Photos during Cocktail Hour?

You do have a large bridal party, and it will be hard to be very time organized. I would recommend taking a lot of the brides party and grooms party pictures before the ceremony. This will only leave the wedding party as a whole and family photos after the ceremony. This will greatly reduce the time after the wedding.

Also consult with your photographer on what s/he suggests. They have a very good idea of how long pictures will take, and let you know if it really is possible.

First of all, don't let your photographer make you feel like you need 2-3 hours for formal photos. That is just insane!!! Decide what pictures you REALLY want and make sure the photographer knows what you want in advance. Let the briadla party know too so that everyone is prepared and you aren't like, "hey, can someone go find grandma for this picture?"

Guests aren't going to want to wait 3 hours in between the ceremony and reception just so you can take some long photoshoot.

And I can tell ya, it CAN be done. My wedding was at noon. We did no formal photos in the morning cuz there really wasn't time or opportunity. Our ceremony WAS an hour long.

We took about 15 minutes for formal photos. The two of us, entire bridal party, with our parents, just the guys, just the girls, etc.

Our reception began at 1:00. It wasn't too far so we got there about 1:30.

I told the photographer that I expected that he would get the right shot the first time and not take 20 shots for each "pose". And guess what... he DID get the shots on the first try, except the ones with the baby in them... but that was expected.

I let him focus on the candid shots and those are great too.

Open bar at cocktail hour is enough; just be sure you have wine available on the tables or served during the reception. We did this and just made sure to let our friends and family know the cocktail hour was open and then it would be wine only, and trust me, everyone had enough liquor during the cocktail hour. An "open" bar during the reception that requires drink tickets is tacky in my opinion. From what I hear, most people go to weddings expecting to pay for their own drinks anyway, so to have anything free is a nice surprise for them.

If the cocktail hour begins at 12 then the reception doesn't start until 1pm. Why would you only have 30 minutes? You have the entire cocktail hour. The bride, groom and bridal party do not attend the cocktail hour. They are introduced to guests after it is over and everyone has been seated.

Nope! Is there any way for you to choose not to have mass during the ceremony? I know that you get to choose the readings for your ceremony. My fiancee and I had a Catholic wedding ceremony but we did it in 20 minutes. We asked the priest to cut it down as much as he could. This way you could have the lunch time wedding. Ask your photographer how much time he will need. He would have the most accurate response for you anyway.

Is it possible to take some of the pictures before the wedding (i.e bride and her family and then groom and his family)? That way, you only have to take the together pictures after the wedding.

Check with your photographer to see what he/she thinks. I have seen photographers handle bigger wedding parties in 15 minutes. It just depends on how well everyone follows directions.

You could also bring some drinks for the wedding party to enjoy during the pictures.

It depends on your expectations for your wedding photos. If you want lots of posed photos, with different combinations of people, it may take awhile with 45 people. We were very minimal with our posed photos, and it took 5-10 min max. We just did not want a lot of posed photos.

The couple and wedding party aren't usually there for cocktail hour - usually you show up right before the dinner starts.

I have over 17 years as professional photographer and have photo'd over 700 weddings to date. If you were my Bride, I would caution you very much that that is not nearly enough time for your photos. Not sure what part of the country you are from but i would have set up at least 2 hours to photograph that large of a group and more likely 3 hours. The one thing from your wedding day you will see nearly everyday for the rest of your life is your photos (at least the ones on your wall, in your office, etc) and make sure they are done right and not rushed and you will like them all the more. Take the dinner route and enjoy your day because it will go extremely fast. Best wishes and good luck!!