How many hours of wedding photography do you need?
It is the first practical question most couples ask me, usually right after the date. And the honest answer is not a number. It is a different question: which parts of the day do you want to exist as photographs? Once you can answer that, the hours choose themselves.
Coverage is a window, not a quantity
Photography hours are continuous. They open at one moment of your day and close at another, so the real decision is where the window starts and where it ends. Start too late and the champagne-and-curlers morning is gone. End too early and the dance floor, which is where your guests become their truest selves, never makes it into the album.
What each window usually holds
Every wedding is its own animal, but after a decade the patterns are steady:
Most of my couples land at eight. It is the window that holds both the nerves of the morning and the joy of the evening without paying for hours the day does not use.
Do the math from both ends
Here is the simple test. Name the first moment you want photographed and the last one. Count the hours between them, then add thirty minutes of cushion on each side, because weddings run on their own time. If that number surprises you, it is far easier to adjust the schedule now than to wish for more coverage at nine in the evening.
What I tell couples who are torn
Choose the morning over the late night. The end of a reception repeats itself, wonderfully, for hours, so leaving at ten instead of midnight costs you very little. But the morning happens once, and it is where the photographs live that tend to mean the most later. The letters, the quiet, the people who helped you get dressed.
You do not have to decide alone
Coverage can usually flex closer to the date, and I would always rather help you plan the right window than sell you a bigger one. Tell me where your day starts, where it ends, and what matters in between, and we will find the number together.
