Hiring a wedding photographer is one of the most important tasks for a wedding couple. A couple may wonder for what length of time they should spend in photography. Wedding photographers offer various types of coverage such as 4 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours, ½ day, full day, all day and so on. Here are a few useful tips on how much photography coverage you should choose for your big day.
Photography Coverage Explained
You should first understand that barring you give certain special instructions to your Brisbane or Sydney wedding photographer, the photography coverage will be “continuous” coverage i.e. they won’t cover your wedding in stages, unless told otherwise. E.g. if you choose an 8-hour coverage, they won’t provide their photography from 10 am to 1 pm, then take a break, then from 3 pm to 7 pm etc.
You may wonder what they mean by “½ day coverage” or “full day coverage”. You shouldn’t assume anything and just ask the photographer what it means because the meanings of these terms vary from photographer to photographer. Some mean 8 hours, while some others mean 12 hours by full day coverage. But you may expect to get a lot more from “all day” coverage, right?
Wedding Day
A wedding day consists of many parts, each of which is considered important and worth photographing by most couples, especially brides. Here are each section of your wedding and the amount of time you should give them for photographing.
Getting Ready
Ideally a bride should allot at least 3 hours for her own hair and makeup and around 1 ½ hours each for her bridesmaids. But it’s not necessary that your photographer starts photographing you getting ready right after you’re out of bed. Instead they can arrive just in time to capture some shots of your hair and makeup, details (dress, shoes, ring etc.), bridal portraits and first look. This may possibly need around 2 to 3 hours depending upon your particular timeline.
First Look
If you choose to have a traditional first look during the ceremony, it won’t affect the time of your Melbourne, Adelaide or Sydney wedding photography since it’s going to happen anyway. However, if you choose to have a pre-ceremony first look, you should remember certain things. Firstly, you should strictly limit the number of people present during this moment. It’s better to have only you and your partner, at the most you can allow parents to get involved. The shooting of first look should ideally be not more than thirty minutes.
Ceremony
The time required to photograph your ceremony will depend on its length. Most of today’s couples opt for a shorter ceremony of 15-20 minutes. It’s advisable to allocate 15-20 minutes extra along with the length of your ceremony in case some unforeseen issue arises.
Post Ceremony
Depending upon whether you choose to have a pre-ceremony first look, you’ll get time for post-ceremony photographs. If you wish to have all the photographs during this time, you’ll need minimum two hours for the photos. However, if you choose to have only a couple of photos of the wedding party and then photographs of you and your partner, you can allocate around one to one and a half hours of time.
Reception
Your reception will last for a set length of time, typically five hours. However, you don’t need to have your photographer present for you all the time. You can usually stop coverage a half to one hour before the end of your reception and get all the important moments photographed including guests’ dance.
All in all, you’ll need 8 to 12 hours of photography on your big day. Choose a suitable package and enjoy your day!