Wedding Day Photography Coverage Hours | Education

Photography Coverage Hours

One of the most common questions I get from brides is about coverage hours. This question comes before booking, usually 6 months to a year before the wedding. That makes it especially challenging for a couple who probably has very little experience planning a wedding and doesn’t yet have any specific ideas of what the timeline of the big day will look like.

This and several other common questions have inspired me to do a series of educational blog posts for brides as they think about photography for their wedding. I’m really excited about these, and I hope they help demystify what can be a stressful process!

I strongly recommend to all my couples to consider 8 hours of coverage as a starting point. In my experience, for a typical wedding day, any less than 8 hours adds unnecessary stress to a day that should be about celebrating and prevents me from doing my best work.

There are exceptions to every rule, which is why I say “typical wedding.” I define a typical wedding as having over 50 guests and some kind of sit-down meal, usually dinner. Most weddings fall into this category. If you are having an extremely small wedding (under 50 people total) or are envisioning a short (think 2 hours or less) afternoon reception, you may be able to consider fewer coverage hours. If you have a particularly long reception in mind or have more than two locations you want photographs at throughout the day, you may need more than 8. If you think either of these situations might describe your wedding, I would love to talk to you more about it!

After shooting many different styles of weddings, I have found that 8 hours is the sweet spot because it gives us some breathing room in our schedule. Having that bit of margin in the timeline not only reduces stress, but gives you a chance to get used to the camera. This allows the shots you really care about to be more relaxed and natural. I can’t tell you how often I’ve begun coverage right before a bride puts on her dress and the photos seem stiff or uncomfortable. That getting ready time is so important! 8 hours of coverage also gives me plenty of time to work on the pretty little details of your day. I usually begin with detail shots because it gives me time to get into a creative groove that sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Finally, at least 8 hours gives us time to be creative with wedding party and couple portraits. These portraits are some of my favorite parts of every wedding day and I hate when we have to rush through them to get to the next thing. If you want a lot of variety and creativity in your portraits you have to make time for it! I will save the specifics of how much time for a post about wedding day timelines, but for the best wedding photography experience and the best photos think 8 hours! The following are some of favorite portraits that I’ve been able to capture because we had the time for it.