Another Wedding photography time question...

laurenes

Hello All! I'm planning a May 20th wedding, with my ceremony to start at 6:45 (weird time I know, we had to work around the church's schedule). Since It's a Catholic ceremony it will last about an hour, putting us at 7:45, FI and I decided we wanted to do a first look and take bridal party picture before the wedding so we'd only have to take some family photos before heading into the reception.

We definitely want our photographer there from beginning of getting dressed to the end. How much time should we allot from first look to ceremony to have a solid variety of bridal party pictures? One hour? Two? My cousin just did three but she looked like she was miserable at the end of her massive photo session when we arrived.

fallbride1109

We also did a first look and took our wedding party photos from 5-6.  We did not however, take our bride and groom portraits until after the ceremony so if you want to take those at your first look, I would add another 30 minutes.  But 3 hours is way too long.  Your photographer can help you plan your timeline also. 

maggielynn07

Since you are having a first look (so glad that you are! I am a photographer and I can't tell you how many times the first look calmed brides & grooms nerves!) I would plan on about 45min - 1  hour for that, then about an hour for bridal party photos. So, with about 2 hours of photos before the wedding I would say that it normally takes about 1 hr - 1.5 hrs to get good detail shots of everyone getting ready. So really you are looking at having the photographer there about 3.5- 4 hours before your ceremony. My suggestion is to do a brain dump of every photo that you think you might want of you & your new hubby and both of you with your bridal party. Then when you sit down with your photographer you can go over the list and they should be able to tell you what they think about how much time that would take. I know it sounds like a lot of time before hand, but you will be so thankful that you did the photos before because then after the ceremony you can enjoy your food, drinks and guests! One other piece of advise, really the amount of time depends on the photographer. I know it might sound strange but some people can get it done in a shorter amount of time. For my clients, the hours I said above are what I typically shoot to get a solid variety of photos.

Maggie
www.mlphotoanddesign.com

Shutterbug101108

I'd recommend a two hour prior to ceremony start time which will allow your photographer to capture getting ready shots and then also shots with you and your girls or parent.  About an hour post ceremony is also recommended, and then at least 2 hours post dinner.  Usually about 8 hours will take care of most photography needs.