FAQ: How Much Coverage Do We Need For Our Wedding Day? | Maine Wedding Photographer & Videographer
Engagement season is upon us so I thought what a more perfect time to tackle one of our most asked questions - how much coverage do we need? This is such a loaded question and is really personalized for each individual couple and wedding timeline, preferences, and specifics but here are some things to consider when choosing your wedding photography & videography coverage time.
I want to start this conversation by saying that every wedding professional has a different approach to wedding coverage so this is just our professional suggestion based on years of experience.
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With all that being said, our packages start at a base of 8 hours. This is the minimum amount of hours we work with a couple on a wedding day. This is a great starting point for most clients. So does it work for you?
We recommend coverage from the getting ready process up to 30min - 1 hour of fun casual dancing (once all your formalities are through).
Here are some scenarios where you may need more than 8 hours of coverage...
There are multiple locations. If your getting ready spot, ceremony, and reception are all in different locations that is almost guaranteed that you will need additional coverage time.
If you're doing a first look you may need a little extra. Because you are spending time before your ceremony doing majority of your photos instead of during cocktail hour - you may need more coverage time or to start earlier.
If you don't have second shooters, we likely need to go back and forth between bride/groom to capture getting ready. This is totally do-able and may make more sense than adding a second shooter but will require extra coverage.
Many clients are adding in first looks with dads, bridesmaids, etc.make sure you build this into your timeline and could require a little extra time.
You're doing a grand exit or after party you want covered. 8 hours of coverage typically won't bring you until the end of your reception.
Length of your dinner service. A 5 course meal is obviously going to take much longer than a buffet style dinner. Talk to your caterer and/or planner about how long dinner service should take.
Speeches - how many? how long? we've seen it all. If speeches run over it can push into reception formalities taking longer than expected.
Big wedding party or family list of photos. These take time.
Other non tangible aspects to consider that may have you wanting extra coverage...
You don't want to be rushed. Building extra time in your schedule will allow you to not feel pressured and let moments unfold naturally rather than rushing around doing photos.
Things run late - it happens, it's part of life and a part of wedding days and sometimes completely out of your control. Leave a little buffer in your timeline so you can make sure you still get the coverage you need.
You don't want a last minute expense. We are happy to extend coverage at the end of the evening if desired and can always invoice you after. However, you may have needed the coverage at the beginning of the day or want to budget what to expect.
We typically stop taking all formal photos/videos 30 minutes prior to your ceremony. This gives you a chance to breathe, guests are arriving, and we have to set up for ceremony too.
Videography requires extra time to "set the scene" so much of what we capture is beyond just posed portraits but what we like to call 'b-roll' so we need time to put the drone up, capture the locations, the details, etc.
Now I know this blog post isn't going to give you definitive answers of if I do X I need X amount of coverage time. But it's a starting point to get you thinking about what is important to you and how you want your day to flow and be captured.
When booking, we always recommend to start with what you know you need & are comfortable with. We can always add from there. We check in with all of our clients at 6 months to consider add ons like second shooters, video add ons, etc. then again 2 months before to schedule a call to go over your specific timeline so that we can suggest the best start & end time for you. As always, working with a planner is HIGHLY recommended. We love working collaboratively with your vendor team to make sure you get the absolute most out of your big day.
Questions? Send us an email at amanda@thelibbysphotoandfilms.com