This is the question behind half the quotes we send. And most couples answer it the same way. They guess, then they pick the middle option and hope.
Here is a better way. Forget the package names. Think about which parts of your day you actually want to look back on, then count the hours those parts take.
For a full wedding day, most couples land on 8 hours. It is the number that covers getting ready through the first dance without feeling rushed. Five hours works for a tight day. Ten hours is for big days, long gaps, or couples who want the whole thing.
Our photography collections are $1,750 for 5 hours, $2,800 for 8 hours, and $3,500 for 10 hours. Extra hours are $350 each. That last number matters, and I will come back to it.
Five hours is a real option, not a downgrade. It works when the day is compact. One venue. A ceremony and reception under the same roof. A guest list you can count on two hands.
A typical 5 hour day starts about 45 minutes before the ceremony. We catch the last details, the ceremony, family photos, a short couple portrait session, and the start of the reception. We leave after dinner and speeches, or after the first dance if the timeline is tight.
What you give up is getting ready, and usually the last hour of the party. If you are getting ready at home with a quiet morning and no big crew, that is a fair trade.
This is the sweet spot, and it is not an accident. Eight hours takes you from getting ready through the ceremony, portraits, dinner, and the first dance. You get the morning, which is where the quiet moments live.
Getting ready is not about the dress on the hanger. It is your mom doing up the buttons. It is your best man trying to tie a bow tie from a video. Those frames get more replays than the formal ones, I promise.
Eight hours also gives portraits room to breathe. Twenty unhurried minutes with the two of you beats forty-five rushed ones, and the light after dinner is often the best of the day.
Ten hours is for the days with a lot going on. Two locations with a long drive between them. A tea ceremony or a cultural program before the main event. A first look, a full family list, and a party you want covered right through the dance floor.
It is also the right call if your reception runs late and you care about the send-off, the cake cut, or the last dance. Those moments happen late. Coverage that ends at dinner misses them.
Couples build coverage around the ceremony. They should build it around the timeline.
A ceremony is thirty minutes. Everything that makes a day take eight hours happens around it. Hair and makeup, travel, the family list, golden hour, dinner, speeches. Write your timeline out first, with times, then draw a box around the parts you want photographed. The box is your hour count.
Here is the contrarian part. More hours is not always better. If a stretch of your day is two hours of cocktail hour and nothing else, you do not need us standing through all of it. We would rather cover the parts that matter and leave you with a gallery that moves. Padding the day pads the edit.
Extra hours at $350 each look small. They add up quickly. Two extra hours on a 5 hour package is $700, which puts you at $2,450. That is not far from the 8 hour price at $2,800, and you got three fewer hours than if you had booked the 8 in the first place.
The rule we give couples: if you are within a couple of hours of the next tier, book the next tier. You will almost always want the time, and it is cheaper bought in the package than bolted on later.
Not every wedding needs a full day. For elopements, proposals, and small gatherings, we offer coverage of up to an hour for $400. A ten-person ceremony and a walk does not need a ten hour day, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling hours.
Send us your venue, your ceremony time, and your rough timeline. We will tell you how many hours we would book if it were our wedding, even if the honest answer is fewer than you were planning. Get in touch here.
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