Small intimate wedding advice(photographer)

I'm not familiar with smaller weddings but I'd personally think that a photographer wouldn't be necessary in that setting. I'm assuming that the reception is just a sit down meal with conversations as opposed to the dancing and other activities? If that's the case, I don't think you'd need someone going around taking pictures of people eating; family and friends can choose to take their own pictures if they'd like is my opinion.

Perhaps have them take pictures before, during, and after the ceremony, but skip dinner. Unless you are really passionate about photography then I am not sure the value of eating pictures.

Since the reception will be at a restaurant, I imagine there won't be any dancing, so it's probably not necessary. I think you'd be fine just booking for the ceremony.

My brother had a very small wedding with a restaurant reception (so very similar) and they only had the photographer for ceremony & portraits after.

I would see if you can hire them for the ceremony, portraits, and maybe a bit of the reception; this is what most of my intimate weddings have done.

You may have trouble finding someone for just a few hours on a prime date; on the other hand, by that time in the year, having a small short wedding gig may be very appealing.

I love your plan!

I had a photographer for my wedding for both parts- granted we were all in house- ceremony cocktails and reception at the same place .And I'm VERY glad I did- I got some amazing pictures of the food and pictures from each table.

I didn't have dancing- but I had a performer- and she was able to get some shots of her too. So IMHO- do it- she doesn't have to be there the whole time- but I think you won't regret getting pictures of family at dinner enjoying themselves. those are some of my favorite.

We did a very similar wedding to you and it was amazing! I highly recommend it. We ended up hiring a photographer for two hours, so essentially the ceremony and portraits. We did do a first dance and mother/son father/daughter dances but those were captured by our guests sufficiently for what I wanted (I do have a couple of professional photographers in my family so my results from some casual guest photos may not be typical).

If you are doing the special dances you may want to hire a photographer for the first hour of the reception, capture the dances and cake cutting and head out. Personally I know that what I wanted was ceremony pictures, and if I didn't have a single picture from the reception, that was fine with me. If you can truly say that, only hire for the ceremony. If you want some reception do a little bit of the reception, but I wouldn't recommend more than an 30 mins/ an hour for that location.

@Meaghan, I can't wait to see your BAM!

We're doing the same thing as you. We're having our photographer stay for part of the reception though because we're doing our first dance, father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, and cake cutting.

We plan on having some dancing as well as cake cutting at the reception location(dinner) so I wasn't sure if we want that to be photographed

Edit- our restaurant allows these things, they have a special room for events such as this and my FH talked about just having a playlist of different songs to play including our first dance, father daughter dance and mother son dance.

I was hoping we could get some shots of the food and everyone entering the building and some of the general conversation, I'm just afraid we won't have very many pictures. I want to be able to remember everything but i really am conflicted on if we should have the photographer at dinner

If you have the budget for it, do it regardless. You can never have too many pictures to choose from. Is your concern from a money standpoint?

It's hard to take good photos of moving subjects in low light. I don't think you should count on your friends and family for photos of your dances.

I personally loved the professional photos of our dances at our tiny wedding, so I say get the extra hour of photography, unless you truly don't care about getting photos of the dances and cake cuttings.