Costs / 3 min readThe Union in Frame journal
How many hours of wedding photography do you actually need?
Words by Union in Frame
Coverage is sold by the hour, so your list of moments must become a number. Set four, six, eight, ten or twelve hours against a typical UK wedding day and each has a clear start, a clear finish and something it leaves out. Sometimes the better buy is a second photographer, not more hours.
Start at the ceremony and count outwards
Photography hours are consecutive, so the question is where coverage starts and stops. Put the ceremony in the middle and work outwards. A register office ceremony, or a civil ceremony at a licensed venue, is usually short, often under half an hour; a church service is closer to an hour.
Then add the fixed events around it: travel between venues, the meal, the speeches and any firm finish time. Be realistic about each stage rather than hopeful. The gap between your first and last moment is the number you are buying.
Four or six hours for a compact day
Four hours fits a register office wedding followed by a meal in one place. Coverage starts as guests gather, takes in the ceremony, confetti, a short portrait walk and the start of the reception, and ends as the meal is served. It misses getting ready and everything after dinner.
Six hours stretches that one way or the other: start an hour earlier for the last of the preparations, or run through the meal to the speeches. Either the morning or the evening is still left out, so decide which you would rather keep.
Eight hours is the usual full-day shape
Eight hours is often what a full-day package means, so check rather than assume. On a typical day it runs from the final hour of getting ready, through a mid-afternoon ceremony, drinks and family groups, into the meal, the speeches and the first dance.
What it misses sits at the edges: the quiet early preparation, and the later evening once the dancing has settled in. If your ceremony is at eleven, or the evening entertainment does not start until ten, the shape changes and eight hours may not reach both ends.
Ten and twelve hours reach the edges
Ten hours lets you start while the room is still calm, with hair and make-up under way, and finish an hour or so into the dancing. It suits a church wedding with travel to a second venue, where the day is simply longer.
Twelve hours runs from early preparation to a late reception, including the evening guests and the party at its busiest. Once the dance floor is full, the pictures start to repeat, so a planned send-off or last dance is a stronger reason to stay than the clock alone.
When a second photographer beats extra hours
Extra hours solve a problem of time. A second photographer solves a problem of place. If you are both getting ready in different locations, or you want the reception room photographed while you are still at the church, adding hours does not help; two people in two places does.
A second photographer also helps with a large guest list, a ceremony seen from both ends of the aisle, or a quick turnaround between the meal and the party. If the gap is simply that coverage ends before the speeches, buy the hours.
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