After ten years of photographing weddings and offering multiple wedding photography packages, I finally shifted to offering only a full day of coverage. I always questioned what was better from a client-psychology perspective: choosing a package, or just making it easy and all-inclusive. Year after year, I kept finding that the number of hours clients booked in a wedding photography package didn’t necessarily translate to telling the entire story. Some clients thought “I don’t need the morning,” and others thought “we’ll get crazy after the photographer leaves.”
Here’s my hot take: wedding photography exists to document your wedding day. Your wedding day doesn’t exist only within the confines of a wedding photography package.
Here are my top three times in a wedding day where I’d prefer not to have a time limit!
This is one of my favorite times in a wedding day. The energy upon walking into the room is always such an outward example of the couples’ personalities! Those who are quiet, introverted, and perhaps nervous typically have calm and serene rooms with minimal conversation, while those who are extroverted and bubbly have a pump-up playlist on volume 10. Regardless of the scenario, each room I enter always has subtle non-verbal hints toward anticipation. Brides fidgeting with their ring, grooms sitting alone and rewriting their vows, parents silently tearing up when their kids get dressed…it is one of the most consistently emotional times of the day. By exclusively offering Full Day Wedding Coverage instead of multiple wedding photography packages, each of my couples will have these tender moments captured to reminisce on for the rest of their lives.
Can we give it up for the sweaty foreheads?! My FAVORITE clip from our wedding video is my brother-in-law holding our best man in his arms and spinning him around the dance floor. This was probably 10:30 or 11:00 PM–well beyond when our photographer left. There’s a balance here, because nobody wants a camera in their face on the dance floor all night! But if your photographer is aware of their surroundings and has good intuition, they can photograph the best moments while giving people enough space.
If there’s a bonfire late at night, I want to be there. If you are planning to jump in the pool late at night, I want to be there. Late night pizza? I can guarantee someone will spill sauce on their white button up shirt and we’ll all laugh. If you have put ANY time and effort into planning anything at night, it’s worth covering!
An often overlooked part of every wedding day: planning down time. A time where you are neither planning to perform in front of a camera, nor to entertain or host anyone. You are purely enjoying the company of those around you. After all, your wedding is about spending time with your favorite people! Allow for some space in your wedding day, and let your photographer tactfully join you. Similar to getting ready coverage, the non-verbal moments that come out of these unscripted periods sometimes speak volumes to your wedding story.