Los Angeles Wedding Photographer | Orange County Wedding Photography| Destination Wedding Photographer

The following is an entry with some tips for our brides (and grooms of course). For more tips, check out “Tips for Your Wedding Day” on our main site. These blog entries are in addition to the tips you’ll find on our website that we update every once in a while. To see all of them, please click here.

A common question we receive is “how much time do you need for photography?”

In our ideal world, we would have the following time budgeted for photography:

1) 15-30 Minutes – for bride and bridesmaids portraits right after makeup is done and before the first look or any other events in the schedule. This is the time when you make-up and hair are looking at their best. The same goes for all of your bridesmaids. In addition, most hotels have great window light for some gorgeous portraits.

2) 2 hours -  for the wedding party and couples session.  Well actually it’s more like 1.5 hours, but the 30 extra minutes gives us some important buffer time.  The best times are during sunset; but this almost is never possible, as dusk cuts right into the beginning of most receptions.  Whether it be right after the first look or in between the ceremony and the reception,  these two hours are important to create the kind of imagery that you see regularly on our blog.  It is important to be aware of the light and where the sun is during your wedding day.  Checkout Gaisma to determine the lighting during your wedding day.  To fully capture the bride and groom we would like to shoot a few photos during the day, sunset, dusk, and a few at night.

Here’s an example of a bridal party picture that we can get if we’re given the time to execute:

We won’t go over example images of the couples session because almost any of the entries on are blog are full of these images, but just keep in mind that these all take time; and the more time we have, the more great shots we can deliver.

3) 1 hour – for the formals.  The actual time depends a few factors.  If your family is really big, add a half an hour.  If it’s really small, subtract half an hour.   If your family is like mine and likes to lag, add another 30 minutes.  In general, smaller groups are easier to manage.  You might think that bigger groups get the process done quicker, but we actually spend more time organizing, shifting, and re-organizing groups with with more people.  In contrast, smaller groups are easier to manage; and the posing and lighting is easier to control.

4) 15 minutes – for a few night shots.  If you can manage to sneak out for 15-30 minutes during your reception, we can snag a few of our signature Lin and Jirsa night shots.  This is hard to plan for than it may seem, as the reception flies by and most are pretty jam packed with activities.  That’s why we never push our clients to schedule this time; but we do recommend it if they appreciate our style of night photography.

Please don’t hesitate to call us about timeline questions.  Preparing a photography timeline ensures that we don’t miss a moment or a dream.

Here are an couple example: