how long did you book your photographer for?

I agree. The photos with family after the wedding will take 1 hour because of the congratulatory wishes and you are just on a wedding high and everyone will be going to different directions so you need to gather them. I am so glad we devoted time to pre-wedding photos with family since it was disorganized after the wedding and everyone just wanted to hang out and enjoy the sunset at SML and cocktails! We booked Juan Carlos Tapia for 6 and a half hours and it was enough for us but even longer would have been ok too!

It's been my experience that schedules don't always go as planned so it's always good to leave room for that.

Also, most photographers will book in consecutive hours. Meaning once they show up, you get them for however long you booked them for, starting then. Most won't let you break up their time with an hour here, an hour there, 2 hour break, and two hours there.

There are photographers, like myself, who don't have a limit to their time. Typically my days will be 9-12+ hours. And to be honest, sometimes that's not enough, especially when schedules don't go as planned and the bride is an hour and a half late getting ready. Nobody ever thinks they're going to be late but it's always good to leave time, just in case.

I got this reply from Bradley about what he thinks a good timeline would be. He put his changes in { }:

>>1 hour getting ready photos

{30 min.}

20 mins travel to church

{20 min.}

1 hour ceremony

{probably 45 min.}

30 mins photos outside the church w/family

{20-30 min.}

20 mins travel back to resort for reception

{20 min.}

45 mins to 1 hour of photos of us alone

{30 min.}

2-3 hours for reception

{60 min.} Reception shots will be lighted with a flash and/or long exposures so I would not spend much money here, some but not much.

Total: 4.0 hours

You should get excellent coverage with this amount of time. <<

Of course this is for 4 hour coverage that we originally thought would be enough. But with the way he laid it out... I feel like maybe I should add another hour or two. What do you think?

Maura,

I booked Bradley for 4 hours, and it was plenty. Although, we did not have the travel time, so perhaps you should account for that and up it to 5?

I really need to get back on the wedding planning wagon

I also really need to start looking into Photographers for Tulum...never considered travel time! This thread will be really helpful!

Our contract states "Up to 13 hours" - I intent to use up every minute, lol!

Our photographer, Elizabeth Medina, is traveling to RM for the wedding so she is spending the night. I think our contract says 8 hours on the wedding day, and then a TTD shoot the following morning.

Can you ask about overtime charges if you go over?

We booked for 8 hours. It should be enough!

maura -

i was just thinking that since bradley does a more 'photojournalistic' style ... you may just be fine with 4 hours (especially since both he and christa think so). my dad used to shoot weddings, and it seems like the majority of time is sucked up in trying to round everyone up for the posed / traditional shots.

i'm using juan carlos - we booked 7 hours, but we're splitting it over 2 days and doing a TTD session. i was worried about the same thing, so juan said he would just put a note on our account that we may want to add one hour ... would bradley be willing to do the same, or do you have to pay for it all up-front?

off-topic - i know i've read this before and could probably search it, but where in san jose are you getting married?