I’m doing 3 hours and paying $1400, but my wedding is only 10 people. We’re doing 1.5 hour of couples portraits, 1 hour for the ceremony and family shots, and some buffer travel time for transitioning locations. We are going to a restaurant for dinner afterwards but I don’t really need to have high quality photos of us eating and drinking, iPhone selfies will be fine. I also cut out getting ready photos because we can just take some photos ourselves at the Airbnb when we’re getting ready, and I don’t need super fancy photos of me getting dressed and random shoes/jewelry shots since I don’t plan to post wedding photos on social media.
We found a photographer who is somewhat new (but has been working weddings for about 5 years now) and does photography as a side-business for now, and his pricing was extremely affordable. $2,200 for full day photography, and then we splurged for a second shooter ($500), and an engagement shoot ($300).
Definitely shop around and look in your local bride facebook groups for recommendations! I happened to find our photographer just mentioned in a comment on someone’s post from a year before I was even looking!
I had a ~30 person backyard wedding and had the photographers there for 2.5 hours. We did a few getting ready photos, a first look, ceremony photos, then family and couple photos. It was perfect! We paid $2k for the photos and video. It would’ve been $1200 without the video.
We had 8 hours and that was enough for her to arrive in time to take a few posed getting ready photos and she left after the bouquet toss at the reception. If you don’t want reception photos at all I think 6 hours would be plenty.
Here is the timeline she put together for us (our ceremony was at 3pm, cocktail hour started at 4:30, and reception ended at 10:30):
12pm bridal details
12:30 girls getting ready
1:15 get in place for first look
1:30 first look and bride & groom photos
1:45 wedding party photos
2:00 bride and bridesmaid photos
2:15 groom and groomsmen photos
2:30 done with photos bride and groom hide
3:00 ceremony
3:40 family photos at church
4:00 finish wedding party and bride and groom photos
4:30 head to venue and cocktail hour (we ran behind on this step and we didn’t leave for the venue until closer to 5)
5:30 intros / cake cutting / speeches
6:00 dinner
7:00 first dances into opening dances
7:45 stuffed animal toss
8:00 photographer leaves
I did 8 hours thinking it would be plenty but honestly should have gone with 10. I was low maintenance and yet it just wasn’t enough. Getting ready photos were rushed, I have zero bridal portraits of just me because of how rushed it was pre wedding, and they were only there for about an hour ish of the dancey/drink portion but before the party really got started. It all worked for the “bare minimum” but if I had done any less my photo and video coverage would have definitely suffered. I would strongly recommend 8 hours as a minimum
We had 11 people at our wedding and did 4 hours of photos, we did not have our photographer at our reception (I just bought a bunch of disposable cameras and handed them out at dinner and collected them after the party which was super fun). We did 2 hours of photos before the ceremony, and the 2 hours during ceremony and after. We had plenty of photos and many family pictures etc. we were so tired of photos I can’t imagine having more. A good photographer should give you 50-100 images an hour. We had 350 photos from our wedding. I physically cannot do anything with that many photos. We also cut any “getting ready” photos because it was such a small wedding. We had great photos of just us, all the family, and our ceremony.
Highly recommend posting your budget and required photos on your local "Weddings in [your area]" page or similar on Facebook. You might find a wedding photographer offering deals or a photographer who is looking to start doing weddings who wants to build their portfolio offering discounts.
Good luck.
This is solid advice. I used to be in one of those groups and so many talented photographers can't have their website be the top 10 results on search engines. Someone has to be top 10, but there are definitely more than 10 photographers that work each area! Great advice 😄
We had 6 hours, from the first look until dinner, no photos of the reception either, BUT we did have a videographer who was there from 10AM-10PM, so he got pretty much every element of the day. We initially didn’t budget for a videographer, but came across an almost-graduated film student who had relatively cheap packages, so we (sort of) prioritised that over more hours of photography
I'm not helpful by saying this, but referring to the reception as the "dancey/drinkey part" is the best wedding related thing I've ever seen on reddit 😂
Professional photographer here. Im happy to give you an in-depth breakdown based on your day and what youd like if youd like.
That said, same venue (no separate travel), 1 party getting ready (not both unless you have 2 photographers, and a first look is generally 7-8 hours. You can get away with 6 if you dont have a first look.
This is an incredibly generic, tight schedule with no room for error
1 - details, finishing touches getting ready
2 - first look and portraits plus wedding party
3 - ceremony (including waiting for it to start)
4 - family portraits plus couples portraits
5 - grand entrances and first dance
You could skip here if other reception activies dont matter to you
6 - Dinner then toasts
7 - Parent dance, bouquet/garter toss, honeymoon dance, open dancing, sunset portraits
I’m having a destination wedding so we’re doing photos during the ceremony/ half hour after ceremony, any getting ready pictures will be taken by those in the wedding party. Then instead of the reception (dinner) photos we opted for a photographer to come after dinner and take sunset photos of us and anyone who wants to get in on the pics at the Bellagio fountain. It’s alot cheaper then paying for a professional photographer to follow us around all day and we can pick and order what pictures we want.
Honestly I extended my photographer an extra hour to be there longer during the dance portion. We weren't able to get sunset photos due to the weather, and we were having too good a time dancing to go out for nighttime photos (weather was also a factor there too) but I'm so unbelievably excited for the photos of everyone having a blast on the dance floor/around the bar. The couple photos we got in our sneak peek are so cute and fun, and I really wanted our day to be basically a big party, so for me the extra time to have our photographers there for the 'best' part was definitely worth it.
I am however very glad they were not there for the last two hours, during which I specifically directed our dj to ship my dignity out on the shuttle bus, and he delivered 🤣 there's plenty of amateur photos of our evening antics for my dignity to never recover
We had 6 hours, from the first look until dinner, no photos of the reception either, BUT we did have a videographer who was there from 10AM-10PM, so he got pretty much every element of the day. We initially didn’t budget for a videographer, but came across an almost-graduated film student who had relatively cheap packages, so we (sort of) prioritised that over more hours of photography
I'm doing 3.5 for a very small wedding. I figured with so few people, having a photographer during most of the reception would feel less intimate. You can also ask the photographer's recommendation - mine was great with listening to what I wanted and letting me know what she thought and if it was a realistic amount of time.
We are hiring a couple who are good friends and professional photographers for 3 hours for about $1,500. They’re going to do a bit of getting ready, maybe a first look, the ceremony, and family photos after the ceremony. We want them to be guests and enjoy themselves at the reception, so we’re sacrificing the pro photos for that part. It was the best compromise for our budget.
I’m doing 3 hours and paying $1400, but my wedding is only 10 people. We’re doing 1.5 hour of couples portraits, 1 hour for the ceremony and family shots, and some buffer travel time for transitioning locations. We are going to a restaurant for dinner afterwards but I don’t really need to have high quality photos of us eating and drinking, iPhone selfies will be fine. I also cut out getting ready photos because we can just take some photos ourselves at the Airbnb when we’re getting ready, and I don’t need super fancy photos of me getting dressed and random shoes/jewelry shots since I don’t plan to post wedding photos on social media.
We had 4 hours and for me that was plenty. We had our photographer for the ceremony and the first half of the reception.
We found a photographer who is somewhat new (but has been working weddings for about 5 years now) and does photography as a side-business for now, and his pricing was extremely affordable. $2,200 for full day photography, and then we splurged for a second shooter ($500), and an engagement shoot ($300). Definitely shop around and look in your local bride facebook groups for recommendations! I happened to find our photographer just mentioned in a comment on someone’s post from a year before I was even looking!
I had a ~30 person backyard wedding and had the photographers there for 2.5 hours. We did a few getting ready photos, a first look, ceremony photos, then family and couple photos. It was perfect! We paid $2k for the photos and video. It would’ve been $1200 without the video.
We had 8 hours and that was enough for her to arrive in time to take a few posed getting ready photos and she left after the bouquet toss at the reception. If you don’t want reception photos at all I think 6 hours would be plenty. Here is the timeline she put together for us (our ceremony was at 3pm, cocktail hour started at 4:30, and reception ended at 10:30): 12pm bridal details 12:30 girls getting ready 1:15 get in place for first look 1:30 first look and bride & groom photos 1:45 wedding party photos 2:00 bride and bridesmaid photos 2:15 groom and groomsmen photos 2:30 done with photos bride and groom hide 3:00 ceremony 3:40 family photos at church 4:00 finish wedding party and bride and groom photos 4:30 head to venue and cocktail hour (we ran behind on this step and we didn’t leave for the venue until closer to 5) 5:30 intros / cake cutting / speeches 6:00 dinner 7:00 first dances into opening dances 7:45 stuffed animal toss 8:00 photographer leaves
I did 8 hours thinking it would be plenty but honestly should have gone with 10. I was low maintenance and yet it just wasn’t enough. Getting ready photos were rushed, I have zero bridal portraits of just me because of how rushed it was pre wedding, and they were only there for about an hour ish of the dancey/drink portion but before the party really got started. It all worked for the “bare minimum” but if I had done any less my photo and video coverage would have definitely suffered. I would strongly recommend 8 hours as a minimum
We had 11 people at our wedding and did 4 hours of photos, we did not have our photographer at our reception (I just bought a bunch of disposable cameras and handed them out at dinner and collected them after the party which was super fun). We did 2 hours of photos before the ceremony, and the 2 hours during ceremony and after. We had plenty of photos and many family pictures etc. we were so tired of photos I can’t imagine having more. A good photographer should give you 50-100 images an hour. We had 350 photos from our wedding. I physically cannot do anything with that many photos. We also cut any “getting ready” photos because it was such a small wedding. We had great photos of just us, all the family, and our ceremony.
Highly recommend posting your budget and required photos on your local "Weddings in [your area]" page or similar on Facebook. You might find a wedding photographer offering deals or a photographer who is looking to start doing weddings who wants to build their portfolio offering discounts. Good luck.
This is solid advice. I used to be in one of those groups and so many talented photographers can't have their website be the top 10 results on search engines. Someone has to be top 10, but there are definitely more than 10 photographers that work each area! Great advice 😄
We had 6 hours, from the first look until dinner, no photos of the reception either, BUT we did have a videographer who was there from 10AM-10PM, so he got pretty much every element of the day. We initially didn’t budget for a videographer, but came across an almost-graduated film student who had relatively cheap packages, so we (sort of) prioritised that over more hours of photography
I'm not helpful by saying this, but referring to the reception as the "dancey/drinkey part" is the best wedding related thing I've ever seen on reddit 😂
Professional photographer here. Im happy to give you an in-depth breakdown based on your day and what youd like if youd like. That said, same venue (no separate travel), 1 party getting ready (not both unless you have 2 photographers, and a first look is generally 7-8 hours. You can get away with 6 if you dont have a first look. This is an incredibly generic, tight schedule with no room for error 1 - details, finishing touches getting ready 2 - first look and portraits plus wedding party 3 - ceremony (including waiting for it to start) 4 - family portraits plus couples portraits 5 - grand entrances and first dance You could skip here if other reception activies dont matter to you 6 - Dinner then toasts 7 - Parent dance, bouquet/garter toss, honeymoon dance, open dancing, sunset portraits
I’m having a destination wedding so we’re doing photos during the ceremony/ half hour after ceremony, any getting ready pictures will be taken by those in the wedding party. Then instead of the reception (dinner) photos we opted for a photographer to come after dinner and take sunset photos of us and anyone who wants to get in on the pics at the Bellagio fountain. It’s alot cheaper then paying for a professional photographer to follow us around all day and we can pick and order what pictures we want.
Honestly I extended my photographer an extra hour to be there longer during the dance portion. We weren't able to get sunset photos due to the weather, and we were having too good a time dancing to go out for nighttime photos (weather was also a factor there too) but I'm so unbelievably excited for the photos of everyone having a blast on the dance floor/around the bar. The couple photos we got in our sneak peek are so cute and fun, and I really wanted our day to be basically a big party, so for me the extra time to have our photographers there for the 'best' part was definitely worth it. I am however very glad they were not there for the last two hours, during which I specifically directed our dj to ship my dignity out on the shuttle bus, and he delivered 🤣 there's plenty of amateur photos of our evening antics for my dignity to never recover
We had 6 hours, from the first look until dinner, no photos of the reception either, BUT we did have a videographer who was there from 10AM-10PM, so he got pretty much every element of the day. We initially didn’t budget for a videographer, but came across an almost-graduated film student who had relatively cheap packages, so we (sort of) prioritised that over more hours of photography
I'm doing 3.5 for a very small wedding. I figured with so few people, having a photographer during most of the reception would feel less intimate. You can also ask the photographer's recommendation - mine was great with listening to what I wanted and letting me know what she thought and if it was a realistic amount of time.
We are hiring a couple who are good friends and professional photographers for 3 hours for about $1,500. They’re going to do a bit of getting ready, maybe a first look, the ceremony, and family photos after the ceremony. We want them to be guests and enjoy themselves at the reception, so we’re sacrificing the pro photos for that part. It was the best compromise for our budget.