Blogs for Brides | How Much Wedding Day Coverage is Necessary

Nine weeks after I got married, I wrote a blog post on wedding timelines, and what’s important to think about when figuring out your timeline.  It perfectly spells out the minor details, but fails to answer the question, “How many hours of wedding day coverage do I need?”  This post will help answer that question for you.

When trying to plan a wedding day, the Bride will wonder how much wedding day coverage she needs from her photographer.    What’s too little, what’s too much?

After shooting over 50 weddings in three years, I’ve come to find that 8 hours is a perfect amount of time for wedding day coverage.  Here’s what you can expect from an eight hour day with Sharpe Images Photography:

Details + Getting Ready

Myself and my second shooter (if one is hired) will show up about 3 and a half hours prior to the start of the music for the ceremony if you are doing a first look.  Which by the way, I HIGHLY encourage all my couples to do a first look.  It’s romantic, intimate, and totally takes the edge off the nervousness of the day.  We’ll grab all three rings, so much sure your MOH has them handy, your dress, shoes, flowers, and any other special details of the day and shoot for about 30-45 minutes.  Once we are done with that, we find the perfect room with the right amount of light to get you in your dress.  If the room has been used for the bridesmaids to get dress as well, we ask that it is tidied up and clutter free.  A clutter free space makes for clutter free photos.

We’ll grab those shots of your Mom lacing your dress, and your bridesmaids making all over you.  It’s a special time, and these are photos that you can cherish for a long time, with your girlfriends by your side!

Details + Getting ready will take about an hour to an hour and a half depending on how complex it is to get in your dress.

Bridal Portraits

While i’m taking beautiful photos of you, the second shooter will be off taking Portraits of your soon-to-be HUSBAND!  This process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 30.

First Look

Josh and I did a First Look, and it was the best part of the whole day, well aside from being pronounced Husband and Wife.  First looks allow for you to see each other before the ceremony.  You can stand there, hold and kiss each other with no audience.  There’s no pressure to perform, you can be YOURSELF!  It’s just me and my second shooter there recording the moment.  First looks take about 15 minutes.

Mr + Mrs Photos

The day is allll about the two of you.  People are driving 5 minutes, maybe 5 hours, to share this day with you both because of the love you share with one another.  This is the part of the day that I like to tell my brides not to skimp time on.  The more time you give me, the more photos you have of just the two of you.  Photos that your children will cherish, and then their children.  My favorite weddings allow for no less than 30 minutes, but 45 minutes is even better.

Bridal Party Photos

This is the part of the day when the second shooter truly comes in handy!  They have essentially been cloned from me.  While I’m taking photos of you and your ladies, my second is just to my side taking photos of the Groom and his guys.  After 15 minutes, everyone comes together and we rock another 15 minutes of the whole Bridal Party.  As long as everyone is on their best behavior, we can rock Bridal Party photos in 30 minutes.

Family Formals

This is the part of the day that can get a little hectic.  If you’re doing the first look and we’re getting family formals done before the ceremony, tell the family members who you want in your photos a time that is before the time we really need them.  Uncle Mikey ALWAYS runs late, so if we’re doing photos at 4, tell him 3:45, or even 3:30 if he’s REALLY late.  Depending on how big your family is (I have FOUR families now, so we did family formals for an HOUR!), we only need 30 minutes.  

So at this point in the day, we’re right at the point where your guests start to arrive and your pre-ceremonial music starts.  This is a time for you to go in hiding.  Perfect time for you to freshen your make-up, use the restroom, and even better yet, rest your feet!  Go breathe!  These are the last moments that you’re a single lady!  In the next hour, you’ll be MARRIED to the love of your life!  How exciting!!!

Ceremony

Ceremony’s last anywhere from 10 minutes (mine lasted 13…that was WITH the mom’s walking down the aisle to pour sand, and then the bridal party to walk BACK down after we were hitched) to 30 minutes.  There are some that last longer, but on more times then not, a ceremony will last around 30 minutes.

Since we did a First Look, we have to spend very little time doing photos.  If you are planning on having a cocktail hour, we can grab some family shots of those who didn’t make it before the ceremony, or better yet, more photos of you and your now hubby!

If you opted not to have a first look, we’ll need about an hour and half in between ceremony and reception, not including drive time, to get the rest of the photos that we couldn’t get before hand.

With everything pre ceremony to ceremony you have had photography coverage for four to five hours.  That leaves you with three to four hours for your reception.

Reception

Dinner will last about 45 minutes to an hour with cake cutting happening somewhere between entrance and first dance, and then we move on into your formal dances.   If you don’t do a dollar dance, formals can last 25 to 30 minutes.  I have seen some formals last 45 minutes. At this point in the night, you have about an hour and half left of open dance.  This time will give you plenty of variety in dancing shots.  And to be honest, there’s only so many photos I can take before you’re going to think I just duplicated them in post production.  It’s not that I don’t want to spend the entire night with you, it’s just that I don’t want to charge your for the entire night!  Weddings are expensive, and there’s no need to spend extra money on a service that you don’t need.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen!  I hope this blog post helped you in your wedding day planning and getting an idea of how much wedding day coverage you will need.  Below you will find a helpful photo of a sample timeline.  Keep in mind, this timeline does include you doing first look.  Again, if you don’t do a first look, you’ll need at least an hour and half in between ceremony and reception for photos!  In turn, the photographer shows up a little later in the morning.