How long did your tog stay for ?

Ours will arrive at my parents' house for getting ready shots at 10.30am and stays til the third or so dance (about 9pm).

it should say in any package you book what rough time or point in the day they stay until.

Ours is staying right until the end of the night

How long your tog stays depends on the coverage you book. Some charge by the day, some by the hour. Just be clear to them how long you want them there when you book and make sure your contract reflects this.

Usually you can custom tailor it, for most I think a full day counts up until the first dance. I tend to stay for first dance+30mins-1 hour to get a flavour of the guest's dancing as well just because I like those

Ours does an 8 hour package so will be arriving at 1:00 (Ceremony's at 3:00) leaves at 9:00 (evening reception starts at 7:00)

Ours was supposed to be 8 hours, but he arrived at 1 and didn't leave until 10ish.

Ours was with us from 11am til about half hour after the first dance so got a lot of photos of the evening guests.

Ours didn't specify a time frame - our package was from bridal preparations until after the first dance.

In practice this was about 10am until about 8.30pm.

My standard day is from just before the ceremony to get the groom waiting/guests arriving/bride arriving to just after first dance/came cutting - whichever is the last. I do the preparation for a little extra so that people have a choice. Your Tog should be able to advise what they offer. X

Our TOG didn't offer the option to stay late, he left before the wedding breakfast which was fine by us really. He did do a 'mock' shot of us cutting the cake before he left though! All our guests gave us pictures of the speeches and the first dance so we have sufficient photos of the complete day.

99% of the time I get all dayers which are a couple of hours before the ceremony through to a few songs after the first dance.

A day is capped at 10 hours or the first dance (whichever comes first).

I only stay longer on request if I don't have a booking the following day. If I do have one I have to consider the next couple as much as the first.

If a couple book us for coverage from bridal preps - speeches, and they're doing the "official" cake cutting at the evening reception, then we'll often do a mock cake cutting - we give couples this option and they'd rather have a mock up than no shot at all. We wouldn't do the same with the first dance though, hard to re-create that when the room isn't set up!

95% of our bookings are full day coverage, which is up until the first dance then about half an hour or so afterwards to get some shots of guests dancing as well. We much prefer the full day bookings as a lot of people don't really let their hair down until later in the day (with the help of a few shandies!!)

To be honest, we have pics of the real cake cutting and they look exactly the same! I actually never even thought to ask him to stay and get the other pics - it's not that commonplace back home where I got married. I've been to about 15 weddings in that general area and only 1 had the TOG stay for the wedding breakfast and that was cos he was a family friend.

Often the register signing is not "live" either as many registrars and ministers won't allow it........although "legally" there is nothing against this, the only thing that isn't allowed is to photograph the details within the register....

Peter