How Much Photography Time is Needed for a Hawaii Beach Wedding?

One thing brides and grooms often underestimate is how much photography time is enough for Hawaii beach weddings. The amount of photography time needed, has not only to do with how much time you want, but how fast the sun sets. Below you will learn how much time you should allot to get the gorgeous beach wedding photos you came to Hawaii for. We will look at the key factors sunset times, length of ceremony and wedding guest count in determining how much photography time you really need.

Sunset Times for Hawaii Beach Weddings

What time does the sun set and how fast the sun sets are two key factors in understanding how much photography time you need for your beach wedding in Hawaii.

What Time Does the Sun Set in Hawaii Where You are Getting Married?

To figure out what time the sun sets in Hawaii in the particular region of your wedding, you need to use a sunset calculator. As wedding planners in Hawaii our preferred sunset calculator is located here: http://www.sunrisesunset.com/usa/Hawaii.asp. This sunset calculator is extremely easy-to-use. To calculate the sunset on your wedding date all you need to do is add your location and the date of your wedding and it will return the exact time the sun will set. Any quality wedding planner in Hawaii will know when the sun sets to the minute. Use this sunset time calculation tool in reverse when adding photography time. For example the sun sets at 6:30 pm and you want 2 hours of photography, then start time is at 4:30 pm.

How Fast Does the Sun Set?

The reason using a sunset calculator is so important is because once the sun sets in Hawaii you only have an additional 10 to 20 minutes of quality light for capturing the best wedding photos. The sun drops like a rock in Hawaii, it is not the West Coast where sunsets can linger for hours. Once the sun goes over the horizon and is no longer visible the clock starts ticking for your 10 to 20 minutes of gorgeous light. After that 10 to 20 minutes,  the rest of your photos are flash photography, creating a dark backgrounds in photos or leaving you with silhouette shots.

Length of Your Hawaii Wedding Ceremony

Let’s talk about the length of your wedding ceremony. Karma Hill, photographer and owner of Simple Maui Wedding says, “from experience with hundreds of weddings, the typical wedding ceremony length is 20 minutes for a Hawaiian based, religious or nonreligious ceremony”. This is important to account for, because if you only have one hour of photography time, this leaves you with 40 minutes to get all the scenery and guest shots you want and as you read further, that is not very long. After you’ve flown a minimum of 2600 miles to get to Hawaii for your destination wedding, you need more than 40 minutes of photography time to get the epic shots you desire.

Wedding Guest Count

So now that you know 20 minutes of your Hawaii wedding package time is taken up for the ceremony, you need to decide how much time you want for guest photos and individual photos of just you and your spouse.

With a large guest count it is very important to write down the combinations of wedding guests you want photos with. The amount of these shots is vitally important to account for in gauging photography time. Let us explain why.

Let’s say you want photos with:

• Brides mom and dad
• Groom’s mom and dad
• Entire wedding party
• Bridesmaids
• Groomsmen
• Brides grandma and grandpa
• Grooms grandma and grandpa
• Flower girl
• Bouquet toss
• Group shot of close friends

 

So above we have 10 different poses which take up valuable photography time. Each Pose takes roughly 3- 4 minutes to: get all the guests together that are needed for the specific shot and set up the pose. If elderly or people with mobility problems are in the poses, this time frame will be increased. So if you have 10 poses at four minutes apiece that is 40 minutes of photography time and no shots have been taken of the bride and groom alone yet.

So with the ceremony of 20 minutes and just 10 poses with the wedding party you have accounted for one hour of photography. Now if you want to get your bride and groom shots you would need roughly 40 minutes to an hour to get some breathtaking shots. You came all the way to Hawaii to get married and you want to leave with some amazing pictures, so don’t cut yourself short on time. You can find additional information about wedding guest count here: Wedding Guest Count.

Determining Just How Much Photography Time You Need

So when determining how much photography time you need, go through and see which poses with friends and family are most important to you. Add up that amount poses X (times) four minutes for each pose, then add 20 minutes for the ceremony plus a  recommend minimum of 40 minutes to an hour of photography time for the bride and groom.

Using the example of 10 poses:

• 10 poses x 4 min.                = 40 Min.
• Ceremony                            = 20 Min.
• Bride and groom photos  =  60 Min.

Total                                               2 hours

So in the above example, allow for 2 hours of photography time. As a general rule over-estimate photography time. When the sun has set, you can’t go back and start the wedding ceremony sooner.  With Hawaii beach weddings photography time must be planned in advance.

In Closing

The #1 thing to remember is don’t cut yourself short on photography time. Hawaii beach weddings seem simple, but it takes time to wrangle guests together for poses. Use a reputable Hawaii wedding coordinator like Simple Maui Wedding to ensure you have enough time calculated for the perfect Hawaii wedding photos.