How much wedding coverage do you need? Here are the pros and cons of hiring a wedding photographer for 8 hours.

Let’s be honest, wedding planning can be confusing. When you add finding the perfect photographer and finding how much time you need them for, it can be a huge headache! But don’t worry. That’s why I’m here. As a professional wedding photographer, I know all about how much coverage you’ll need. In this article, we’ll be going over all the great and not-so-great aspects of having 8 hours of wedding photography.

The Good – Why 8 Hours of Wedding Photography is so popular!

There’s a reason why so many couples choose 8 hours of wedding photography. Typically, this is how long the average wedding is! With this amount of coverage, you won’t have to worry about your photographer leaving before you toss the bouquet or cut the cake. Your photographer would be there for most, if not all of the time.

You may be thinking, “I’m not having a micro-wedding, but it’s certainly not going to last 8 hours!” That’s another reason why so many couples choose this package. Most photographers, including me, want to be there at least an hour before the guests even arrive. This will give me time to get photos of the couple and wedding party getting ready, flat-lays, and of the venue. So even if you don’t plan to have your wedding last very long, this will give you plenty of time to get all of the photos you want.

Another thing to consider is how many guests you’re planning to have. A rule of thumb is to have an extra hour of wedding photographer for every 100 guests. Basically, the more people there the more time it will take to get photos of them. Whenever I’m at a wedding, I try to get a candid photo of every guest. If I don’t have enough time, I could miss out on a photo of your great-great-aunt that you would have loved! Not to mention how long group photos can take, this is a very important thing to consider!

Let’s do a quick overview of the main reasons you really should get 8 hours of wedding photography.

• The average wedding typically lasts 8 hours
• You won’t have to worry about your wedding photographer missing out on key moments at your wedding
• You’ll get Getting Ready photos, flat lays, and images of the venue.
• First look photos are easily achievable!
• There will be enough time for group photos of the guests (for about 150-200 guests)

The Bad – What about Pre-wedding Coverage?

I sort of mentioned this in “the good” but I want to make it clear. The average wedding is 8 hours. That means if you hired me, or any wedding photographer, to start taking photos right when the wedding starts, you’ll get the entire wedding celebration covered. When planning a wedding, this is typically the only thing the couple is thinking about. But like I said earlier, most wedding photographers like to come at least an hour before the wedding celebration starts. This is to get all of the detail shots, setting-the-scene pics, and getting ready images. Not to mention, we always want to be there early in case the wedding starts earlier than planned!

If those type of photos are important for you, or you have a cute pre-wedding tradition you want photographed, you should really take that into consideration. If you’re wanting the entire wedding covered as well as before the wedding starts, consider getting a wedding photography package with more hours. Or, if your wedding photographer is anything like me, they’ll have an a la carte system where you can add extra hours to an existing package.

If you don’t care about getting any of those photos and just want the photographer to come right before the wedding starts, you’re golden! 8 hours of wedding photography is perfect for you!

The Ugly – Eyes Bigger than Your Stomach

If your wedding ends before 8 hours, you’re most likely not going to get any money back. This is because your wedding photographer reserved that time for you and turned down any other photoshoot opportunities so they could dedicate 8 hours to your wedding. This can be really disappointing!

Now, some photographers may allow you to put that money you paid for those unused hours towards a couples photoshoot. For example, if your wedding ended an hour early, some photographers will allow you to use that hour for an anniversary shoot. But not all photographers do this. Talk with your photographer before you sign a contract and ask them!

If you know that your wedding just isn’t going to last 8 hours, maybe 4 hours is good for you! Not to brag, but I wrote an amazing article all about 4 hours of wedding photography. Check it out if 8 hours sounds like too much.

Is 8 hours enough for me?

I hope this has helped you find out if 8 hours of wedding photography is the perfect fit for you. If you want to do more research, I highly recommend this wonderful blog post by the Aisle Guide and this wedding timeline by Vivo Photography.

Looking for a cinematic and artistic wedding photographer in the Northwest US? Let’s talk! I’d love to go through your wedding timeline and find the best amount of coverage for you. Not in the Northwest? Let’s still talk! I want to help you have the best wedding experience possible and I’ll answer any questions you might have!

I hope this has helped you and I look forward to talking to you!

xoxo chat soon,

Kaylee from LaShay and Light Wedding Photography

Let’s talk about why you should or shouldn’t get 4 hours of wedding photography.

When starting your wedding planning, it can be really confusing figuring out how much wedding photography you’ll actually need. If you book too many hours with your wedding photographer, you may end up overpaying. If you don’t book enough hours with your photographer, you may look back and really regret not getting some parts of your wedding captured. Take it from me. When I was a bride, I firmly believed that I only wanted bridals and one hour of wedding coverage just to get group photos. I wish I could go back in time and give myself a talking to, especially now that I’m a wedding photographer myself. So if you don’t want to take it from a wedding photographer, take it from a bride. Most of your budget should go towards wedding photography and videography. It’s an emotional investment for your future. Let me help you figure out if 4 hours of wedding photography is enough for you. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.

Plan out your timeline before you book a wedding photographer

If you haven’t guessed it already, this is so so so important. If you don’t know how long your wedding is going to last, you’re more likely to under or over book your photographer (or really any wedding vendor). It’s absolutely crucial to have your wedding timeline planned! The internet is full of timelines you can draw inspiration from. Brides has a wonderful post on timelines, I highly recommend looking into it.

Think into to the future. Which photos will you treasure?

Once you’ve planned out your timeline, it’s time to think about what photos you want. And you may really think you know what you want right now. But before you make any final decisions, I want you to imagine something for me. Imagine that you’ve been married for 30 years now. You’ve just got back home from a really hard and stressful day. As you kick your shoes off, plop on the couch, you see you wedding photo album out. You decide to pick it up and look through it. Which photos make you laugh? Cry? Reminisce? What are the photos that completely changes you mood and makes you run up and hug your spouse?

Now, no matter what, when, and where you imagined those photos, you now know what you want your photographer to capture. If you pictured smashing cake into your spouse’s face for that exercise I had you do, make sure your wedding photographer is there for that! Jot down a list of all the photos you imagined and compare that to your timeline. This should help you get a clear picture of how long you need your wedding photographer for.

4 hours of wedding photography is perfect for elopements and micro-weddings

Still not sure if 4 hours of wedding photography is enough? Let’s look at how many guests you’re planning to have. Typically the more wedding guests you have, the more wedding coverage you’ll need. Having a lot of people at a wedding typically draws out the individual events, such as catering, dancing, and greeting guests. If you’re planning to have a small wedding or an elopement, 4 hours could be perfect for you! With such a small number of guests, you can have your wedding done by that time. Again, like always, look at your timeline and see.

Great to cover the ceremony, group photos, and bridals

When you imagined those photos in your future wedding album, did you only see the ceremony, group photos, and some individual photos of you and your spouse? 4 hours is generally a good amount of time to capture all of that! If you pictured any other events such as photos of the grand exit, consider getting a wedding photography package with more coverage.

Is 4 hours enough for your wedding?

I hope by now, you’ll have a better sense of how much coverage you need for your wedding. If 4 sounds perfect, great! If you’re looking for a Southeast Idaho wedding photographer that offers 4 hours of coverage, let’s talk and see if we’re a good match! I’d love to chat with to you! Does 4 hours sound like too much or too little? Let’s still talk. I offer multiple packages with varying amounts of coverage. Not only that, I also offer fully customizable packages where you can decide exactly how many hours you want photographed.

I hope this post has helped you and I hope to hear from you soon!

xoxo chat soon,

Kaylee from LaShay and Light Wedding Photography

The battle of the century: Eloping vs. Wedding. How do you know which one’s for you?

To elope or not to elope, for that is the question. Most likely, you have a bunch of people telling to do different things for your wedding. Perhaps your friends are telling you to elope because they’ve eloped and loved it. And maybe your family is pushing for a traditional wedding so all of your relatives can be there. There’s a lot to consider. So I’m giving you what I wish I had when I was engaged: a pros and cons list about eloping and traditional weddings. But before we go all eloping vs. wedding, let’s discuss what the differences are.

What does a traditional wedding look like?

A traditional wedding is basically a giant party with around a 100 guests or more. With there being so many guests, weddings tend to be very structured with a timeline and schedule.

What does an elopement look like?

Unlike a wedding, elopements have 20 guests or less. This leads to a more unstructured celebration with a lot of leeway.

Now that we’ve gotten the definitions of weddings and elopements, let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Wedding vs. Elopement: Elopement Pros

Pro #1: Cost

Because of the smaller guest count, elopements are a lot more cost effective than weddings. Instead of paying for hundreds of people, you’re only paying for 20. That’s an incredible price difference!

And because you’re only paying for 20 or so people, you can allocate you budget to higher quality vendors and experiences. Let me explain. Let’s say you have a budget of 20k. You could definitely have a traditional wedding with that budget. However, a lot of that budget is going to go into ensuring that there’s enough of everything for each guests. You’ll have to cut corners. But with an elopement, you wouldn’t be paying for hundreds of guests. You could spend that 20k budget on higher quality services. For example, let’s say you couldn’t afford a good photographer for your large wedding because you’ve spent the budget on the guests. With an elopement, you would be able to get an amazing photographer (cough, cough me).

So basically, you could have a lower quality wedding with a bunch of people or you could have a higher quality elopement with a small guest count.

Pro #2: Location

As sad as it is, you can’t have a giant wedding in a National Park. But you can have an elopement there. So if you’re an adventurous couple, this is an enormous reason to elope. Even if you’re not adventurous but you want beautiful photos, this is something to consider. Just imagine what your photos would look like! Maybe it’s just the elopement photographer inside of me but I’m drooling at the thought.

Pro #3: Intimacy

This Pro might be a con for you. If you’re extroverted and want a ton of people to celebrate your wedding with you, a small guest count sounds terrible. In that case, an elopement may not be the best option for you. But if you really value just a handful of people coming, an elopement will be amazing for you. So put this as a point for or against elopements in our little eloping vs. wedding battle.

Wedding vs. Elopement: Elopement Cons

Con #1: Peer Disapproval

This one sucks. I really wish I didn’t have to make this a con but I think this is something to consider. If you’re planning to elope, some friends, family, or acquaintances may be upset that they’re not invited. It may stir up some drama. Even though it would be amazing if everyone accepted your decisions, that doesn’t always happen. Before planning your elopement, sit down as a couple and discuss who you want to invite and who may cause issues if they’re not invited. This will help you prepare and decide if an elopement is for you.

Con #2: Less Wedding Gifts

If your really looking forward to getting wedding gifts, an elopement may not be for you. Sure, you can definitely send people your registry but people are a lot more likely to bring if they’re invited. With a small guest count, lots of gifts may not be in your future.

Con #3: Dirty Wedding Attire

This con is specifically with destination elopements. If you’re going to be hiking in your wedding dress, be prepared for a muddy train. Climbing up rocky hills and hiking through the woods can cause rips and tears in your beautiful outfit. Even if you decide to wear hiking attire and change near the ceremony location, your hair and makeup may be messed up. So if you mind getting dirty, consider hiring a hair and makeup artist to come along and change into your wedding attire after hiking.

Wedding Pros

Pro #1: All your loved ones

You don’t have to pick and choose for a wedding; you can invite as many people as you’d like. Traditional weddings are great if you have large families or if you’re just a social butterfly! If your extroverted and love having lots of people celebrate with, a wedding is the clear cut winner in this eloping vs. wedding battle.

Pro #2: Traditions

If you’re a lover of traditions like throwing the bouquet, first dance, and cutting the cake, you’ll get to enjoy all of those moments at a wedding. There may even be some family wedding traditions you can only do at a traditional wedding. For example, its a tradition in my family to have a picture slide show of the couple starting from baby pictures to wedding pictures. I couldn’t have had kept that tradition if I decided to elope in a forest or a desert with little to no cell reception.

Pro #3: Themes and Color Palettes

Maybe this was just me but I’ve always been obsessed with wedding themes and color palettes. For eloping vs. wedding, I think weddings really takes the cake when it comes to themes. With a traditional wedding, you can really dive into a theme. You can add it to your invitations to your table centerpieces. With an elopement, a theme may not be as clear or even possible.

Wedding Cons

Con #1: Price

My goodness, weddings are expensive! The cost of the average wedding is about $30,000. If you have that kind of money to spare, by all means, spend it! But for many, this may be a hard pill to swallow.

Con #2: Stress

If you’re not already stressing about the price of your wedding, don’t worry, there’s a lot else to stress about. Whether that’s people not RSVP’ing, finding vendors, or things just not going to plan, get prepared for a few stressful moments. But there is a plus to this con. Nothing like planning a wedding helps show you another side to your fiancé. You get to see how they handle stress and how you can help them.

Con #3: Time Flies

One of the most common regrets I hear from couples is that they didn’t have time to enjoy their own wedding. Couples often find themselves too preoccupied with making sure their guests are enjoying themselves and everything is going to plan, that they forget that this wedding is for them. Talking to all of your wedding guests is great but don’t forget to spend some time with your spouse!

Conclusion

Eloping vs. Wedding! Who wins?! It’s up to you. Seriously consider both. Ultimately, it depends on what you want to remember when you look back at your big day years from now. I hope this pros and cons list has helped you make a decision. If you want to do more research, which I highly advise, check out this amazing article on weddings and elopements.

And remember, no matter if you decide on a wedding or an elopement, I’ll always be there to photograph it.

xoxo chat soon,

Kaylee from LaShay and Light Photography

Engaged and don’t know what to do? Here’s the best free wedding planning sites for you.

You’re engaged! Now what? Planning a wedding (or elopement) can be crazy stressful. I get it; I’ve been there. There’s so much to do and you don’t know where to start. You might not even have a mood board yet. And that’s okay! As a former bride and a wedding photographer, I’ve used a lot of wedding planning sites and I’ve curated my top 5 best free wedding planning sites.

Just so you know, I haven’t been sponsored by any of these sites. This is just me showing you what I truly think are great sites that every couple should use.

Zola – Best Free Wedding Planning Site All-around

Zola guides you from being engaged to newlywed. Everything you need to do to plan a wedding or an elopement can be done on Zola. I could go on and on about why Zola is absolutely amazing but I’m going to narrow it down to three reasons: vendors, registry, and website.

Vendors on Zola

Before looking for vendors on Zola, you first take a small quiz. This quiz helps give you a personalized curated list of vendors you’d like. Not only that, it shows a list of why they matched with you, whether it be their prices, style, availability, or location. This makes finding vendors you genuinely like a breeze. Not only that, you can also see what vendors you’ve talked to and which ones you’ve booked. This keeps finding vendors organized.

Speaking of vendors, I’m also a vendor on Zola. Booking through Zola is incredibly easy and intuitive. Clients that have booked me through Zola have never had a complaint!

Registry on Zola

The wedding registry is amazing. To start off, Zola’s wedding registry has over 1,000 top brands to choose items from including KitchenAid, Delta Airlines, and Kate Spade. Wedding guests can purchase gifts, experiences, and fund your honeymoon all in one place. There’s free shipping, price matching, and registry gift exchange! But I haven’t even told you the best part. You get a 20% off discount your entire registry for six months after your wedding.

Website on Zola

Your registry can also be linked to your personal wedding website. Zola’s website builder has nearly 300 designs and layouts to choose from so they have an option for whatever style you’re going for! The website builder is easy to use and you can make a website in just a few minutes. It’s also very easy for guests to use so even great-grandma Rosie would be able to use it! Zola also offers wedding invitations that matches your website so you can have a running theme.

Wedding Chicks – Best for Wedding Inspiration

If you’re getting married and don’t know what you want to do, Wedding Chicks is one of the best free wedding planning sites you could go to. Wedding Chicks offers many of the same features Zola does, website builder, search for vendors, printing invitations, but their main focus is on wedding inspiration and a blog to help you plan your wedding.

They have a wide collection of posts all about planning a wedding. From Wedding Day Must-Haves For Every Emergency Kit to Shades of French Blue Wedding Ideas they have something for everyone.

Joy – Best Guest List

Joy is one of the best free wedding planning sites for big weddings. It has a registry and a website builder but the highlight of Joy is it’s guest list. Sorting and categorizing guests is a breeze! You can group guests into parties, send mass emails, track RSVPs, and -my favorite part- add tags. You can add tags to a guest or party to categorize them. For example, you can tag them as family, friend, maid of honor, from your side of the family or your sweetheart’s, and so much more. Once the guests RSVP, Joy’s guest list automatically updates with the new information. It’s great if you have a large family or just a bunch of friends you want to keep track of!

Carats & Cake – Best Style and Theme Options

You’ve got a very specific theme you want for your wedding; it could be edgy, industrial, or romantic. Whatever you’re going for, Carats & Cake has the vendors and the inspiration. Carats & Cake allows you to see photo galleries from dream weddings and also lists every vendor that participated in making that wedding happen. This makes finding your dream vendor a reality.

However, it’s important to note that Carats & Cake does not have website builder or a registry, it’s mainly used for finding vendors and inspiration.

Online Wedding Planning Assistant – Best Variety

Online Wedding Planning Assistant has all of the bells and whistles. You can find vendors, create a budget, make a website, form a wedding timeline, create a seating chart, and so much more. For being free, its an amazing resource that can be incredibly helpful. I love Online Wedding Planning Assistant but there are a few reasons why its not higher on the list. Creating a website on Online Wedding Planning Assistant is not intuitive and has very few customizations. It doesn’t have a registry and, this may seem arbitrary to some, I’m not a fan of their aesthetic. However, if you’re tech-savvy and want a site that offers great customizable seating chart planning and forming wedding timelines, this is a great option.

Conclusion

Those are my top five best free wedding planning sites! I hope this has helped you plan your wedding. If you’re using these websites or have used them in the past, let me know! I’d love to hear your experiences with them.

As a little side note, if you’re looking for photographers for your wedding, check me out and let’s talk about what I can do for you!

xo, Kaylee from LaShay and Light Photography

If you’re in Rigby looking for a place for Bridals, check out The Venue!

Rigby, Idaho has some beautiful locations for Bridals. If your looking for an indoor venue with a chic, urban, and rustic flair, The Venue is what you’re looking for. I shot some bridals in Rigby, Idaho at the Venue and it was so beautiful! I really loved the brick texture and large windows at the Venue so I took most of my photos there. This bride and groom were so darn cute! I barely had to pose them for these bridals.

As you may have noticed, I’ve really been focusing on my editing style. I’ve been trying new things and this is what I’ve gotten. My style may continue to evolve but I’m happy with what I have right now!

The bride had some beautiful flowers in her bouquet. I new I just had to get some photos of it! This is one of my favorite poses to do for bridals and this one really shined. It’s so simple and romantic. I love it!

For some people, bridals -or photos in general- can make them nervous or camera shy. But this bride and groom thrived being shot! I barely had to pose them! They were so cute and in love.

As much as I loved the bricks at the venue in Rigby, Idaho, there was a beautiful setting sun outside and I just needed those sun flares! So, I pulled my bride and groom outside and snapped a few shots. So worth it.

I had so much fun shooting these bridals in Rigby, Idaho. The Venue was beautiful, the bride and groom were beautiful, everything was beautiful! If you’re interested in getting some amazing bridals, I recommend The Venue. If you’re looking for a photographer in Rigby, well, I’m your girl.

Beautiful bridals in beautiful Wyoming!

A few weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to go to String Lake, Wyoming for bridals. It was my first time going to String Lake and I instantly fell in love. Getting to photograph this beautiful bride was an absolute dream. The location was beautiful, the bride was beautiful, you can’t get anything better than that. If you’re looking for a place for an elopement or bridals, definitely go to String Lake, Wyoming! For these two bridal photos I had the bride interact with her surroundings and her outfit.

For these two bridal photos I had the bride interact with her surroundings and her outfit. In the first one, I had her holding her hat and looking towards the lake. With the next one, I had her lift up her dress.

It’s super important to get some close ups too! In this photo, I had her look away and hold her bouquet.

Conclusion

I loved String lake, Wyoming! It was incredibly beautiful and I can’t wait to go again!