Hours of Coverage Needed for Your Wedding

How many hours of photography coverage do you really need for your wedding? The short answer is normally 8 hours. The long answer is the amount of coverage needed can vary depending on your desires, needs, and budget. Here, I’ll talk about common amounts of coverage for weddings and the pros and cons of each.

4 Hours of Coverage

I only recommend this amount of coverage if you’re eloping or only having a ceremony. This amount of coverage would not leave time to photograph an entire reception. With 4 hours of coverage, you could expect to have minimal getting ready photos, bride and groom portraits, ceremony coverage, and possibly some family portraits.

Some brides like to choose this package when they’re on a tight budget and they are ok with sacrificing reception coverage in order to save money. This could be a good strategy in saving money, since I would agree that the reception photos are not the most important photos of the day. Also, in terms of wedding photos, quality over quantity matters, so if you can only afford one, definitely go with quality.

Below is a sample timeline for 4 hours of coverage (ceremony only):

• 12:00pm-12:45pm: details photos (dress, invitation suite, rings, etc.)
• 12:45pm-1:15pm: getting ready photos of bride
• 1:15pm-1:30pm: first look
• 1:30pm-2:00pm: bride and groom portraits
• 2:00pm-2:30pm: bridal party photos
• 2:30pm-3:00pm: bride in hiding for ceremony
• 3:00pm-3:30pm: ceremony
• 3:30pm-4:00pm: family portraits

6 Hours of Coverage

I purposefully don’t offer a 6 hour package because I don’t think it will set up your wedding timeline for success. 6 hours of coverage is too much to be ceremony only coverage, but not enough to be both ceremony and reception coverage. This amount of coverage leads to your wedding day being way too rushed and you being almost guaranteed to not get the amount of photos you’d like.

8 Hours of Coverage

This amount of coverage is the sweet spot! It’s why you see most photographers offering 8 hours for their full packages of coverage.

In my opinion, it’s a great amount of coverage because you’re getting all the important photos of your wedding without it being overkill. The truth is you really don’t need more than an hour’s worth of dancing photos. After about an hour, they all start to look the same anyway, and I personally don’t think several hours of dancing photography coverage is money well spent. An hour max is all you need!

Below is a sample timeline for 8 hours of coverage:

• 12:00pm-12:45pm: details photos (dress, invitation suite, rings, etc.)
• 12:45pm-1:30pm: getting ready photos of bride
• 1:30pm-1:45pm: first look
• 1:45pm-2:30pm: bride and groom portraits
• 2:30pm-3:00pm: bridal party photos
• 3:00pm-3:30pm: bride in hiding for ceremony
• 3:30pm-4:00pm: ceremony
• 4:00pm-4:30pm: family portraits
• 4:30pm-4:45pm: grand entrance at reception
• 4:45pm-5:00pm: speeches
• 5:00pm-6:00pm: dinner
• 6:00pm-6:15pm: cake cutting
• 6:15pm-6:30pm: first dances
• 6:30pm-6:45pm: bouquet toss or other games
• 6:45pm-8:00pm: open dancing photos

10+ Hours of Coverage

I recommend 10 or more hours of coverage if you have extensive travel time between getting ready, ceremony, or reception venues. I’d say extensive travel time is anything over an hour of total travel time during the day between venues.

Also, 10 hours of coverage is needed if you really want your reception exit to be photographed. I don’t recommend booking more coverage if that’s the only reason you want extra coverage. We can do something called a fake exit with your bridal party to capture those photos without you having to pay for your photographer to stay until the very end.

Book Me as Your Photographer!

If you haven’t already, inquire now if you’d like to book me as your wedding photographer! Here’s my pricing page if you want to make sure I’m a good fit for your price point first!