One of the most common questions I am asked is “how much time do I need between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast”, and the related question “how many group photographs should I have”.
I thought it might be helpful to give some simple guidelines and advice for future brides and grooms. So here we go:
Firstly, some assumptions. These guidelines are based around a traditional british wedding, with around 60-100 guests during the daytime. Larger or smaller weddings may require a little more or less time than I’m about to recommend, and Asian weddings, for example, can have quite a different itinerary all together.
Secondly, this advice is based around how I work, and not necessarily applicable to other photographers. My photographic style is centred around capturing real moments candidly (reportage photography), so I generally require less time for group photographs than a traditional wedding photographer. Around 90% of wedding photographers fall into the traditional mould (even if they say they don’t). If you look at a photographers website and almost all of the shots look like they have been arranged or posed in some way, that’s a traditional wedding photographer. A traditional photographer will usually require around 90 minutes to do all their group and portrait photographs. If you want to have as many group photographs as possible, a traditional photographer is what you want. On the other hand, if you would prefer to keep posing to a minimum, leave time to mingle with your guests, and have photography that captures the atmosphere of your wedding, you need a reportage style photographer (or wedding photojournalist), such as myself.
So, onto timings, first lets consider a Church wedding, with the reception held elsewhere:
- Mingling with guests after ceremony – 15 mins
- Confetti shot – 5 mins
- Travel to reception venue (allow normal travel time + 15 mins for stragglers)
- Standard group photographs – 25 mins
- Portrait photographs of bride & groom – 20 mins
- Mingling with guests at reception venue – 20 mins
- Bridal ‘nose powdering’ – 10 mins
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