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When looking for a wedding photographer in Rhode Island (or anywhere, really), there are all different ways the photographer will ‘sell’ their time. It might be hourly a la carte, meaning you decide how many hours you want them there for and then pay the amount it adds up to (i.e. you want them there for six hours and it’s $300 per hour so it would be $1800). Some may offer a certain amount of hours in a package (i.e. the “Bronze” package includes 8 hours of coverage time). The third common way wedding photographers offer time is by saying it’s unlimited. Let’s talk.
How Much Time Do I Really Need?
That’s the bottom line question that you probably want to know the answer to. As with everything else in life, it depends. A typical wedding requires about 8 hours in order to get photographs from the girls getting ready all the way until the very end of the reception. That’s assuming roughly the following: The reception is four hours, cocktail hour is one hour, the ceremony is no longer than one hour, all the locations are within ten minutes of each other, and things don’t get wildly off schedule. In my experience, most weddings fit into this category. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Common reasons you might need more than 8 hours is if your ceremony and reception location are a considerable distance apart, your reception is five hours or longer, or there is extra time built in between the ceremony and cocktail hour.
The Unlimited Time Myth
So you have your wedding photographer for an unlimited amount of time? What does that mean? Can you have them show up at 5AM to photograph you getting out of bed and stay until 1AM that night to photograph you getting back into bed? Do you even want photos of that? Of course, when done within reason, unlimited time from your wedding photographer sounds like a good deal. Nothing to worry about with time constraints, right? That’s one way to look at it. As described above, though, you don’t really need more than 8 (or 10 at a maximum) hours of coverage time to capture everything that’s important. Why do photographers offer unlimited time then? It sounds awesome when you’re comparing photographers! It’s potentially a good selling point. We choose not to offer unlimited coverage in our packages because honestly, after we work for 10 hours or so on our feet, we’re exhausted like any other human being would be. For those 8 or 10 hours, we want to be alert and effective. If we stretch ourselves over 16 hours, we probably won’t be as useful as you’d like us to be for the 8 hours that really count. Get it?
A La Carte Dangers
Occasionally we receive emails that say something like “we’re only looking for coverage for the ceremony and the family photos afterwards, do you offer a package with only a couple hours of coverage?”. You can hire us for two hours, we do have an a la carte menu that people can build a package from. We will do our best to tell you that we cannot and will not be able to deliver to you a complete wedding photography product. In order for us (or any wedding photographer) to create a visual story of your day, there is a minimum amount of time investment necessary. If we’re not there for all the key elements, then there’s no way we can document it. Invite your photographer to stay for the whole day, you’ll be glad you did.
The Bottom Line
So the bottom line answer? It’s the Goldilocks answer – Not too short, not too long, but just right. Your wedding day only happens once. Make sure it’s covered properly and effectively. Here’s a random wedding image that has nothing to do with this post topic:
Series information
Next we’ll be talking about how many photos you should receive and why.
If you missed the intro to this series, you can catch it right here – How To Choose Your Rhode Island Wedding Photographer Series Introduction.
