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The Best Time Of Day To Have Your Ceremony & Portraits

Let's talk about time, we never seem to have enough, and on your wedding day, you definitely don't feel like you have enough! Time should be important to you and all of your vendors. For a photographer, we base time off of the sun. Where the sun is in the sky make a humungous difference on what your photos look like! The best lighting on any given sunny day, happens twice a day. It's what we like to call golden hour. Golden hour happens the first 2 hours of the day, so starting at sunrise. And the last 2-3 hours of the day. So starting 2-3 hours before the sun sets. We're going to start at your first set of photos with your photographer, your engagement photos....

Engagement Photos

The best times of the day to do your engagement photos would be either starting at sunrise or 2-3 hours before sunset. Now, you have two times of the day to pick from, but! One in my opinion is better than the other and that's sunrise. I know what you're thinking, that's the worse one! Sunrise sessions are great for many reasons. No one is around! Head downtown Annapolis at sunrise? You'll only see runners and maybe another photographer. What you wont see is, kids running around, tourists hogging up the good spots and taking a million pictures with their phones. This means you wont have to constantly be waiting for a good spot to open up, dodging stares from passerby's watching you take photos, etc.

Wedding Ceremony

Yes, there is a good time to have your ceremony based on the sun. In fact, when you're touring your venue, it might be a good idea to ask where the sun sets. Not only for photos. You dont want it to be super bright in the sky and blinding your guests as they watch you say I do. A good time to have your ceremony would be about 3 hours before the sun sets. That way you're taking your bridal portraits during golden hour and getting amazing light for the photos you're going to look back on forever!

I hope you found this helpful when developing your timeline and choosing a ceremony time!

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