Wedding Photography
Planning Guide
We understand selecting wedding photography can be a daunting task. You know you want quality wedding photography. You’re also looking to not spend the moon on photos you don’t need. You may not know what the effective differences are between a package for 5 hours of wedding photography versus 12 hours of wedding photography. Price sheets cram a lot of information into a small space. There can be options for everything, multiple package options, one, two or three photographers, adding a photo booth, what’s the difference besides time and price for all these packages?
We hope this guide can provide some context and clarity in your decision process.
We want to share our knowledge and experience with you to help you make the best informed decision for your event. No pressured sales pitches, just examples of the value of different durations of photography and how they can effect what we can capture for you.
Generally, we as photographers think about your wedding day in terms of what parts of the day we can cover with the time we have. How can we maximize our efforts for you? If the plan is for a shorter duration package, we’ll need to make decisions with you on which parts of the day are the most important to you. We may even need to reorganize away from a standard schedule to ensure key moments are captured.
A couple examples before we take a deeper dive into our offerings and what they mean for you:
Are you more interested in capturing photos of prep, and less interested in excitement on the dance floor?
We can shift a shorter coverage package forward in the day to accommodate that - start early, end early.
Are you considering a shorter package but unsure how that impacts the timing for reception?
We may need to reorganize the schedule by doing making changes like having the first dance and cake cutting right away after introductions. This compresses the reception schedule and allows us to capture more important events in a shorter amount of time.
Do you have a desire to capture portraits at a site that is not the ceremony or reception, like photos on the beach?
We may need to add time or upgrade to a long package so there’s time to maximize portrait opportunities
Are you looking to have a comprehensive story of the day for a wedding album?
That’s a much longer day that may involve morning hair and make-up appointments, a first look, travel to and from various event and photography locations, all the way through stunning sunset portraits on the beach, and excitement on the dance floor.
12 hours of wedding photography
Why choose a 12 hour package?
12 hour packages enable us to create a comprehensive visual tale of your wedding day.
We are able to elements from each of the segments of the day, Hair&Make up prep, getting dressed, reveal to your bridal party, a first look.
12 hours also gives us a lot of flexibility to take on a larger slate of photography. Portraits in multiple locations, (like the beach, a city scene, at the ceremony site, as well as at the reception site.
We can fit multiple locations in for portrait photography
Typically we can include a portrait session at the prep location, a session for the bride and bridesmaids at their location and a session for the groom and groomsmen at their location. We also have opportunity for a joint portrait session prior to the wedding. Get the majority of pictures out of the way before things start.
We can save extended family portraits for following the ceremony, and add a portrait session at the reception location.
Give us the time and we will build a comprehensive collection of beautiful images.
10 hours of wedding photography
Adding Hours A La Carte
How does adding time to our base package change what is possible with photography?
A number of our clients start with the base package and add extra time.
Reasons to add extra time:
Distance between venues
seeking portrait photography at a separate location from ceremony and reception
seeking a more comprehensive selection of images
accommodate larger wedding parties (larger parties require more time)
provide more flexibility in the schedule in the event of changes or delays on the day of
cover a bit of prep or a bit of dancing more than would be possible with a 5 hour package.
8 hours of wedding photography
Eight Hours of wedding Photography
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5 hours of wedding photography
Five Hours of Wedding Photography Coverage
Our base wedding photography package, the Spotlight, is a 5 hour package.
We feel this amount of time is enough to capture the essentials of a wedding day: Ceremony, Portraits, Toasts/Speeches, and a short window of dancing.
The major downside for this type of package? A lack of flexibility. We absolutely can capture the elements, but there may be a bit of a rushed feeling to some portions of the schedule. We are on a tight schedule and
We also won’t be able to extend portrait sessions to get creative and capture truly amazing shots. All our shot will be professional and high quality, just the more creative shots take more time to set up and that may not be time we have in the schedule.
A sample schedule for a 5 hour wedding starting at 4pm:
4:00p - Photography starts at the start of the wedding ceremony
4:45p - Ceremony concludes with recessional
5:00p - Family photos at ceremony site
5:30p - Wedding party photos at ceremony site
5:45p - Bridal portraits at ceremony site
6:15p - Transition to reception site
6:30p - Limited photography of cocktail hour and reception site before guests are seated for dinner
7:00p - Wedding party introduced
7:30p - Toasts/speeches
8:15p - Cake cutting
8:30p - First Dance
8:40p - Special dances (Father&Daughter, Mother&Son, Anniversary, etc)
9:00p - Dance floor opens
9:00p - Photography ends
This package involves making some important decisions regarding what is covered by the photography.
… Something else here.
Adding Hours A La Carte
How does adding time to our base package change what is possible with photography?
A number of our clients start with the base package and add extra time.
Reasons to add extra time:
Distance between venues
seeking portrait photography at a separate location from ceremony and reception
seeking a more comprehensive selection of images
accommodate larger wedding parties (larger parties require more time)
provide more flexibility in the schedule in the event of changes or delays on the day of
cover a bit of prep or a bit of dancing more than would be possible with a 5 hour package.