Question for the already married SBers...

AllAboutTheBenjamin

How long did you guys take pictures for?

Our photographer wants three hours.  When we booked him and sat down chatting with him and he told us that, it didn't seem bad.  But my FSIL just asked me what time pictures start on Saturday, and and when I told her 1pm (our wedding starts at 4:30), it just felt... weird.

Is this a long damn time to be taking pictures?

tidetravel

Our family, WP and formal pics took about an hour.  3 hours seems like a REALLY long time to me.

[Deleted User]

Yeah that seems really long. Then again, we took maybe 15-20 minutes. Pictures weren't a big deal to us and we did our family shots and that was about it.

raynes

Is there transportation to and from places worked in there?  Because we pretty much had 3 hours set aside and did NOT get enough.  Mind you, that was the photog showing up at my parents house while people were still getting makeup done. 

We didn't get nearly as many pictues of the two of us as I would have liked. 

If youv'e already got everything planned around pictures starting at 1pm, stick with it.  You'll be able to go at a nice leisurely pace and not be rushed.  Then, if you finish early, you and your very-soon-to-be-H can take a moment chill.

[Deleted User]

3 hours seems crazy and selfish to me. What are your guests going to be doing during that time. Not a fan. Ours took about 30 minutes. We just wanted to party.

suze423

You mean for the WP/family?  We had about 45 minutes or so I think, but I didn't want to see DH before the wedding so we had to take them between the ceremony and the reception and we also had a really small WP and neither of us have a huge family.  Three hours seems like a really long time to me.

maratea

We did all of our pictures between the ceremony and reception. I think with family formals and just B/G, it was about 1.5 hours. That was just about too long for me. My face was tired from smiling even though I was so happy to be married.

At the end of our pictures, the photographer was like "Come on, smile." And I said "My heart is smiling. But my face is done with that."

missy68

20 minutes.  All studio shots. My SIL took photos afterwards at the reception, etc.

AllAboutTheBenjamin

OH - I should clarify, the pictures won't be keeping guests waiting.  We're doing them ALL before the wedding.  Pictures would start at 1pm, wedding at 4:30, and then reception starts right after the wedding is over.

But yeah, we aren't going anywhere other than the chapel to take photos during that three hour time slot.  And it's effing November in ND - I doubt it will be warm enough for too many outdoor pictures to be bearable.

It just seems like a freaking long ass time to me.  My sister used someone else and hers didn't take this long - the only reason we're using someone else is because her photog had to travel, and my folks wanted to save money.  Ours is the only guy who does wedding photos in my hometown.

dmiller9274

Our plan is to have 3 hours before the ceremony so people don't have to wait between ceremony and reception. We have to travel part of that time though, and we're stopping at a bar for FI and the boys to do a shot with their favorite bartender. 

ichellemay1

I think my 1st wedding took 30-45 mins after.  I'm not sure how long she took before because we did them separately - probably another 45 mins. or so.  3 hours does seem a bit long.

anna.oskar

Yeah, that seems long.  We took pictures between noon and 2pm and then had our 3pm ceremony

[Deleted User]

Ah. Well, that's different. I would probably get tired and pissy after about an hour.

Steph0871

Hey! I can answer this now

Honestly, we only took pictures for about 30 minutes before the ceremony... for girls and guys separated.  Then we took about an hour and a half after for all of the family pictures and the combined couple/wp pictures.  And, um, we had 5 separate families to deal with (my mom, my dad, his mom, his dad, his ex-step mom.)  We also walked about 20 minutes away to take some pictures by railroad tracks.

So. My short answer- 3 hours seems insanely long.

Lenore2010

I would NOT spend three hours before my wedding getting pics taken. We spent one hour. That was plenty.

K&J64

Does this include your "prep" pictures of you getting ready? Our ceremony is at 5:30 and our photographer is starting at 1pm, but most of that will be getting ready photos and then some seperate photos with our respective families and WPs for about 30-45 minutes before the ceremony.

number55

ha ha ha...wow, I am going to sound super weird now. We had our photographer for 10 hours! She came at noon and left at 10pm. She took photos of the bridal party getting ready, all the detail shots, then me alone, then me with my family, then DH with his family and WP, then the ceremony, then we did shots with both of us and our families, us and WP, then just us, then she took photos at the reception til she left at 10pm (we kept dancing til just past 1am).

We did do most of the photography between the ceremony and reception. The ceremony was done at 4:30pm and we were done photos at 6pm (the WP was done at about 5:15 I think). Our reception started at 5pm so our guests were already eating apps and drinking, we entered at 6:15.

kd.joseph

Well we were weird and had no one with us but our MOH, and BM. So photos started before the ceremony at 1:30, during, after and a 3 hour photo shoot. So he was with us from 1:30pm-7:30pm.

AllAboutTheBenjamin

Nope - this does *not* include getting ready pics, or an arrival time.  In fact he was kinda anal about it, he told us that if we tell people that pics begin at 1pm, they will be late.  So we have to tell them to be ready even a little bit before that.

So he's doing three hours (apparently) of photos at the church of all of us doing God knows what, and he's going to take some photos at the reception as well.  I don't really need getting ready pictures, not professional ones anyway.

maratea

I'd be slightly peeved if my photographers was telling me to do anything, especially "be here at this time or you're late." Seems like he should be working around your schedule...

allisong23

I think ours were just about 2 hours. We left the ceremony location to go to the beach though (about 5 minutes away).

AllAboutTheBenjamin

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_question-already-married-sbers?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:b40819f6-321b-4fd9-835d-376c6188d491Post:553806fd-8561-45af-8f8c-422aa53f6ac8">Re: Question for the already married SBers...</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Question for the already married SBers... : I just assumed AATB meant pre-wedding and formals or what have you. Our photogs stayed through the reception, so in TOTAL, about 10 hours.
Posted by mag920[/QUOTE]

Yep - that's what I meant.  He'll be around during the wedding and during the first part of the reception, but he wants three damn straight hours of formal and posed picture taking.

I'm already tired of it just thinking of it.

meganyani

I agree it's excessive JUST for shots of the wedding party/you guys. We took most of our family pics and all of our bride/groom pics before the wedding. It literally took 25 minutes. Rest of extended family pics after the reception took 15 more. /shrug. Guess it depends on the settings you want but we did it simple.

Either way, maybe you will just get done early and can relax for a bit.

betrothed123

We had our photographer for about 4 hours total, but that includes her shooting the reception.  We took about 45 minutes to an hour of B&G/ family/ WP shots.  Beyond that her time was spent shooting at the ceremony and reception.  3 hours for those B&G/ family/ WP shots seems excessive.