how long did you book your photographer for?

[CeeCee76]

We are booking our photographer for 3 hours.  We aren't having a reception or cocktail hours and we only have 4 guests.  This should be plenty of time for getting ready shots, ceremony and after shots on the beach.  We're having a small dinner in the evening where we will just take our own pictures.

[all the love]

We are also flying our photographers (2 of them) down from Canada with us, they have guaranteed us 7 hours on day of (getting ready, both bride and groom, ceremony, couple and group pics, and reception) plus 3-4 hours for a second session on a different day (possibly TTD or just some nice couple pictures). Our ceremony will be at 4pm, so probably have them from 3-10pm.

[Tiny Tuna]

I live in Toronto, and am very new to this.   I'm planning an elopement (meaning just groom and I) may not get the big wedding but am not compromising great photography.   I don't have a date or destination in mind (sometime in October or November 2011 could work), and am willing to work around the photographer opposed to anything else. 

 

I've been to Cuba and the Dominican Republic a few times, but I'm not sure if I can find suitable photographers there to do the creative type photography I'm looking for so I thought of Mexico and contacted Elizabeth Madina (waiting to hear back) 

For those brides in the GTA as well, has anyone done this?   Have a very small wedding with a photographer, and any tips you can offer?   
I was going to fly a photographer down but it makes more sense to me to find one there if they're available. 

 

[Sharon99]

This is something I am having a hard time deciding as well. I am not sure how long to have the photographer at the resort.

Tiny Tuna I am getting married in Mexico & have 2 photographers I am undecided with. Here are their names. They both seem great. I am sure they would be able to do your wedding.

http://delsolphotography.com/

http://www.juanphotos.com/

[NikkiT1021]

We booked La Luna (sister company of Del Sol) for 5 hours. They will come 1 hour prior to our ceremony and then will stay a little into our reception.

[rpingree001]

I booked Citlalli with Claudi Photo for 5 hours and she came and hour before the ceremony and stayed through the first dance of the reception. I wish I had booked her for another hour to capture more of the reception after people started dancing, etc.  (once the booze was properly flowing). 

 

The random pics people took were great but some great professional shots would have been nice. 

[NikkiT1021]

Thats a really good point.  I'm seriously contemplating booking another hour!
 

Originally Posted by rpingree001 

I booked Citlalli with Claudi Photo for 5 hours and she came and hour before the ceremony and stayed through the first dance of the reception. I wish I had booked her for another hour to capture more of the reception after people started dancing, etc.  (once the booze was properly flowing). 

 

The random pics people took were great but some great professional shots would have been nice. 

[JayKay]

We knew that pictures were extremely important to us so we were planning on spending a fair bit of our budget on photography.  We also wanted all the memorable moments to be covered, such as getting ready, the cerermony, reception ect.  We ended up hiring a photographer and when you hire him you hire him for the day,not just for a specified amount of hours which I really like.

[michelle3]

definitely take into account the size of your family/wedding party when you're deciding this - bounce the timeline off of the photographer, they've done hundreds of weddings and should know how long these things take. oh and i don't think many photographers will stop and start their hours for travel time

[harkatea]

wow, we're only going for 4 hours.  But we're not expecting photos of everything or everyone and it's kinda a small thing.