2010 brides, I need your opinions!

So I need feedback with my post-ceremony pictures timeline.

We are having an 11:00 am ceremony at the church, which is literally just 10 minutes from the reception hall. The ceremony is a shorter one, about 20 minutes. The cocktail hour is from 12:30-1:45. We don't want to miss cocktail hour, and we don't want to take pictures together before the ceremony, either.

We will have two photographers in the morning so that we can each take individual shots and shots with our respective families.

That said, how much time is necessary for pictures together after the ceremony? I am hoping no longer than 45 minutes or so...am I being unreasonable?

Honestly, you're not going to want to rush the pictures. You don't want to miss your shot that you want just because you want to go to cocktail hour. We did this and we both said if we did it over again we would have done more pictures and skipped cocktail hour. We didn't get to eat or drink at cocktail hour because everyone comes up to you at the same time to say hello and congrats you.

Also, I'm sorry to say that I think 45 minutes will not get all the pictures you want, unless you have a VERY small bridal party (like just an MOH and BM). If you have say 10 people plus a FG and RB and your parents and you guys then it's going to be a lot of people trying to all pay attention and get pictures done. 45 minutes is good if you don't want bridal party pictures.

Look online and look through the list of pictures you are going to want that day. It will give you a better idea of how much time you want to take. Groom with your parents, you with his parents, Groom with bridesmaids, bride with groomsmen, groom with MOH, bride with BM, everyone together, etc...it's a lot of time but again it's the memories you will be able to look at for the rest of your lives.

I had an 11:00 ceremony- a short one also which still turned out to be 1/2. Then you have the receiving line- figure another 20 mins (at least). Where are going to take the pics? How big is your bidal party? Figure you wont get to the FH until at leat 12:00-12:15.

Can you change your CH to start at 1:00? At least you might be able to get to your CH by 1:30 and be able to enjoy part of it

45 minutes for pics is sooo not enough time!
i would rather skip the CH (which we did) to get more pics. You only get this day once, your not going to eat that day at all anyway because people will be all over you congratulating you, so might as well take awesome pics together while you have the chance.

I don't think 45 minutes will be enough time; I'm sorry.

I found that everything took a bit longer than I thought. We took pictures for about 45 minutes after the receiving line and church and then for another 1.5 hours before the CH at the RH.

To be honest, I think 45 minutes is too little.

I took pictures for about 30 minutes after the ceremony and then for like an hour and a half before CH, which allowed me to calmly have CH with my guests.

Just keep in mind that you have to get everyone from your bridal party and family to work quickly to get into poses. And that is usually hard to do....some people want to mingle and chat, so it takes time to get them in their spots. So 45 mins, may be just to short of a window. JMO.