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Timeline

apples&pearsapples&pears
First Comment
in Catholic Weddings
Hey Ladies! I need some suggestions! Heres the story...
We are having a somewhat destination wedding (about 2-2.5 hours from most family and friends). We were planning on bussing most guests from the hotels, to the church (full catholic mass- 1 hr), to the reception, and back to the hotels at the end of the night. The problem, is that if we have the buses take the guests to the reception immediately after the ceremony, the photographer says we wont have enough time for pictures. She says we need at least 1 hour and 20 minutes for pictures, and that we have to be at our cocktail party for at least 10 minutes so she has some time to take "detail" pictures of the reception before anyone enters. We don't want to take any pictures before the ceremony because I love the whole "everyone sees the bride when the church doors open" kind of feel. We also didn't want our guests to have too much of a break in between ceremony and reception (with the hour mass, its kind of a long day anyway, and I feel like everyone is going to want to get the party started!)

Does anyone have suggestions on what to do? How to add more time between ceremony and reception for these pictures??

help!


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Re: Timeline

  • banana468banana468 member
    First Answer First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Why can't you do photos during the cocktail hour?  One hour is PLENTY for photos and your guests should have something to do while you take them.

    Remember, you can get great photos in a variety of places.  Your photographer is also going to want to make as much money as possible which may mean saying that you need more photo time than you actually do.
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  • apples&pearsapples&pears
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    My photographer said she needs at least 1 hour and 20 minutes. She said 20 minutes for families, 30 minutes for bridal party, 30 minutes for bride and groom. She also needs us to be at the cocktail hour for at least 10 minutes so that she was be free to take pics of the details of the reception before the guests enter. 
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    We got married at 1pm. We had full Mass. We did not see each other before the wedding, however, our photographer took pics of me and all of my BM's, both Mom's Grandma's etc before the wedding. He did the same for the guys as well.

    After the ceremony was over, the guests headed to the reception venue to enjoy cocktails and appetizers/hor'dourves. Most of them arrived between 2:30-2:45 as our church was not far from our reception venue. When my husband and I and the rest of our WP got to the country club, we did more pics outside while everyone else was mingling, eating and drinking. It worked out just fine.

    Dinner was served around 4:30 with the salads being brought out first and the meals being brought out around 5:00pm. No one complained nor did we hear any comments that people didn't enjoy themselves. Our guests also took plenty of pics which we also received and we have tons of pics for our photo albums and scrapbooks.
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  • GulfCoasterGulfCoaster
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Can you do any pictures before the ceremony?  We did all our pictures before the ceremony at an awesome outdoor location.  I know you still want that dramatic "reveal" moment, but you could at least do some of the photos beforehand -- e.g. photos of you with your BMs, photos of him with his GMs...  that would probably cut a few minutes from your photographer's total photo time. 

    ETA:  1 hour and 20 minutes for formals strikes me as a lot (mine were 55 minutes, and I was just a BM in a wedding that completed formals in 40 minutes), but I guess your photographer knows her own timeline.  Do you really care about "detail" shots of the reception?  I assume this means she will be doing things like taking photos of your centerpieces, etc.  These photos are important to some people, but entirely unimportant to others -- it's up to you.
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  • Beachy730Beachy730 member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011

    Our photographer first went to H's grandparents where he and the GMs got ready.  My ILs also went there, so they got all the pictures of the GM and H's family done there.  Then he came to my parents house where I was with my BMs and parents.  We got all of those pictures done. then. 

    Our photographer asked us to give him a list of what pictures we wanted of family after the ceremony.  That way he knew who to have stay, and didn't waste our time on pictures we didn't want.  You should sit down with your Fi and decide which ones you want to take.  You can ask both sets of parents as well if you choose.  H and I were much more interested in the candids and fun pictures of the wedding than posed pictures, so we only took the necessities.  So your photographer may be expecting to take way more pictures than you even want. 

    And ditto the PP who said you might not even want the pictures of the reception room.  The only thing we used those for were to send to our vendors who asked for them.  Our photographer took about 50 pictures of the room and different parts of it, and it made no difference to me if I had them or not.  It wasn't cutting into our time though. 

    imageBabyFruit Ticker
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  • Calypso1977Calypso1977 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    i woudl do all of your pictures before hand.  this allows more time with your guests.  also, everyone is at their best - no tear stains, wilted flowers, etc.
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  • banana468banana468 member
    First Answer First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Ditto doing photos beforehand.

    Even if you don't see your FI before you walk down the aisle, you can do tons of photos in advance.

    And you're paying your photographer so you're in charge here.  Tell her that you need her to shorten her time and what can and can't be taken.  If she needs shots of the reception venue before the guests enter, can you do cocktail hour in another place?

    The big thing here is that you shouldn't be inconveniencing your guests for the sake of what your photographer wants.
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  • Calypso1977Calypso1977 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    also, do you care about those "detail" photos???  to me, those rank right up there with getting ready photos.  nice to have, but dont necessarily need to be taken by a pricey photographer. 
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  • doctabroccolidoctabroccoli member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011

    If you do need the time, have you thought about having a little mingling/cocktail time at the church before you bus the people to the reception?

    BabyFruit Ticker
    Waiting to meet the baby broccoli on 5/5/2013!
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  • AcarluccioAcarluccio member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_timeline?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:402dfd7c-9ac3-4264-84b8-c168404ff6b3Post:8dba650e-7659-4c90-9c95-4e0d4cea870e">Re: Timeline</a>:
    [QUOTE]If you do need the time, have you thought about having a little mingling/cocktail time at the church before you bus the people to the reception?
    Posted by doctabroccoli[/QUOTE]

    <div>
    </div><div>Intriguing... How would that work?</div>
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