How Long Do You Need a Photographer for When You Elope to the Isle of Skye?
Is Two Hours Enough?
If you’re planning to elope to the Isle of Skye, you might be wondering how long you actually need a photographer for. For most traditional weddings, you’d be looking at at least six hours, and maybe the whole day, from dawn until dark. You’ll be happy to learn that for most of the elopements I photograph on Skye, the answer is that you can get everything you want and need, in just two hours.
Ans I know that two hours doesn’t sound enough for a wedding, but let me explain. An elopement with just the two of you isn’t a shortened version of a big traditional wedding. It’s a completely different kind of wedding day. There’s no walking down the aisle followed by hymns, readings, another hymn, signing the register, another reading and 120 people slowly walking out of the church, while you stand at the door kissing Auntie Margaret.
You still have all the important bits. You make your promises. You exchange your vows and rings. You sign the paperwork. Then, you are married! You don’t need all the fillers that come with a traditional wedding ceremony, it’s just about the most important things.
And this means that we can fit a surprising amount into two hours of photography!
Your ceremony will be short, but perfect
Your Ceremony Might Only Take 20–30 Minutes. One of the things that couples are often surprised by, is just how simple an elopement ceremony can be.
If it’s just the two of you and your celebrant, there doesn’t need to be anything included simply because that’s what happens at weddings. Your ceremony can be personal and meaningful without being long. You can include anything important that you have thought about – a handfasting ceremony is really popular, and so are vows that you have written yourselves. But when there’s no music and no chatter, it’s not going to drag on for a long time.
For many of the Skye elopements I photograph, I’ll spend roughly the first half an hour photographing the ceremony itself and those lovely moments immediately before and afterwards. Your nerves, exchanging vows, rings and your first kiss as a married couple. And then it’s onto the celebration – “we actually did it!” moment afterwards!
All the things that matter are there for you both. There just aren’t 100 guests to find their seats, four readings and all the verses of All Things Bright and Beautiful to get through!
90 minutes for portraits
Once you’re married, we have around an hour and a half for photographs of the two of you… That’s a lot of photography time! We might stay around your ceremony location for a while (you chose it because you love it, so let’s make the most of it!) and then will head somewhere completely different. If you are keen on lots of variety in your gallery of images, we could plan your ceremony and portraits so that we can comfortably use several nearby locations, without spending half the session sitting in the car.
This is where having a photographer who lives on Skye is very useful. I know how long it really takes to get between places, depending on the time of year. I know which locations involve a two-minute walk from the car, and which require hiking boots and more commitment. I know where we’re likely to find crowds at particular times of day, and where we can escape them.
And I know that something looking quite close on a map of Skye does not necessarily mean it is close. Skye doesn’t really believe in straight roads!
You Don’t Need Seven Locations to Get Variety
I think there’s sometimes an idea that an elopement photoshoot needs to involve driving around the whole of Skye collecting famous locations.
Quiraing, Sligachan, Fairy Pools, Old Man of Storr… Quick! Everyone back in the car! But it’s worth remembering that your wedding photographs aren’t a sightseeing checklist.
I’d much rather give you time to actually enjoy being somewhere. Skye has the beautiful Cuillin Ridge, lochs and sea, huge skies, rock, moorland and constantly changing light without having to spend hours driving from one end of the island to the other. Even at one location, turning around can give us a completely different landscape.
Add in the fact that the weather and light can change approximately 47 times during a 90-minute photoshoot and we’re rarely short of variety. Choosing the right location is much more important than choosing lots of them.
Two Hours Doesn’t Mean Two Hours of Posing
You’re not going to spend 90 minutes standing perfectly still while I move your hand half an inch to the left. That would be both boring, and exhausting, for all of us. We’ll walk and talk. you are adventurous, we’ll clamber over some rocks to get to the BEST bit of heather for the photos. Your hair may end up somewhere it wasn’t when we started, and we might stop just because the light suddenly looks incredible.
You may discover that walking across uneven Scottish ground in wedding clothes is considerably easier in theory than in practice! I’ll guide you when you need me to, but the idea is that we’re creating photographs while you’re actually experiencing Skye together. Your portrait time will feel like part of your wedding day, not something that’s keeping you from getting on with it.
So What Can We Actually Fit Into Two Hours?
Every elopement is different, but a typical two hours might look something like this.
First 30 minutes: your ceremony, vows, rings, signing the paperwork and those first just-married moments.
Next 90 minutes: relaxed couple portraits, usually starting at your ceremony location, and then moving on to one or two beautiful locations not too far away, chosen around your ceremony, the weather, light and how much exploring you’d like to do.
We won’t be rushing around, trying to cram an eight-hour wedding into two hours. And the reason it works in this timescale is because an elopement simply doesn’t contain all the things that make a traditional wedding take all day. We haven’t got 100 people to organise for group photographs, we don’t have to wait for guests to travel from the ceremony to the reception. There aren’t speeches, a wedding breakfast, cake cutting and a first dance that all need photographing.
It’s just the important bits, condensed. It’s your marriage!
You Get Your Wedding Photographed, Without Giving Your Wedding Day to Your Photographer
Your wedding isn’t a photoshoot! You’re coming to Skye to get married, and of course photography is an important part of that. These are the photographs you’ll keep for the rest of your lives.
But once we’ve photographed your ceremony and had a wonderful time exploring together, I can leave you to enjoy being married. You could go for a fabulous meal and open a bottle of champagne. You could head back to your accommodation and sit by the fire.
Whatever sounds like the perfect day for both of you, is how your wedding day should be. You’ve got beautiful photographs. And you’ve still got almost all of your wedding day left!
But What If We Have Something More Adventurous Planned?
This is where you might want a little more time! Some couples decide that if they’re running away to Skye to get married, they might as well make a proper adventure of it. Perhaps you want to go for a swim in the sea after your ceremony, or maybe you’ve arranged a boat trip.
Perhaps there’s a particular place you’d love to hike to, or something else slightly wild you’ve decided would be a brilliant way to spend your wedding day. Or perhaps you’ve looked through my website and seen that I sometimes like couples to get a bit wet – the photos are a fantastic memory!
Tell me what you’re planning and we can work out how much photography time makes sense. I don’t think every elopement must fit into two hours, it’s just that I don’t think you need to book hours and hours of photography, because you’ve been given the impression that’s what a wedding day is supposed to involve.
For the vast majority of the intimate Skye elopements I photograph, two hours gives us everything we need. But if you’ve decided you’re getting married and then going paddleboarding together? I definitely want to know about that!
What If We’re Bringing Our Children?
Two hours can still work beautifully. in fact, if you have young children, then the less time they have to spend in front of the camera is better for them!
Having your children at your ceremony doesn’t suddenly turn it into a traditional all-day wedding. We’ll simply allow some time after the ceremony for photographs together, and I’ll keep all our chosen locations friendly to smaller legs, and fun! If you’re bringing children, we can keep things relaxed and flexible instead of expecting them to stand around patiently while the adults take photographs for an hour. I’ll make sure they feel important and involved, too. Because we don’t want your plan to be reliant upon a three-year-old patiently waiting while Mum and Dad have wedding photographs taken!!
Two Hours = Plenty of Time for elopement photographs
An Isle of Skye elopement features a beautiful location, a kind celebrant and the two of you.
You’ll take half an hour or so to make some very important promises, and then some time to head out into one of the most incredible landscapes in Scotland and create photographs of the two of you on the day you got married. For most couples, two hours isn’t the minimum amount of photography they can get away with. It’s the correct amount of time.
It gives us time to tell YOUR story, without taking over your day. And after I’m finished with your wedding photographs, you still have your entire wedding day ahead of you. And that seems to me like a pretty good way to start married life. If you’re planning an elopement on the Isle of Skye and would like beautiful, relaxed photography without turning your wedding day into an all-day photoshoot, you can find out more about my Isle of Skye elopement photography and two-hour package here.
Get in touch and tell me what you’re planning! And if it involves a boat, or a swim, or something REALLY different… then I’ll put the kettle on and we can chat!
