WEDDING HINTS & TIPS | HOW MANY HOURS SHOULD YOU BOOK A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER FOR?
How Many Hours Do You Need Me For?
So you have found your photographer (hopefully me :)), and now you need to figure out how many hours or length of coverage you want for your wedding.
When working out how many hours you need for your wedding photography, there are a few things to consider.
First, you need to decide if you want coverage from getting ready to the drunk dancing or are you only wanting a short part of the wedding covered?
For most couples who come to me, the main coverage options are eight or ten hours, and why do some couples pick one option over the other?
Timings and locations: It's as simple as that.
For most of my couples, the time of the wedding ceremony is the main factor for picking eight or ten hours.
An Example of a Six-Hour Wedding Day - 2pm Ceremony
Six hours of coverage is ideal for smaller weddings and elopements, especially if the wedding ceremony and reception are held at the same venue and is the shortest coverage I offer, and as you can see from the example below, any shorter than 6 hours and you will be cutting off important parts of the day.
12.30pm Coverage Starts (Getting Ready)
2 pm Wedding Ceremony
4 pm Wedding Breakfast
6 pm Wedding Speeches
6.30 pm Coverage Finishes
The above example shows how a six hour wedding coverage might look.
My six hour coverage typically starts with getting ready coverage and finishes shortly after the wedding speeches.
With six hours of wedding photo coverage, it's important to work out which parts of the day are the most important to you. It could be that you are not interested in the getting ready coverage, in which case you can move those hours used for the morning coverage and use them at the end of the day to potentially cover the cake cut and first dance.
An Example of a Eight-Hour Wedding Day - 2pm Ceremony
1 pm Coverage Starts
2 pm Wedding Ceremony
4 pm Wedding Breakfast
6 pm Wedding Speeches
7 pm Evening Reception Starts
8 pm Cake Cut & First Dance
8.15 pm DJ / Disco
9 pm Coverage Finishes
As you can see from the example above, eight hours of wedding photography coverage with a wedding ceremony at 2 pm would mean very little time in the morning for any getting-ready coverage. Certainly, there would be zero time for travel between venues.
An Example of a Ten-Hour Wedding Day - 2pm Ceremony
12 pm Coverage Starts - Getting Ready
2 pm Wedding Ceremony
4 pm Wedding Breakfast
6 pm Wedding Speeches
7 pm Evening Reception Starts
8 pm Cake Cut & First Dance
8.15 pm DJ / Disco
10 pm Coverage Finishes
With the ten hour coverage above, you can see that you have more coverage of getting ready with time for any potential travel between the getting ready location and the ceremony location.
The ten hour coverage also allows for more coverage in the evening, which is great if you are having a summer wedding as the drunk dancing usually starts much later in the evening as the guests will be enjoying the lovely warm evening weather.
Wedding Ceremony BEFORE 2 pm?
If you are having your wedding ceremony before 2 pm and are wanting coverage of getting ready and some party coverage, ten hours of coverage is your best option.
Wedding Ceremony AFTER 2 pm?
If you are having a later wedding ceremony and want coverage of getting ready and some dancing later in the evening, eight hours of coverage might be the option to go with.
Need Something Between Four / Eight / Ten Hours or longer?
If you are looking at booking me to be your wedding photographer and need an extra few hours or need something that lands between my standard packages, that’s not a problem. My pricing is done in a way that you can easily work out the cost of seven, nine or even twelve hours of wedding photography.
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