This particular blog post will likely become part of my F.A.Q. section someday, so let’s get the ball rolling with this extremely important subject – Wedding Day Photography Timeframes. This is my general recommendation based on my modest wedding photography experience and observations, so please do not take it as gospel – every wedding is unique and every couple is like no other, so your coverage may vary.

Bridal Preparation: 1.5 – 2 hours

This amount of time is required to cover the actual preparation when everybody is fairly ready and to photograph the details, which include but not limited to dress, shoes, garter, rings, jewelry, bridal bouquet, objects with a sentimental value, etc.

I do not usually spend too much time on posed portraits during preparations and photograph impromptu moments as they unfold, so there is no particular need to have a specific time slot for wedding photography at this point. Nonetheless, I may ask a bride and people involved in the prep to prepare in a certain light if necessary or slightly adjust a pose.

If I cover both bride and groom preparations at different locations, putting-on-the-dress coverage gets tricky and there are two options:

- I photograph a bride putting on a dress and make a bridal portrait in the dress before leaving to photograph a groom and groomsmen. Pro: Fuller groom prep coverage. Con: A dress will have to be put on quite early.

- If a dress gets put on at the ceremony location, I will need to arrive there ASAP. Pro: No need to rush with the dress, a bride puts it on when she wishes. Con: Shorter groom prep coverage, possibility of delayed arrival

Groom Preparation: 30 – 45 minutes

This gives me enough time to cover the most important aspects of preparation, details and to take a couple of formal portraits.

Before Ceremony: 10-15 minutes to photograph undisturbed ceremony décor and overall set-up.

Family, Wedding Party and Couple Formal Portraits: 30 minutes – 1 hour – 1.5 hours

The time we spend on formals really depends on number of desired pairings and couple’s personal preferences. On average it takes 3-5 minutes per pairing; large groups take a little longer.

Before Reception: 10-15 minutes

While reception coverage is very photojournalistic by its nature and does not require a special wedding photography dedicated time slot, it is crucial to have some time reserved for reception venue photographs to document an undisturbed décor and table set-ups. 10-15 minutes before guests arrival usually do the trick.

Hope this helps. Have an awesome St. Patrick's Day!

Love,

-Eva.

I will do my best to be very concise in this post, though I can already feel my mind's building up desire to wander and cover every possible aspect of the subject - RAW Images vs. Final Product. Occasionally I receive a very common question "Will we get the originals / raw / unedited images as well as edited ones?" My answer is always the same: No, sorry, unedited images are not available for viewing or purchase. I spend days and sometimes weeks selecting and hand editing images one at a time, making sure they all tell a beautiful and cohesive story of a client's very special day.

I made an exception once, mostly because it was the very beginning of my photographic journey. To be honest, if at the time you'd asked me to give away my kidney in exchange for a nice e-session or even a portrait shoot, I'd have likely accepted such an "attractive" offer. Desperate times call for questionable decisions. Why am I so against sharing unedited materials? Well, there are many reasons, but there are three major ones:

1. Photography be it portrait, wedding, editorial, landscape or any other genre is still a form of visual expression, art, if you will (good or bad depends on a photographer and a critic). It's extremely important to trust your photographer with this crucial final step of making an image look and feel the way it should. If you don't trust your photographer with either image selection, editing or any other aspect of the craft, then you should look further, cause you haven't found YOUR professional yet. Simply put, you don't ask your baker to relax and just give you eggs, flour and all that other jazz required for a cake. You hire a baker to get a gorgeous 3 tier royal-icing wedding cake, not eggs and a whisk.

2. Reputation. We all work extremely hard to get our names out there, be respected and maybe even recognized (one day, WPPI, one day). What goes around comes around. If images get into the wrong hands, not only a creator's vision will get endangered, the creator's name can get associated with very low standard work done on the creator's canvas by a 3d party. Not every retoucher cares about images as much as a photographer does. Additionally, a good photograph may get unnoticed, a bad one, on the other hand, will haunt a creator till the rest of his / her days.

3. There are some doors that should never be opened. Plain and simple. Edited images look better, sorry, they just do. I attached a couple of samples below so you can see for yourself.

Disclaimer: these are not my photographs, they were taken from a public domain and were used by me as a part of my How-To-Edit learning process only.