New York
Wedding photography · New York
In short
Wedding photography in New York starts at $3,500: 8 hours on location with a photographer who works in New York, and 600 edited photos delivered to a private gallery within 6 weeks.
Why choose Wedding photography in New York?
A New York wedding is a timeline problem that other cities do not have. Getting ready is in a hotel room too small to move in, the ceremony and the reception are frequently a crosstown drive apart, and the twenty minutes allowed for portraits fall exactly when the traffic does. What a photographer who works here brings is not a different eye but a different plan: which room in that hotel has the window, how long that crosstown drive actually takes at 4:30 on a Saturday, and where the portraits happen when the car takes fifty minutes instead of twenty.
Worth knowing about New York
The crosstown transfer is the single largest risk to a New York wedding timeline, and it is routinely underestimated by half. A twenty-minute drive between a Manhattan ceremony and a Brooklyn reception is a fifty-minute drive between four and seven on a Saturday, and that time comes out of the portrait window rather than out of dinner. Timelines here are built with the portraits before the ceremony wherever a first look is acceptable, precisely so the traffic cannot take them.
What does the session in New York look like?
- The getting-ready room
- Scouted beforehand, because in Manhattan the difference between a usable room and an unusable one is one window and no overhead fluorescents.
- Central Park or the Brooklyn waterfront
- The portrait window, chosen for whichever is closest to both venues rather than whichever is better known.
- The reception room at blue hour
- Ten minutes outside while the room is lit and empty. The frame that most couples say afterwards they are gladdest to have.
What does wedding photography in New York include?
- 600+ retouched photographs
- Eight hours of continuous coverage
- Pre-wedding venue walk-through and timeline planning
- Second photographer for ceremony and reception
- Private online gallery within 6 weeks
- Print release for personal use
FAQ — Wedding photography in New York
Do we need a permit for wedding photos in Central Park?
For a handheld portrait session in areas open to the public, no. A ceremony is different: holding a space in Central Park for a wedding requires a permit from NYC Parks, with designated locations and a cap on group size. Most New York couples marry at a venue and use the park only for portraits, which needs nothing at all.
How many hours of coverage does a New York wedding need?
Eight covers most single-venue weddings. Add hours if the ceremony and reception are in different boroughs, which in this city is common — a crosstown transfer on a Saturday afternoon can take fifty minutes, and that time is coverage whether or not anything is being photographed during it. A first look before the ceremony is the other thing that reliably changes the number.