How Many Hours of Wedding Photography Do You Actually Need?

4 Hours? 6 Hours? 8 Hours? How would you know?! I didn't know how many hours of photography I needed when I got married either. But it's one of the first decisions you'll need to make when you're choosing a wedding photographer.

And it's tempting to start by looking at the prices and deciding from there. Instead, I'd start with a completely different question:

Which parts of your wedding day do you want to remember?

Think beyond what feels important right now. In 40 years, which photographs will you want to pull out to jog your memory? Do you want to remember getting ready with your mom or your best friends? Your dad seeing you in your dress? Your almost-husband waiting for you at the end of the aisle? Your grandparents on the dance floor? Everyone you love being together in the same room?

Because while your ceremony itself might only last 15 or 20 minutes, your wedding photos aren't really about documenting 15 minutes. They're about everything happening around those 15 minutes too. 

Once you know which parts of the day matter to you, figuring out how many hours you need becomes a whole lot easier.

Is 4 Hours of Wedding Photography Enough? 

Four hours can work really well for a simpler wedding day when you don't need getting-ready coverage and aren't expecting photography to continue far into the reception.

With a first look, we can use some of that time before the ceremony for portraits of the two of you and your wedding party. Without a first look, those photographs need to happen after the ceremony along with family portraits, which makes the timeline considerably tighter.

There's still time for the ceremony, portraits, reception details and some of the major reception events. But there isn't a lot of extra room. That's really the thing to understand about four hours. It isn't that you can't photograph a wedding in four hours. You absolutely can. We just have to be intentional about which parts of the day you want documented.

If everything is happening at one location and you don't need getting-ready photos or much of the reception photographed, four hours may be exactly what you need.

If you're imagining photos of getting ready all the way through a packed dance floor, four hours probably isn't going to tell that entire story.

Why 6 Hours Is Our Most Popular Wedding Collection 

Six hours is our most popular wedding collection, and I think there's a reason it works so well for so many wedding days. For a lot of couples, it hits that sweet spot between covering the important parts of the day and not paying for hours of photography they don't really need.

Six hours gives us enough time to begin while you're getting ready, photograph the details you've spent months choosing, capture your ceremony and portraits, and stay through the major reception events. Depending on your timeline, that can include your entrance, first dance, toasts, cake cutting and some dancing.

It also gives us more flexibility when we're building your timeline. A first look, for example, allows us to photograph some of your portraits before the ceremony. If you don't want a first look, that's completely fine, but those photographs have to happen somewhere. Family photos, wedding-party portraits and your first portraits as husband and wife all move to after the ceremony.

And then there's sunset.

I plan our timelines around the actual sunset time on your wedding date because those last minutes of beautiful light aren't something we can move to a more convenient part of the day. Sometimes that means stepping away from the reception for portraits and then heading right back to celebrate.

Six hours gives us enough room to work with those pieces without photographing your wedding for longer than you actually need.

When Does 8 Hours of Wedding Photography Make Sense?

Eight hours makes the most sense when you want a more complete story of the day.

There's more time for getting ready, more breathing room before the ceremony and considerably more reception coverage afterward. We can photograph everything from getting ready and details through your ceremony, family and wedding-party portraits, sunset portraits, the major reception events and a much longer stretch of open dancing.

Eight hours can also make sense when your wedding has more moving pieces. If you're getting ready at a hotel, getting married at a church and celebrating somewhere else, we need to leave enough room in your timeline to get from one place to another without rushing through the photographs you care about.

And you know what Tampa Bay traffic can be like! A 20-minute drive on Google Maps doesn't necessarily mean we're all walking into the reception 20 minutes later. Everyone has to gather their things, get to their cars, drive, park and get settled at the next location. We account for all of that when we're building your timeline so we aren't planning everything so tightly that a little traffic means giving up time for the photographs you wanted.

And more coverage doesn't mean we spend eight hours constantly posing you. In fact, having more time can mean the opposite. There's more room to photograph what's naturally happening without feeling like we need to race from one thing to the next.

Do You Need Your Photographer Until the End of the Reception?

Not necessarily.

You don't have to invent a grand exit just because you've seen one in other people's wedding photos. We didn't have one at our wedding. At the end of the night, we just took the elevator upstairs to our room. 😂

If you're planning an exit and having it photographed is important to you, then we'll account for that when we're figuring out your coverage. But if you're not, that's okay too.

Most couples want some photos once the dance floor opens, but you probably don't need three hours of photographs of the same people dancing. Once the major reception events are finished and we have plenty of dancing photos, you may decide those photography hours would mean more to you earlier in the day.

What Else Affects How Many Hours You Need?

Two weddings can both have six hours of photography and need completely different timelines.

A summer wedding with an 8:00 p.m. sunset doesn't photograph the same way as a winter wedding when the sun is setting before 6:00. A couple having a first look has different options than a couple seeing each other for the first time at the ceremony. A wedding taking place entirely at one venue has different timing needs than one that has everyone traveling between several locations.

Your family matters too. If family photos are especially important to you or you have a large wedding party, we need to make room for that.

That's why I don't hand my couples a generic timeline and tell them to make their wedding fit inside it.

We create a custom photography timeline based on your wedding, your venue, the light, the people who matter to you and the photographs you care about most. Detailed venue scouting is part of that process too, so we're not figuring out where to take your portraits for the first time on your wedding day.

So, How Many Hours of Wedding Photography Do You Actually Need?

If you're planning a smaller or simpler wedding and don't need getting-ready or much reception coverage, four hours may be exactly right.

If you want coverage that begins while you're getting ready and continues through the major reception events, six hours is a great place to start and is our most popular option.

And if you want a fuller story of the day, have travel between locations, or want significantly more reception coverage, eight hours may make more sense. 

There isn't one right answer. The right amount of coverage is the amount that gives you photographs of the parts of your wedding day you'll want to remember years from now.