Our eight-hour collections are the ones most couples book, and our ten-hour collections are the ones most couples ask about. The difference is two hours and, in our pricing, $600 for photography or $500 for film. Whether those two hours are worth it depends entirely on the shape of your day, so here is how to tell.
What eight hours covers
Eight hours is a full wedding day for most couples: getting ready from about ninety minutes before the ceremony, the ceremony itself, every portrait, cocktail hour, and the reception through the first hour of open dancing. For a 4:00 ceremony and a reception that starts at 6:00, eight hours of coverage from 1:30 ends at 9:30, by which point the first dance, toasts, parent dances and cake are long done and the dance floor has been open for an hour and a half.
If your day fits in that shape, eight hours is the right choice and the extra two would mostly be spent photographing the same dance floor.
When ten hours earns its keep
Ten hours exists for days that are genuinely longer, and there are four kinds:
- Two locations with real travel between them. A church ceremony at 2:00 and a reception forty minutes away means an hour of the day is spent in cars. Ten hours absorbs it; eight hours means cutting getting ready or the send-off.
- A late send-off that matters. Sparklers at 11:00, a vintage car, a late-night exit the whole wedding has been planned around. If the exit is on the inspiration board, you want it photographed, and that usually means ten hours.
- Large wedding parties and large families. Twelve bridesmaids and groomsmen, both families with parents remarried, grandparents on all sides. Portraits take longer; a ten-hour day gives them room without squeezing the reception.
- Cultural and multi-event days. A tea ceremony in the morning and a Western ceremony in the afternoon; a baraat; a reception that does not seat dinner until nine. These are ten-hour days by nature and sometimes more.
If none of those describe your day, you are probably buying hours you will not use.
The middle path: eight hours plus one
Additional hours are $175 each on every collection, and you can add them at booking or decide on the day. Eight hours plus one is $175 more than the eight-hour collection, versus $500 to $600 for the ten-hour version, and it covers the most common overrun: a send-off that happens an hour after coverage was due to end. If you are torn, book eight and tell us you may want a ninth. We will plan for it.
Where the ten-hour collections include more than time
In our collections, the ten-hour versions are not simply longer; The Laurel (photography) and The Symphony (film) carry everything the eight-hour versions do, and the combined Eternity adds a second full hour of coverage to both photographer and filmmaker at once. If you are booking photo and film together, compare The Heritage (eight hours) to The Eternity (ten) with your timeline in hand rather than in the abstract.
How to decide in five minutes
Write down three times: when hair and makeup finishes, when the ceremony starts, and when the last thing you care about photographing happens (the exit, the last dance, the cake). Subtract the first from the last. If it is eight hours or less, book eight. If it is nine, book eight and add one. If it is ten or more, the ten-hour collection is the better price.
And if you are not sure what the last thing you care about is, that is the real question, and it is worth answering before you choose a collection.
Planning your wedding?
Olivia Layne Studios photographs and films weddings nationwide — travel included, dates limited.
Check Your Date