Pictures during Cocktail Hour

You could either do a backdrop or travel to the location, you just would miss some of your cocktail hour. You also could do a first look and get the pictures out of the way beforehand!

Is there a place outside of the venue to take pictures? Do you mean just family pictures or bridal party? Family pictures don't take long and can be taken outside on the side of the building if it's nice looking.

I'd definitely see if there's somewhere outside you can take pictures, or other spots in the venue which would be good for photos (out front, in a cool entry way or hallway, etc.)

If you aren't doing a first look you can still get the bride & bridesmaids, and groom & groomsmen pictures done separately before the ceremony to narrow down on the total pictures you need to take during cocktail hour!

I would ask the venue for recommendations on what other couples have done!! There's a possibility you can still do photos in the ceremony space, maybe just off to the side so you're not in the way. But ask for recommendations!!

Ask the venue manager what other couples have done. Our venue manager brought up the excellent point that since our ceremony begins at 4pm, we will be losing daylight if we wait until after the ceremony to do pictures during cocktail hour. I appreciated their insight so we decided to do a first look and do all of our pictures prior to the ceremony. This way we can enjoy cocktail hour with our guests and won't be scrambling to get all of our pictures done before the reception.

The people who work at your venue have probably seen plenty of weddings done plenty of different ways and can have really valuable input as far as how the timeline of the day should go.