When it comes to booking a wedding photographer for your wedding day, one of the hardest parts is knowing how much time you actually need your wedding photographer to be there.  You want to make sure they are there for all of the important stuff, but you also don’t want them there for the entire day, so you have to find a happy medium when optimizing your wedding day timeline for your wedding vendors.  Believe it or not, one of my most popular wedding day packages is my eight hours of wedding coverage option!  Eight hours may not seem like a lot, but when it comes to making your wedding day timeline, the majority of your wedding tends to happen within an eight hour stretch.  With that in mind here are my top five tips on how to optimize your wedding day timeline for eight hours of photography coverage.

1. Getting Ready Photos

Have your photographer show up right before you’re getting dressed for getting ready photos.  Your hair and makeup will be for the most part complete.  Your friends will be close to being ready for your day so all that remains is putting on the finishing touches which is more than enough things to do for getting ready photos!  As you and your wedding party or family are getting ready, there will be plenty of candid and sweet moments between you all that we can photograph.  There is typically a LOT of down time the morning of your wedding, which means you don’t have to have you photographer’s coverage start the second you start getting ready.

2. Have a First Look

Having a first look planned into your wedding day gives you and your partner so much more flexibility throughout your wedding day timeline.  Having a first look planned into your wedding day allows you to relax on the day of and spend a lot more time with your partner.  Without a first look you will have to wait until your ceremony to be with them and even see them.  With a first look you’ll also have more opportunities for photos and activities with your loved ones, thus more opportunities to document some of the exciting moments that make up your wedding day.

3. Planning Family Photos Right Before or After the Ceremony

One of the biggest wedding day timeline mistakes I see couples make is not having your family photos either right before or right after your wedding ceremony.  Having your family photos directly before or after your ceremony makes your experience much less of a headache, as your family is already together and easier to round up.  This will also help your family photos to go by faster allowing you to spend your time doing other things that you love as well as allow your photographer to focus more on the rest of your wedding day during their coverage!

4. Sneak Out for Sunset Photos

Sunset photos are great for wedding day timelines for a number of reasons.  Sunset photos allow you and your partner to take a minute to yourselves to reflect on your wedding day.  It also allows for you to get more photos with one another in different lighting, and can serve as a backup portrait session if it’s raining earlier in the day. Planning sunset photos into your wedding day timeline allows you to spend less time taking portraits earlier in the day so you can maximize your photographer’s coverage.

5. Dancing and Party Photos

Believe it or not, you really only need about a half hour of coverage when it comes to dancing photos during your wedding reception.  After a half an hour, photos tend to get a little bit repetitive, and there isn’t much for me to document.  Another tip is to make sure you’re on the dance floor for the entire time I’m there (typically a half hour to an hour).  Not only will this light up the dance floor, it will also get you those awesome dance photos that you want with your new spouse!

As you can see you really don’t NEED a full days worth of coverage when it comes to your wedding photographer. I’ve been a part of many weddings at this point and know what will and won’t work in a wedding day timeline. So if you have questions about your timeline and are ready to book I’d love to help you plan. Head to my contact page and we can start planning together, and if you’re wanting to see more of my work check out my Instagram!