Trying to put together a time schedule for your wedding can be tricky and one of the least fun aspects of planning a wedding. But not thinking and planning ahead can have a big impact on the turn out of your wedding photos!
Paying for a wedding photographer is a big investment. But imagine hiring and paying for a photographer only for there to be little to no time in the schedule for them to have the opportunity to take photographs of the two of you. It can result in you missing out on key photos of the day and not to mention being in a rush for anything is always super stressful.
Emotions run high at weddings and you don’t want to add fuel to the fire. This is why we’ve put together a guide on how you can carefully plan and schedule your wedding photos.
You’ll need to go through the key parts of your wedding day. This could look something like;
If necessary you can add more key points to this list, for example, a first look if you’re planning to include this on your wedding day.
There is no ‘one time fits all’ in regards to this. It will vary a lot depending on all sorts of different factors including the number of guests. But we’ll give you a general idea based on the timings of a typical British wedding day.
You should normally allow at least 2-3 hours for bridal prep. This is due to different reasons such as:
Your wedding photographer will likely arrive around half way through bridal prep or an hour and a half or so before bridal prep finishes. This way they won’t miss the opportunity to start capturing the excitement during this part of the day including detail shots and candid photos of the bride and her party having their hair and makeup done. Arriving any earlier than this can result in your photographer waiting around unnecessarily for guests to arrive or finish getting dressed.
We would say that 1.5-2 hours is the ideal time needed for your photographer to photograph bridal prep. This will give them a good 30 minutes to capture candid photographs and detail shots, another 10-15 minutes to photograph the bride and bridesmaids together in their robes, 15-20 minutes for the bride getting ready with the finishing touches such as shoes and jewellery and then, if necessary, 10-15 minutes capturing the first look.
Tips to improve the process:
The same thing can be said for the grooms prep, although it’s unlikely to take quite as much time as bridal prep. Having a second photographer can also give you coverage of both the bride and groom getting ready at the same time.
There are a couple of things you’ll need to look at when planning how much time to put aside for wedding photos at the ceremony. As mentioned before, you’ll need to take into account how long the travel time to and from the wedding ceremony will be. Will there be a set time for the ceremony, and if so, when will the other guests be arriving?
Whether its a registry office or a religious church ceremony, you’ll still want to allow yourself some extra time just incase it starts later than expected, takes longer than expected or for any other reasons.
Here are the average times for the following types of ceremonies:
Anywhere up to an hour is usually a good amount of time needed for the photographer depending on the length and type of ceremony.
Your photographer may arrive at the ceremony venue 5-10 minutes earlier than the rest of your guests so they get a chance to photograph some of the finer details as well as the set up of your ceremony before guests have taken their seats. Arriving before guests will avoid the issue of coats and bags that may be placed over chairs affecting the outcome of the images.
Useful Tips:
Depending on the size of your wedding party and the number of guests, the group wedding photos will normally take around 1 hour. This will leave plenty of time to get a variety of different group shots from the formal to the more creative and relaxed ones.
Tips to improve the process:
It’s great to have lots of photographs of your family and friends celebrating together on your wedding day, but you’ll also want to set aside some time for portraits of just the two of you to look back on. Not to mention it will give you both a quiet moment away together.
The location of the couples portraits can vary, but normally they’ll take place at the reception venue, either inside, outside or even better; a mix of the two!
The best time of day for these is during ‘golden hour’ which is an hour before sunset. This will give you a gorgeously warm, softer light which make for jaw-dropping photographs!
The time of year and the schedule of your wedding reception and meal will determine where the couples portraits will fit into your wedding schedule. It’s likely that they will fall either just before the wedding reception begins, or half an hour to an hour after the meal.
We personally try to split the couples portraits into two parts with 20 minutes between the wedding ceremony and the start of the reception, and then another 20 minutes during golden hour (which is commonly after the meal).
The average wedding reception in the UK is 4-5 hours. This includes time for the meal, speeches, cake cutting, first dance and the DJ.
As mentioned above, around 45 minutes of the reception time will be spent taking couples portraits. This will usually be during golden hour so could be before or after the meal.
Your photographer may arrive at the reception venue 15 minutes earlier than your guests to capture all the beautiful details of the venue including the table decor and the wedding cake.
Wedding meals are commonly three course and can take anywhere from an hour and a half to 2 hours depending on which type of service your venue provides and the speed at which they carry out that service. During this time, your photographer will likely be sitting down to eat and have a break too, either amongst your guests or somewhere else privately.
The speeches commonly fall either just before the meal or straight after and typically you’ll want to try and keep this part no longer than 20-30 minutes. If you’re having multiple speeches then it may be a good idea to try and allocate the right amount of time for each speech, for example; 3 minutes. It’s also important to remember that shorter speeches can be just as meaningful as the longer ones!
Your photographer will be capturing all the emotions that come with the heartfelt speeches and all the smiles, laughter and tears.
The cutting of the cake is rarely longer than a couple of minutes and your photographer will capture this moment as you and your partner cut the first slice together.
Immediately after the cake cutting comes the first dance which normally takes 2-3 minutes. Again, your photographer will be capturing this as it happens before your guests begin to join you on the dance floor to celebrate for the rest of the evening.
We hope you found this post a helpful guide in planning and timing your own schedule for wedding photos!
Want to read more? Why not check out 40 Must-Have Items For A Wedding Emergency Kit