Wedding reception timeline for photo and video coverage

The reception order we capture, start to finish

The reception begins with the grand entrance, when everybody celebrates the two of you being introduced as a couple for the first time. It is usually followed right away by the first dance, a very romantic moment we want to capture, and then by the parent dances if you want them, usually son with mother and daughter with father.

Once the dances are done, the couple typically sits back at the sweetheart table or goes out for table touches, a good option because the food has not come out yet and everybody is still excited. At a Middle Eastern wedding, everyone is on the dance floor at this point instead, and that party lasts at least 30 to 45 minutes.

When things calm down a little, the entrees are served and the speeches and toasts happen. After the speeches you give a welcome speech to thank everyone, which is also a good time to walk around and say hi. Dinner follows, then games sometimes, and the cake cutting and bouquet toss toward the end of the formalities.

Speeches, dinner and why you should eat

We ask that speeches stay around 5 minutes each, whether the speaker is a father, a mother, a groomsman, a bridesmaid, the best man or the matron of honor. We want to get things going and not let the toasts drag, because everything after dinner depends on the room having energy.

During dinner things quiet down while everybody eats, and we recommend that the two of you eat your food too. If you skip it and guests keep coming up for photos, it becomes hard to take more photos later, since a lot of formalities happen after dinner and people are generally more active then.

How much open dancing we cover

As wedding day photographers and videographers, our goal is to capture all of the formalities from beginning to end, and then about 30 minutes to 1 hour of open dancing, which is generally sufficient. As soon as the floor opens, pull some family members out with you, especially your parents, and let them dance so we capture those moments right away.

How long we stay depends on the type of wedding. For a cultural wedding, a Middle Eastern or Persian wedding, or a Jewish wedding, we tend to stay longer to capture more of the dancing. For an Indian wedding, tell us what performances you have planned and we will stay through them.