When we meet with our couples there are a few topics that seem to attract a little more attention than others, one of those being, ‘how much time do I really need?’. While we wish there was a one size fits all answer for this question, the answer really depends on what is most important to you!
Your ceremony is at 4:00pm and your reception is over at 10:00pm, so you need 6 hours of photography, right? Not quite! What you might not realize is that there is a huge opportunity for capturing special moments from your day well before you’re ready to walk down the aisle! On average, photography begins about 3 hours before the start of your ceremony. If you’re planning a First Look, we would even recommend having photography begin 4 hours before your ceremony! The moments captured from this portion of the day are often the most special, candid and meaningful. You’ve spent months planning every aspect of this day and we want to make sure we have time to capture it all!
The first thing most couples consider is the cost – I don’t blame them! As a Dave Ramsey follower, I know how important budgets are!! So if you’ve found a photographer you love and you want to make sure everything is covered, you have to really think about what is most important to you! We have always been able to work with a couples budget once we know exactly what means the most to them! Keep reading for the break down!
8 hours – This is the average amount of time our couples book and it really is a comfortable amount of time for a traditional wedding day. 8 hours on your wedding day would cover details all the way to special dances at the reception. If you’re planning a First Look or know that your dance floor is going to be packed and you just HAVE to get some gems of your cousins drunken dance moves, you might want to consider more time.
10 hours – This is the whole shebang. Most times 10 hours can cover those important moments in the beginning of the day all the way to your grand exit at the end of the night! Our couples that have chosen 10 hours for their days have also said they were less stressed knowing that there was extra time throughout the day to make sure everything was captured!
4-6 hours – We typically don’t recommend less than 6 hours of coverage on a wedding day, especially if you plan on having an album printed. We want to make sure that we have enough time to capture the whole story of your day that you’ve planned for months! If you’ve found the photographer of your dreams but want to stick to your budget, 4-6 hours can make it possible to have them capture the most important parts of your day! 4-6 hours is ideal for intimate weddings!
The amount of time really depends on what’s most important to you two! For our wedding, we wanted everything covered because it goes so. fast. and there’s so much happening so we knew there were parts of the day that we wouldn’t be able to be part of but we still wanted to remember! We knew that it was an investment but it was an important one!
Happy planning!
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