The day in stages
How much time does a wedding day need?
The most common question before any booking. Here is how a day usually runs, where time gets lost, and which hours ultimately carry the images.
There is no correct timeline — only one that fits your day. But there are recurring patterns: getting ready almost always takes longer than planned, the congratulations eat more time than expected, and the loveliest light arrives exactly when dinner is being served.
Hence this overview. It doesn’t replace a conversation, but it helps you judge how many hours of coverage are realistic before we talk about anything else.
The run of the day
A day, thought of in stages.
- ± 2 hrs
Getting ready
The quietest time of the day and often the most honest. The dress at the window, a mother’s hands at the fastening, the last laugh among friends. What matters is a room with daylight — one window beats any lamp. Two hours are enough if hair and make-up run in parallel; for two partners in separate places you need a second photographer or more time.
- 30–45 min
First look
Optional, but valuable. Seeing each other calmly before the ceremony takes the pressure out of the moment — and gives you images nobody can capture later, because from then on there are always people around. If you’d rather not, that time moves to the couple portraits in the evening.
- 30–60 min
Ceremony
You don’t set the length — whoever marries you does. A registry ceremony is often twenty minutes; church or celebrant ceremonies happily run an hour. Photographically one thing matters most: where the guests sit, where the sun stands, and whether I may move. I clarify that with the celebrant beforehand, not with you.
- 45–90 min
Congratulations & drinks
The underestimated block. With eighty guests, congratulations alone take an hour — time in which you are not available for photographs. Plan too tightly here and you lose the couple portraits. My suggestion: build in a buffer you can happily give away.
- 20–40 min
Group photographs
Keep it short. A list of five to eight combinations is realistic; anything beyond that drags and the faces show it. Best straight after the congratulations while everyone is still together — every walk back to the reception costs ten minutes.
- 30–45 min
Couple portraits
The part you actually book me for. We step away from the celebration — not far, but far enough. Ideal is the hour before sunset; in high summer that falls after dinner, in autumn in the middle of the party. I plan that with you against the calendar in advance, not on the day.
- As needed
Party & blue hour
Speeches, dancing, the first beer without a jacket. How long I stay depends on what you want to keep: if you want the first dance, you need me into the evening; if you’d rather keep the party to yourselves, let me leave after dinner. The blue hour by the water is almost always worth stepping outside for once more.
Does that sound like your day?
Tell me about it →Rule of thumb
What that means in hours.
- A small registry wedding
- 3–4 hours
- Ceremony, congratulations, couple portraits
- A classic wedding day
- 8–10 hours
- Getting ready to the first dance
- Two days or a weekend
- by arrangement
- Eve, main celebration, brunch
The light
Why the clock decides the images.
Between eleven and three in summer the sun stands so high that it shadows eye sockets and burns out white. That isn’t a problem — you just have to know it and work in shade or indoors during those hours.
The most reliable hour is the last before sunset. At Lake Constance there is a bonus: water throws light back. Even after sunset the shore stays bright some twenty minutes longer than inland. Those twenty minutes are often the best of the day.
That is why I look up the sunset for your date before every wedding — and place the couple portraits there, rather than pushing them somewhere into the afternoon.
Honestly
The most important item in a timeline is the buffer.
Every wedding day runs late. Not because anyone is unreliable, but because people talk to each other. Plan thirty minutes of air and you lose nothing if all goes smoothly — and you save the couple portraits when it doesn’t.
Once you have your schedule, feel free to send it over. I’ll read it and tell you where it gets tight. It costs nothing and has rescued a few timelines already.
Inquiry
Send me your schedule.
I’ll read it and tell you honestly where time is missing — even if we haven’t talked about a booking at all yet.