Micro Wedding Photography: How Much Coverage a Small Wedding Really Needs

A micro wedding, which we take to mean thirty guests or fewer, is not a scaled-down big wedding. It has a different shape: fewer formal events, more time with the people who are there, and a day that can move at the pace the couple wants rather than the pace the venue demands. That changes how it should be photographed, and it is why the right coverage is usually shorter but not shortest.

How many hours

Four hours is the honest answer for most micro weddings, and it is why our four-hour collections exist. The temptation is to book two hours ("it is only the ceremony and some portraits") and the result is a gallery with the ceremony and some portraits in it and none of the day around them: the getting ready, the toast your father gave at the restaurant, the walk back to the car. Four hours covers a micro wedding completely. Six hours covers one with a seated dinner and dancing.

The exception is an elopement with no guests and no reception, where two to three hours of portrait time is genuinely all there is to photograph. Ask us; we will tell you what we think.

A four-hour micro wedding timeline

For a 3:00 ceremony and a 5:00 dinner for twenty:

• 1:30 Coverage begins. The last of getting ready, the details, a few minutes with each of you alone before you see each other.
• 2:15 First look and couple portraits, unhurried, in the best spot within a short walk.
• 2:45 Family portraits, which with twenty guests means everyone, in five minutes.
• 3:00 Ceremony.
• 3:30 Champagne, hugs, candids. This is where small weddings shine on camera and where we spend our time.
• 4:15 A second set of couple portraits as the light drops, ten or fifteen minutes.
• 4:45 Walk to dinner; the room, the table, the first toast.
• 5:30 Coverage ends.

Notice there is no cocktail hour, no grand entrance, no cake cutting unless you want one, and no time pressure anywhere. That is the micro wedding advantage.

What to spend on instead of hours

Light. With a short day there is no margin for a bad hour. Set the ceremony so that the portraits afterwards land in the last two hours before sunset; the sunset table for your city will tell you when that is.

Film. Thirty guests means thirty people whose voices you will want to hear again, and a four-hour film collection (The Vow) costs less than most couples spend on flowers. Our combined four-hour option does not exist for a reason (film and photo at that length tread on each other), but a photographer for six hours and a filmmaker for four is a combination we are happy to build.

An engagement session. It is included with the combined collections and $200 with the others, and for a small wedding it doubles your portrait time for the year.

What to skip

• A second photographer. With fewer than thirty guests, one photographer sees everything.
• The detail flat-lay. Ten minutes of your four hours on the invitation suite is a poor trade; we will photograph the rings and the dress in the time it takes you to put on your shoes.
• The shot list. Give us the names of the people who matter most and let the rest happen.

Pricing

Our four-hour collections are $1,600 for photography and $1,300 for film, travel included anywhere in the country. A micro wedding on a Tuesday in a national park costs the same as a Saturday in the city. Check your date and tell us how many people are coming; we will suggest the collection that fits.