About an hour, all in. Twenty to thirty minutes of family photos, and around twenty-five minutes of the two of you, split into two short bursts. The rest of the day I'm working around you while you get on with it. That's the short answer. The longer one is that when photos happen matters more than how long they take. Most couples who felt dragged away from their own wedding weren't photographed for too long. They were photographed in one long block, at the wrong moment, while the party carried on without them.
If you've booked your venue and you're starting to sketch out the day, here's how I'd plan it.
A Timeline That Keeps You With Your Guests
How Long Do Wedding Photos Take?
Look up the sunset time for your date before you fix anything else. In June in East Anglia the sun doesn't go down until after nine, so you've got warm, low light right through the evening. In November it's gone by four. A 2pm ceremony in late autumn means your portraits either happen straight after, in fading light, or in the dark.
This matters because of colour. I shoot for real, vibrant colour, and most of it comes from the light. Good light is why skin looks like skin and a Norfolk field looks green rather than grey. You don't need to build your whole day around it. You just need to know where it is, so the ten minutes that matter land in the right place.
Start with the Sunset
The worry I hear most is being taken away from guests for ages. The answer isn't fewer portraits. Proper photos of the two of you are half the reason you're hiring someone, and you'll want them in twenty years. The answer is splitting them.
Around fifteen minutes during the drinks reception, once family photos are done. Then ten minutes later on, when the light goes warm, usually slipping out between courses or just before the evening starts. Fifteen minutes is short enough that nobody notices you've gone. Those ten minutes at the end of the day are often where my favourite portraits come from.
Two short absences feel like nothing. One long one feels like you missed your own drinks reception.
Split the Portraits in Two
"Who knew family portraits could be tolerable!"
Family photos have a bad reputation because they're often badly run. Done well, they take twenty to thirty minutes and nobody minds.
Three things make the difference. Do them straight after the ceremony, before people drift off to the bar. Write a list in advance and keep it to around eight to ten groupings. And pick one person to round everyone up. Not a parent, they need to be in the photos. An usher or a cousin who knows everyone by name and isn't shy about shouting it. I'll run the photos, but a familiar voice calling for "Dad's side, all of you" is faster than me guessing who Uncle Pete is.
These photos matter more than people expect. They're the ones that end up framed at your parents' house, and the ones your kids will look at one day to work out who everyone was.
Do family photos straight after the ceremony, with a list
Help the wedding go smoothly
Result in better portraits
Give you back your day!
WHAT IF A FEW SIMPLE CHANGES COULD:
Hair and makeup run late. Nearly always, and usually through nobody's fault. Add thirty minutes to whatever your stylist tells you. If things run over, you've absorbed it without anyone panicking. If they don't, you get half an hour to sit down and eat something, and I get photos of you looking relaxed instead of rushed. Both outcomes are good ones.
Give the morning an extra thirty minutes
are you ready?
The most important part of a good timeline is the part with nothing scheduled. A drinks reception of around ninety minutes, where your only job is talking to people you love. That's where the photographs you didn't plan come from. Your grandad in fits over something your best friend said. The two of you catching each other's eye across a crowded lawn.
If every minute is booked, those moments get squeezed out. I can't photograph something that never had room to happen.
I've put all of this into a free printable timeline you can fill in with your own times, sunset slot included.
Leave time with nothing in it
I'm Andy and I love rainbows and unicorns. Honestly :)
I shoot vibrant, colourful weddings, the real moments and the ones you'll actually want on the wall. Family photos are quick and properly relaxed, not the bit everyone dreads. Portraits get just enough direction to make you look like yourselves, nothing stiff.
Need me, I'm there. Don't need me, I've stepped back. Across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
CAMBRIDGE UK WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
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the free guide —
the free guide
A printable timeline showing how long the photos really take and where to put them. Proper portraits and family photos, without spending half your day away from the people you invited.
Don't miss your own wedding!
Free guide: a wedding day timeline
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