Wedding Blog
I asked Mrs. Bluebell if she had any regrets about her wedding, and if there was anything she’d do differently (she should tell you, herself!). The one thing she brought up was an allotment of time for the photos. When she asked me how much time we set aside for pictures, I said, “Um… I was really planning on having the photographer tell US what to do”. When I said that, I realized - Wow, almost a year and a half of planning, and I still don’t know what I’m doing.
So, I mentally (literally, just now) set aside about an hour for pictures. Hopefully the ceremony will be over at 10:30, and we’ll be done by 11:30. The reception begins at 11am, so a half an hour for guests to “appetizer it up” and mingle should be enough? More than anything, I don’t want our guests sitting and waiting for us for hours. Our wedding party is relatively small, so it’s not like it’ll take forever. Perhaps I’ll just take the group pics and then send them on their way, and then take the couple pictures.
How much time did you allot for your pictures? Were they taken before the ceremony, after or both? Guide me, hive!
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Technically we have a 2.5 hour gap. However, realistically I think we’ll only have 1.5 of that to take pictures. It’s after the ceremony. To help move things along, we’re going to do some “formal” shots with the bridal party asap and then move on to allow as many artistic shots.
Mine will be during hors d’oerves… I’d rather not do it then but it was the best time to go with. It’s an hour long but my photographer (shameless plug: http://www.hullgrenier.com ) said it shouldn’t take that long at all. He did our engagement sitting in 25 minutes and I’m really happy with his work 
We’re doing pictures both before and after. 2 hours before for fun/ artistic couple shots and group shots and then 1 hour or less during the cocktail hour for posed portraits at the church.
I really don’t want to see my fiance before the wedding, so we have only 1 hour (the cocktail hour) to take photos. We have no bridal party, so I’m hoping we can do it fairly fast, but I definitely wish there was more time.
We’re taking all posed and artistic shots before the wedding. We’d rather spend cocktail hour greeting our guests and enjoying the party.
We did not want to see each other before the wedding, and therefore had to take pictures afterwards.
What we did was take everything possible before. The girls went first. Me and parents, me and each BM, me and all BMs, me and grandparents. Then DH did the same with his immediate family and GMs.
We gave ourselves plenty of time to do this before the ceremony so that we wouldn’t risk cutting it close or running into each other in the halls of our church.
After the wedding, we wanted to be quick and efficient so we could join the party at the reception. I had alloted 30 minutes to get all of this done, and we nailed it with time to spare. Here’s how:
Luckily, we had an AMAZING photographer (Tony Valadez, for all of you Dallas brides) who totally knew what he was doing. When I mentioned that I had drawn up a list of all of the shots I wanted taken, Tony basically listed them all off the top of his head. He knows his stuff.
The only extra I wanted was both my dad’s and mom’s families together (probably close to 45 people). So we just kept the list there for reference. One of my BMs read the list off to our photographer, and he would call them up and take tons of pictures really quickly. This was KEY in making everything run smoothly and efficiently.
We LOVE our post-ceremony pictures, and hope you do too! Good luck!
i also don’t want to see my fiance prior to the wedding, so we’re taking our pics after the ceremony. luckily, we have a big gap between the ceremony and reception, so we have almost 2 hours to take pictures prior to cocktail hour. overall, we have our photographer for 10 hours, from the getting ready shots at about noon, until the end of the reception activities around 10pm. hopefully, nothing too exciting will happen at 11pm that i’ll wish she was there for!
We’re doing all the pictures before the ceremony except for the posed family portraits which we have a half hour for. We really want to enjoy our reception, and not be stressed that we didn’t take enough pictures or look rushed in the pictures.
Since we have a four hour gap (not by choice), we’ll be taking ALL the photos then. We are allotting 1.5 hours and a location change for all of them to be done… rest of the gap time will be wedding party snack time and relaxation!
We’re also doing all of our pics before the ceremony. We have no qualms about seeing each other ahead of time, and want to enjoy the cocktail hour with our guests - this is also when we’ll do the receiving line.
Since the ceremony is at 6p, we’re having the photographers arrive at 330p at the hotel for getting ready shots. Then, we’ll do the rest of the posed shots between 4-530p. The venue is just around the corner from the hotel, so we won’t have to factor in any travel time, and this will give us a 1/2 hour cushion “just in case”.
one hour. we’re doing 1 hour cocktails and tour of the place we’re getting married
Our ceremony starts at 4pm, and we are taking pics from 2-3:30. That way we can mix and mingle with our guests during cocktail hour
I’m personally a wedding photographer. For the most part all of the scenarios you are talking about will work. The biggest thing is to communicate with your photographer, but still let them do their thing. You hired them for a reason!
Quick tip: For posed family portraits, count on 2 minutes for each set up.
For those that see each other before, a 30-35 minute window is easy. You do lots of stuff before with each other, the bridal party, but leave the family shots for after the ceremony. Realistically, you only need 5 shots (10 minutes + 5 extra for finding missing people)
1. bride, groom, brides immediate family
2. bride, groom, brides extended family
3. bride, groom, grooms immediate family
4. bride, groom, grooms extended family
5. bride, groom, both sets of parents
If you MUST have more pics than this, put a person in charge of helping the photographer find people, tell all of these people several times ahead of time that they are in a picture after the wedding and it will fly by quickly. Still keep in mind the 2 minute per set up rule so you don’t expect 50 setups in an hour. I don’t know anyone that could do that, nicely.
So if you ceremony ends at 4 and the dinner starts at 5:15, you have plenty of time to do these pics, get to your reception and still be stress free!
If you do NOT see each other before, PLAN for extra time. It’s not worth it to stress and a capable photographer should be able to do it all in a reasonable amount of time.
you’d do the 5 family pics, then bridal party and then personally i like at least 30 minutes with just the bride and groom. More is better, but photographers always say that.
So in this situation if your ceremony ended at 4, plan to walk in at 6:15. That leaves time to get both the posed and creative shots you want, the family pictures, transport to the reception, all without stressing or anyone freaking out on you.
I know some of you are like “2 hours and 15 minutes?” AGH!!! but it’s not that bad. Most of the guests won’t even get to the reception by 4:30 or 4:45, and then an hour of cocktails and appetizers flies by!
I attended a wedding just lately where we had an almost a 3 hour gap (things went wrong) but none of the guests were unhappy. We were all eating and mingling and having a good time. Of course I was watching to see how the other photographer was timing things out, so I knew it was almost 3 hours, but i asked another guest how long we’d been at the table and she guessed 30 minutes! Most people are just happy to be at a party, so don’t stress over this too much.
Communicate with your photographer, be flexible and you’ll have a great time. Good luck; it’ll be FINE!
and on a side random note: the list that some wedding sites tell you to print and give to your photographer are useless. If the photographer knows what they are doing, they’ll know it. Things like “my earrings were my great grandmothers; i want a picture of her handing them to me, or this doorknob to the church was in all the females on my side’s pictures, or the groom’s mom has a picture with just the females on her side at every wedding….” Those things we do not know! Speak up cuz we all aren’t mind readers, but at the same time, don’t list off all the articles of clothing you are going to wear…. it just slows them down from taking pictures.
Pictures are important to me, so I alotted about two and a half hours before the ceremony, 15 minutes during the cocktail hour for family shots, and 45 minutes after the dinner reception for casual shots (and of course the photographers were snapping in between those sessions). So in all, about three and a half hours. I’m glad I did, because you want to capture some of those intimate shots where it’s just you two!
If you’re not as into getting your photos taken though, I’d suggest 1-2 hours. Hope that helps!
We alotted about two hours for the pictures. About one hour before and an hour after. I almost wish we would have had MORE time! But we have tons of great shots!
I would recommend planning two hours. we planned an hour for photos, actually spent 1.5 hours photographing, and it was still really tight.
My best advice is not to micromanage the photographer too much. If you chose him/her b/c you liked his/her style, then go with it and let him/her capture those moments you woudn’t have seen yourself.
Get everyone to report on time and start w/ the biggest group and then dismiss people until you end up with just the B&G so you can finish on your own schedule.
Also don’t run around to TOO many locations. Seriously, you might only need 1 outdoor setting and 1 indoor setting, especially if time is tight. The better focus is to let the photographer guide you about where the best light is — the lighting (e.g., streaming through a window, stained glass glow, or soft in a moment of cloudiness), more so than the scenery, is what really made our absolute best photos!
All answers are here:
http://www.wedpix.com/
I spent hours on this site, even forwarding an article to our photographer, and it gave me enough information on the process to feel that I could stop worrying about photos at all.
We had a home wedding, so I figured quick rehearsal at noon, sandwiches, change (we’re all pretty low-maintenance), ready for photos by 2. At 2 we were all in the back yard, ready to rock and roll…except the MOG. We did as many photos as we could with her, then sent the groom’s sister in for some heavy-duty nagging.
After photos at the ceremony site, the bridal party went in two cars to a historical site about a quarter of a mile away and spent maybe 10-15 minutes there. Another short drive to a scenic overlook, and 10-15 minutes there. The third site, some fabulous tall grass surrounding another historical site, was blocked by a truck, and we were starting to cut it close, so we just returned to the house and hid inside until the ceremony at 4.
At the suggestion of an awesome article on the wedpix.com, we went out alone with the photographer after the ceremony (during cocktail hour) for about 30-45 minutes, again to two sites (although it looks like three).
I felt a little rushed during the pre-ceremony drive, because the formals had taken so much longer than I expected, but I don’t feel like there are any “must-have” shots I was “missing.”
We allotted for 1.5 hours before the ceremony for all the group shots. Then we allotted half an hour after the ceremony for some couple shots as we had a special location in mind. It worked out perfectly and nothing felt rushed.
as an additional note, we alloted half an houre between the end of the formal shots and the start of the ceremony to allow the wedding party to get there on time.
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Mrs. Kiwi, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation in 06: 27, Bookkeeper
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, P.E. Teach/Coach @ private schools in LA
Engagement Date: March 31, 2006
Wedding Date: November 3, 2007
Venue: Radisson Hotel
About Me: I'm a bookkeeper who failed high school algebra. I'm currently living in Los Angeles, literally a street over from where I grew up with Mr. Kiwi, my honey of three years. We have a jumbo mini-dachshund (seriously, he's huuuuge), and we're planning an autumn themed wedding on a shoestring, paid for by ourselves. The wedding date is my late grandma's birthday, I needed her there somehow, and that seemed like the best way for us. I can't believe I'm a Bee! I couldn't be more proud!
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