cut back to 6 hours if your contract says 8. We don't care about a fancy exit or anything, so that helps.

We did six hours, two shooters- we had one venue so no lost travel time, and the hotel where we got ready was a 5 minute drive from the venue. Everything fit really comfortably into the timeline, and we actually ran ahead of schedule most of the day. We had 4 WP members each, and did family pictures with just our immediate families, which are relatively small (4-6 people). Here's how we split the time up:

2-2:30- Girls getting ready (details/getting dressed- HMUAs were gone by about noon)

2:30-3: Guys getting ready

3-3:30- Me and BM/family

3:30-4- H and GM/family

4-4:30- first look

4:30-5- venue/details

5-5:30- ceremony

5:30-6:30- full wedding party/family pictures, more H and I pictures (cocktail hour)

6:30-8- dinner, first dance, cake cutting, speeches, dancing

We also had a videographer who did coverage from about 10-8. The reception went until 10:30, but we didn't feel the need to pay $300/hour for coverage of people drunkenly dancing/talking. For those moments, cell phone pictures were fine with us.

This is from a recent post, hope it's helpful! We felt like 6 hours was 100% enough time.

View Quoted Comment Awesome! Thanks for the info I don't think I'll be doing any fancy exits. I just want pictures of getting ready, ceremony, after the ceremony Fam pics and then some of the dance etc etc.

View Quoted Comment I was thinking on getting ready pics possibly first look, ceremony, after ceremony Fam pics and then dance. They told me they stay till 12am but that depends obviously on what time I tell them to come in.. I was thinking 2pm ceremony is at 4pm?

View Quoted Comment This is perfect! Thanks for all the details/info! My parents were telling me 6hrs should be fine I just wanted to double check.. get different opinions lol only thing is my immediate Fam it's around 10 people just my side he's is possibly 5 people. Haha but seeying the way u broke it down I think it should be good

Our photographer does daily packages, but he suggested having 3 hours strictly for first look, bridal/grooms party pictures, and immediate family pictures which we are doing that all before the wedding. I would think that 6 hours may be ok, but then you would get less pictures from the reception. I would talk to your photographer and ask them what they generally suggest for timeline wise. We asked ours about how much time they generally use for different parts of the day so we could build our day of timeline.

We are doing 10 hours of photography coverage. My rough estimate right now is as follows:
Photographer comes at 130 to getting ready shots
330 group shots (not together)
445 corner shot/ letter exchange
6 ceremony
630 group photos together (cocktail hours for guests)
715 intros
720 dinner
8 first dance
815 speeches
1015 Last dance
1030 send off

We have the option to add an extra hour to the reception the day off so I wanted some flexibility in the time line with the photographer.

I am doing 9 hours of video & photography with 2 photographers and 2 videographers. We are not doing a first look so we want to make sure that we have a person who can be with both of us separately before the ceremony.

We are doing 8 hours, the photographer will be arriving at 1 to get some getting ready photos, first look at 2, couple and wedding party pictures until 4, ceremony at 4:30, cocktail hour and family pictures 4:45-5:45, dinner served at 5:45, 6:30 toasts, 6:45 first dance, father/daughter and mother/son dances, 7:30 cake cutting, 8:00 bouquet and garter tosses, 8:30 sunset pictures, 8:45 sparkler "exit", 9:00 the photographer leaves. The reception will actually end at 10 and we have to be completely out of the venue by midnight.

The main reason we needed 8 hours is because we want sunset and sparkler exit photos, and sunset in Missouri in June isn't until about 8:30. If it were a fall/winter wedding we could probably compress things into 6 hours and forgo the sparklers. As it is I'm not super happy about having to do a fake exit and then come back into the reception, but we couldn't afford more than 8 hours and I want getting ready photos too, so that was the only way to make it work.

View Quoted Comment Hmm mine is in the fall in November it's in Texas I want some sunset pics I think it's around 6:30 that it start to go down .. ceremony time I was thinking 4 to have some time to take pictures after the ceremony with some light still.

Hi!
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