How many hours do you need a photographer for the wedding day? Sometimes it can be a tricky thing to figure out on your own but it’s important to find what will suit your day best.

Here are a few questions your should ask yourself:

How many people are in the wedding party and how big is your immediate family?
The bigger the wedding party and family, the more time will be needed for formal portraits. Gathering up everyone, getting them to the location of portraits, and posing takes roughly 1 hour for big groups. You can alleviate yourself some stress by assigning a loud (but friendly) family member to help with gathering everyone.

Will you be doing a First Look with your Groom, Bridal Party and/or Father?
The First Look with your Groom is what I would plan the most time for…but gathering an entire Bridal Party and speaking with each of them after the reveal is a time consuming moment. The First Look with your Father or someone special in your life should be around 10 mins with Bridal Party around 15-20 mins, then with the Groom 15-20 minutes. So in all, around 45-50 mins for all three First Looks.

Will there be any traveling between getting ready location, First Looks location, Ceremony, and Reception?
You will need to factor in any driving time between locations. Use Maps to get a starting point, then add in 5-10 mins for traffic.

The typical wedding coverage time is 8 hours without a lot of travel time between locations. If you need any help deciding on your wedding photography coverage needs, reach out and I’ll be glad to help!