Wedding Photography and Videography Forum

How many hours for photographer

we are trying to figure out how many hours to hire a photographer for?

Re: How many hours for photographer

  • That depends. How long is your ceremony and reception? Are you planning to do a first look or take photos during cocktail hour? How many posed group shots and/or bridal party shots do you want? Do you want getting ready photos?
  • emmyg65 said:
    That depends. How long is your ceremony and reception? Are you planning to do a first look or take photos during cocktail hour? How many posed group shots and/or bridal party shots do you want? Do you want getting ready photos?
    Ceremony is only 30 minutes and reception is 5 hours.Not doing a first look but definitely pictures during the cocktail hour.
    getting ready photos not sure how many group shots yet.
  • JMalettasJMalettas member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    edited July 2014
     I think at this point, it depends on what you want pics of, and the timeline of your day. If you want getting ready pictures, then you'll need them before the ceremony. So you'll need that start time, through to end time. I'm going to assume you want them for first-dance pics, maybe cake cutting, guests dancing pics, etc? Firstly, if you're having them take pictures at your reception, you will need to feed them. (Most photographers have this in their contracts). So I would say to add up the time from the start of pictures, through your ceremony, until the cake-cutting portion, (as this is usually a bit later), and that's around the time you would hire them for. You can't just do a certain amount of time here and there, throughout the day. So you just figure out the amount of time between getting ready pictures, and the last thing, time wise, that you want pictures of. (Cake cutting as just an example). :)

     Good luck! :)

     *J
  • P.S: For us, our photographer started at about 12-12:30ish, (we had a 2PM wedding), and continued to take pictures until around 10PM. So they did roughly 10 hours, to get pictures of a little of everything. We had to supply dinner, (which was the same as what our guests ate), and otherwise, he was welcome to the food/water we had for our bridal party, that we had with us on hand, during pictures, post ceremony. 

     *J
  • If you want photos from getting ready through the dancing at your reception, it sounds like you'll need at least eight hours. 
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