We all know that wedding photography can be expensive. But it is also, in my opinion, an immensely important vendor to have on one of your best days ever! You and your person are starting a brand new adventure together called marriage, and it deserves to be documented properly!

But I’m also a realist and recognize that budgets are real. So here are 3 tips for how to make the most of your wedding photography packages + your budget!

3 WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY HACKS

1. Family + Group photo list

Create your family + group photo list starting with the biggest down to the smallest. When you’re hosting a small/micro wedding, although there aren’t that many guests, you’re still going to want photos with most of your guests. 

When you start with the largest group, this gives all your guests a chance to hug and congratulate you before posing for the photo. 

Once the largest group photo is done, we’ll “remove layers” so to speak, like peeling an onion, working out way down to the smallest group. 

Since everyone has already congratulated you, we don’t need to pause for that moment before every group photo.

2. Wrap photography coverage 30 mins after the dance floor opens

Let’s face it, your phone has a great camera that’s perfect for those epic late-night dance party shots + selfies. You don’t need to spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars paying a professional to capture the dance party until the wee hours of the night. 

Planning your wedding day timeline so that your photographer has 30 mins to 1 hour to capture the beginning of dance party fun is enough for them to properly document it without blowing your budget.

3. Hire 2 photographers

This wedding hack might sound counterintuitive, but hiring 2 photographers will not only tell the story of your day in a more complete way, it will also save you some money in the long run.

Having 2 photographers allows for quickness and efficiency during certain parts of the day, which may give you the flexibility to go with a wedding photography package with fewer hours. 

THREE BENEFITS TO HAVING TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS:

• Allows one photographer to take photos of the couple while the other captures cocktail hour

• Each of you can have a photographer capturing your getting ready photos so that you can get ready together instead of one after the other. This saves you time in your overall timeline and in the # of hours of your photography coverage.

• Having 2 photographers allows you to capture different angles of the same location/pose at the same time. This means you can spend more time exploring that location, or, depending on your timeline, hit up various locations close by. 

For deeper explanations of the benefits of 2 photographers, check out this blog post.

Looking for more wedding photography hacks?

I’ve been in the wedding industry for a decade and I’ve spent 10+ years as a project manager. By combining those two skills with my years of observations, I have lots of wedding tips to help you make the most out of your wedding photography package! Click to fill out the contact form and I’ll get back to you in 24 hours!