Photographer - how many hours?

It depends on if you are doing getting ready photos or not, and travel between locations. Also, how long photos will take, as some photographers do more posed than others...also you don't always need reception coverage to the very end. Have you thought of asking the photographers their opinion based on the timeline you give them? There are several of us here, each of us are different and answers will vary.

I would say at least 6 hours. But like Jay said, it depends on your preferences for photos. If you didn't care about getting ready pictures, you could probably do first look at 4 and all other pictures after that and send them home by 9, needing only 5 hours.

I know my photographer convinced me to go for an 8hr package because our ceremony and reception spaces are in different locations and we don't want to lose time because of travel in between. This is also including some pre-ceremony photos which I wanted as I want to do a first look with my dad. My photographer also said they usually stay about an hour or two for the reception to get pictures of some of the special dances, but then they leave.

It would be a good idea to step out your timeline with the photographers you intend on meeting with. Do you want getting ready photos, first look, how long is the ceremony, is there a cocktail hour, what special events take place during the reception (cake cutting, dance with Dad, Mom, tossing bouquet etc). Last but not least how many dancing and guest photos do you want? The more detailed information you can give to the photographer will help them give you a more accurate amount of time needed. On average 5 -6 hours is enough time to get the images you want.

At the place I booked my photographer , typical is 8 hours. I think I booked mine for 7. I figure 1-8? 1 would include a few getting ready pics. And then 8 is halfway through the reception and should get all the important stuff? I have my meeting with her this week so Ill get it figured out then. I may add an hour.

Honestly, at least 8 hours - longer if you can afford it. Its worth it!!

The package I had included 2 photographers, one for 10 hours the other for 6 hours. I think it was perfect. I had someone there to do getting ready pictures while the other was doing all the detail pictures. They were both there for the ceremony so I got multiple angles. And had them both for bridal party pics through the first dance & father/daughyer dance, which made things so much faster and efficient I feel like.

But it truly depends on what all you want out of your day and photographer. And what you're comfortable with paying as well.

I originally only booked mine for 5, but upped it to 6 hours. I feel like I could even use her for more time than that but we are going to make the 6 hours work.

We have 8 hours for two photographers!

We had our photographer for 6 hours. We didn't do getting ready photos and didn't want the entire reception photographed. Our ceremony and reception were on the same site so there wasn't any travel time to worry about. If everything is happening at the same place, I think 6 hours would be the minimum amount of time you'd need.