Photographer Hours

[soontowed]

How many hours will your photographer work for? We are about to sign our contract and it is for 7. Is that enough. I know NOTHING about this stuff and I don''t want to screw myself over. Ceremony is at 5:30 and party ends at 12. I definitly want pictures at sunset so I''d say start pics at 4:30. Does 3:30 to 10:30 seem like a good time?

 

[mayachel]

Good question. I want to know how long others hired their photographers for too.

The one we are considering offers 7 hours, but if they stay after 10pm, we provide a hotel room for them...our ceremony starts at 6:30. And we are doing our formals ahead of the ceremony.

 

[CDNinNYC]

We did 8 hrs, from 2pm until 10pm. Ceremony was at 4pm and the reception ended at 11pm.

ETA: Overall, the timing worked out well. If I had to do it again, I might have shifted the start time to 1pm or 1:30pm so we could have gotten more 'getting ready' photos as well as more pre-ceremony family/wedding party portraits.

 

[soontowed]

Date: 8/5/2009 3:21:51 PM
Author: mayachel
Good question. I want to know how long others hired their photographers for too.

The one we are considering offers 7 hours, but if they stay after 10pm, we provide a hotel room for them...our ceremony starts at 6:30. And we are doing our formals ahead of the ceremony.

Did they tell you this up front? I should ask about this. They are driving about 1 1/2 hours to get to our wedding so I''m wondering if they will require a hotel stay if they stay after a certain hour?

 

[marlie]

my photographer is booked for 10 hours. that''s the amount of time that was included in our package. i knew i wanted getting ready shots and b/c we are seeing each other first and taking our photos and some family/bridal party shots early on, i needed the photographers to arrive kinda early. i probably would''ve been fine with 8 hours, having them leave slightly before the party ended, but it''s nice knowing that the coverage will be there.

i think 7 hours is ok if you aren''t doing a ton of photos before the actual ceremony. but honestly, i''d see about one more hour. this way you aren''t worried about when your photog will be leaving and if you''ve gotten everything you want and you can just enjoy the party.

the other thing is to find out if there will just be one photographer or two. i am having around 250 people at my wedding so two photographer''s are necessary to get good coverage. also it''s nice to have different angles and all of that. there are deals sometimes where the main photographer leaves after x amount of hours and the second shooter hangs out the rest of the time. just some more food for thought.

 

[ficklefaye]

my photographer only does one wedding a day, so she said she would come as early as we''ll let her, she even joked that she would wake us up in the morning, my wedding isn''t until the evening and will end at about 10, she will be there until the end

is it possible to add on more hours in case 7 hours isn''t enough?

 

[mayachel]

Date: 8/5/2009 3:32:46 PM
Author: soontowed

Date: 8/5/2009 3:21:51 PM

Author: mayachel

Good question. I want to know how long others hired their photographers for too.


The one we are considering offers 7 hours, but if they stay after 10pm, we provide a hotel room for them...our ceremony starts at 6:30. And we are doing our formals ahead of the ceremony.

Did they tell you this up front? I should ask about this. They are driving about 1 1/2 hours to get to our wedding so I'm wondering if they will require a hotel stay if they stay after a certain hour?

Yes, they did tell us up front. However I also knew it was about an 1 1/2 drive for them. SO when i first contacted them asked specifically if there would be a travel fee, or if it was within their usual coverage. End result was yes, $100. This was worth the additional cost to us, because the photog. that was more local was waaaaay out of range.

Now we don't want to scrimp when it comes to making sure we have our photos=BUT as I've seen others say, if the party ends at 11pm, we're all hot and sweaty by the time from dancing anyway. Which makes me consider calling it a night with the photog at 10 and avoid the hotel fee.

 

[Diva0413]

Well, my ceremony starts at 3PM, but the photographers will be with the bridal party starting at 1PM. My reception (provided everything is running on time), is suppose to end around 8:30PM, 9PM the latest. So I''ll have them for close to 8 hours. My contract states that I have up to 10 hours of photography.

 

[mrscushion]

I''m pretty close to booking a photographer that will give us 10 hours -- either all 10 the day of, or 2 for the rehearsal dinner and 8 for the wedding day.

 

[princessplease]

My photog is signed from 4-11, so 7 hours. The ceremony starts at 6:30, so they will come to the hotel to photograph makeup/hair/dress/etc, and then will follow us to the bridal suite of the venue (It''s too small to prep in) and will do photos there once we are dressed. I really didn''t feel like they needed to be there from 11-12 since there is just dancing during that time.

 

[soontowed]

Date: 8/5/2009 7:59:29 PM
Author: mayachel

Date: 8/5/2009 3:32:46 PM
Author: soontowed

Date: 8/5/2009 3:21:51 PM

Author: mayachel

Good question. I want to know how long others hired their photographers for too.


The one we are considering offers 7 hours, but if they stay after 10pm, we provide a hotel room for them...our ceremony starts at 6:30. And we are doing our formals ahead of the ceremony.

Did they tell you this up front? I should ask about this. They are driving about 1 1/2 hours to get to our wedding so I''m wondering if they will require a hotel stay if they stay after a certain hour?

Yes, they did tell us up front. However I also knew it was about an 1 1/2 drive for them. SO when i first contacted them asked specifically if there would be a travel fee, or if it was within their usual coverage. End result was yes, $100. This was worth the additional cost to us, because the photog. that was more local was waaaaay out of range.

Now we don''t want to scrimp when it comes to making sure we have our photos=BUT as I''ve seen others say, if the party ends at 11pm, we''re all hot and sweaty by the time from dancing anyway. Which makes me consider calling it a night with the photog at 10 and avoid the hotel fee.

True. By that point my friends will all have had several cocktails; do I really need a ton of pictures of my drunk friends? I have plenty of those already. I guess 10 is a good time to send the photogrphers home.