Photography Timeline

The hours depends on how long you plan the timeline.

We had planned 12 hours from what we planned out. It started from getting ready and details to our reception.

Thank you everyone for all the input!

Hi Marissa! I went with 8 hours of coverage, and had my photographers take getting ready pictures but leave before the reception ended. I wanted lots of candid shots of my guests, but even still my photographer said that they really don't need to be taking pictures the whole reception!

Here's another post from January that has a bunch of responses about photography coverage as well:

All about wedding photography - How many hours of photography do you need?

We have our photographer for 9 hours. I think we'll just have them show up at the tail end of getting ready, right before I put my dress on. I might have my camera handy in case anyone wants to take photos while we're getting ready but figured professional wasn't needed for those.

We did 10 hours. There will be some getting ready and some of the reception but the most important to us is the ceremony and group shots

It depends what you are looking for, and you'll need to know your ceremony time before you can finalize the time of your photographer.

We are sort of doing getting ready photos... this is our time line:

1:30PM - Photographer is going to where the groom/groomsmen is getting ready. They'll take some pictures of the boys then

3:00PM - Photographer comes to the venue where myself and my girls will already have hair/make up done but will be putting on our dresses. We'll have final getting ready pics and then mum/daughter and bride/bridesmaid picks.

4:30PM ceremony starts

5:00PM - 6:00PM cocktail hour/photography hour

6:30PM - Reception starts. Our photographer will be joining us for dinner and capturing images of the speeches and first dance. They can then leave around 9:30PM which is when the dance floor was going to really start.

Our photographer is a flat rate for all day. He will do from get ready to about an hour into reception. I guess in your case it will depend on what's most important to you. For me I feel like although he will take the pics, the reception pics aren't as important to me then the special moments he can get from the morning and tyring the ceremony and speeches

Ours is for 10 hours. We will have him from 11-9 which will cover us getting dressed, our first look, and most of the reception.

We got ours for 12 hours just because we were thinking of getting ready and what not. The other photographer we were looking at his one package was for 14 hours. It seems like a lot but then your not missing any of your day. That being said it’s up to you if you want those pictures of getting ready. I am also planning on getting a friend who has done photography to do an extra couple hours for me when I’m getting my hair done because I may have to travel for my hair appointment which may take an hour both ways so I don’t want to eat up that 12 hours of photography with travel time.