Tom Keene

A typical reception runs about four to five hours. The whole celebration, if you count cocktail hour through last dance, often lands near six hours for guests. Your photographer’s clock is different. It starts when we walk in for details or getting ready, and it ends when you no longer need us—not when the bar closes. Most traditional Los Angeles weddings book six to eight hours of photography. Courthouse and micro days can be three. Big, split-location Saturdays run eight to ten. The day is...

It depends on the length of the day. Two hundred finished images can tell the story of a two- to four-hour courthouse or micro wedding. For an eight-hour wedding with getting ready, ceremony, formals, and a reception, 200 is a short gallery by common standards.

In Los Angeles, three hours of wedding coverage often falls around $1,200 to $2,500 when a studio will book that short. Plenty of full-time wedding photographers set a six-hour minimum, so a three-hour day is not always on the menu.