Photography during cocktail hour

Uhhh... either do a first look or take fewer pictures?

But why is an hour long? As long as the food and drink are flowing, it will be fine.

Or you could take pictures with your bp and the close family members who'd probably see you before the ceremony anyway. And your SO could do the same.

99% of my weddings and receptions are in the same place and they are all an hour-1.5 hours long unless it's brunch or a very, very small group.

An hour is fine.

I think 1 hour is pretty standard! I've still seen this at weddings where everything is in the same location!

Like @Baletica said - I'd make sure to get every picture you possibly can before the wedding! That way you'll only have the full wedding party pictures, full family pictures, and couples pictures left!

First look is obviously the best bet, but you could take bridal party portraits before (ie: BM's and GM's pictures.) That will cut down on a few minutes depending on your party size. Our cocktail hour was only 30 minutes, but that is all the venue allowed us to do. I would say close to an hour is pretty standard though.

Huh? My ceremony and reception are in the same location. Thirty minute ceremony, one hour for cocktails, and a four hour reception. We will be doing first look photos (just FH and myself), and possibly immediately after the ceremony some family photos (probably ten minutes tops). Doing first look photos isn't a reason to elminiate cocktail hour. For us it was about being about to eat our cocktail hour food that we are paying for, and to make sure that if we need more than an hour for photos (because our photos will be in a different location than the venue), that we don't make our guests wait longer than an hour.

Anyway, during cocktail hour we're going to head into the bridal suite, eat and drink in there before we are announced into the reception.

I'm not sure why you think an hour is long; this is about your guests. Most guests look forward to cocktail hour. Gives guests a chance to mingle with other guests who won't be sitting at their table.

If you dont want to do a first look, you could take some of the photos (i.e., you with your BMs and your FH with his groomsmen, any pictures that dont include the two of you together) beforehand.

An hour isn't very long. If you take as many pictures as you can before the ceremony with your bridal party and family and he does the same it could cut some time. I think you need to contact your photographer and see how long they think just family, BP and couples pictures will take.

30-45 minutes is all I do because posed photos are more minimal with journalist style than most....but an hour is reasonable. More than that is too long in my opinion.

Thanks ladies for your advice! I don't want to eliminate the cocktail hour in its entirety. I just didn't want it to be so long. Maybe I am just overthinking it. I have been to weddings where the cocktail hour just seemed to drag, where people even went back to their guestrooms until it was over. I just didn't want the guest to become bored.

If a photographer can't get both wedding parties together and separate, parents together and separate, and immediately family, even some of the couple in an hour.....something is wrong. That's really all you need.