Tips For Brides

How to choose the right wedding package for your day?

When it comes to booking a photography package everyone’s wedding day will look slightly different, so it’s important that your photographer can customise to your needs.

Martinborough tree church wedding

POPULAR WEDDING PACKAGES

For weddings with over 60 guests I start with providing a PDF that has my 3 most popular package options: 3 hours, 6 hours and 10 hours. This is a good starting point for clients to figure out if they want the full day or half day covered. I also give a guideline for the parts of the day that would fit within those hours, which looks like this.

3 hours:
Ceremony
Candid photos of guests
Family photos
Bridal shoot

6 hours:
Preparations
Ceremony
Candid photos of guests & Family photos
Bridal shoot 
Entrance to the reception
Reception details
(Couples can pick preparations or 2 hours of the reception instead)

10 hours (max):
Preparations
Ceremony
Candid photos of guests & Family photos
Bridal shoot 
Full reception coverage & First dance

Otaki beach wedding

FULL DAY VS. HALF DAY

Most couples will book the full day/10 hour package but I won’t ever try and sell you this package if it’s not what you need. If you’re really clever with your timeline you can actually fit a lot into the 6 hour option. If preparations aren’t as important to you then you could have only 1 hour of getting ready photos, or even opt out of these all together, that way you can have more of your reception covered. A great way to get your first dance into your 6 hour package is to have your reception entrance which leads straight into the first dance, this is a really unique way to get your guests excited for the evening.

The 10 hour option is really good if you don’t want to be following a strict timeline on the day and if there is travel to multiple locations. I cap this package a 10 hours because it starts to be a long day for everyone.

Wellington wedding photography

CUSTOMISE YOUR PACKAGE

If the options you’ve been given don’t quite fit your timeline then find out if a custom package is an option! 6 hours might not be enough, 10 hours could be too much, maybe 8 hours would be perfect!

ELOPE INSTEAD!

If the idea of a full-day wedding sounds like too much and you’ve started considering what it would feel like to just elope instead, then it’s probably a perfect option for you! Elopements always end up being just as special as a full wedding day, they bring so many good memories and I absolutely love photographing them!

Wellington elopement photography
Yvette Edwards wedding bouquet

GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR TIMELINE

Knowing what package to go for does require having a draft timeline of the day which can feel really daunting if you don’t know where to start. Have a read of my blog post which runs you through some ideas here! I’ll give clients plenty of time to make the decision on which package, you can always book me in by paying the deposit and we can decide on the amount of coverage at a later date.