Wedding Photography Length

I think this really depends on what kind of photos you want them to capture. for instance some people do a grand exit. and some people just want to have more party photos in general. but if you don't want those, then i think it is fine for the photographer to leave and not stay entire duration

A lot of my favorite photos were during the dancing at the end of the night. And my sparkler send off photo was amazing.

View Quoted Comment That's true! Thanks!!

View Quoted Comment Yeah, I was thinking about a send off, that is my biggest reservation. Our wedding is a morning wedding with a mid-day brunch reception, so it will still be light out when everyone leaves. I definitely won't be getting cool sparkler pictures. I guess I'll have to keep thinking about it! Thanks!

View Quoted Comment You don’t have to have a send-off of course, but for daytime you could always do flower petals or ribbons or bubbles. I’ve seen some really beautiful pics.

I think it depends what pictures you want and how many hours you pay for. If you only pay for 4 hours and the ceremony + reception is 5 or 6 then they'll probably leave before the end. It's up to you if you want any pictures after the typical traditions are done. Not everyone has a send off either so it really depends.

Mine stayed until the end. We didn’t do a send off, but we did cake towards the end. We got some great pictures of everyone dancing. We had all day coverage no time restraints.

My best friend got married last year and her photographer didn't stay the entire time. We just did a staged send off so they could have their picture but didn't have to pay extra for the additional hour or so with the photographer. I've seen a lot of photographers charge around $200+ per additional hour so I would consider doing the staged send off. At the end of the day it didn't make the reception any different, they saved some money, and they got their send off picture. Plus, she still had a lot of pictures of the party 🙃

Not always, it depends on what you want though.

If you want professional photos for a grand exit would be one reason for having the photographer stay longer, but I’ve known for some couples to have this in the middle and then come back for more dancing. It gave a lull for some guests to feel it was appropriate and not rude to leave if they didn’t want to stay late.

Mine left 1.5 hours before the end of the reception, but the cake cutting and speeches were already finished by then and we didn't do a send off. She was with us for 10 hours that day and we had her set to leave part way through dancing. It would have been an extra $500 per hour to have her stay longer

I would do the main important parts of wedding like
Getting ready before wedding if you want too
You walking downFamily photos wedding party You and FH firdt dance Cake cutting Ill be satisfied with that lol

We have a 6-hour package. He'll be there for all the important things: ceremony, first dance, family dances, cake cutting, etc. I don't care about having pictures of people dancing lol and we're not doing a "send off" - I actually bought sparklers for people to stand around us and hold during our first dance which will be super cute pictures!

Our photographer left an hour before the end of the reception and I have no regrets (we didn’t have a send-off). I didn’t think I need 4 hours of dancing photos.

This is really a matter of what photos you want, like everyone has said. The only thing I'd suggest is preplanning your photos really specifically because if you remember one last minute after they've left, you'll be upset.

We did not see a need to have our photographers stay until the end of the night. We did not want 4 hours of dancing photos. After 1 hour of dancing, we did a mock grand exit so it could be photographed, and our photographers left afterwards. This saved us a lot of money.

I do suggest having there to photograph the grand exit, if you choose to do one. Our glow stick exit photos are really fun! But again, we just did it early and continued on with out night. Doing it early also ensured all of our guests were a part of it!