And why can't wedding photos be delivered on the same day as the wedding?

It's all down to the editing.

A photographer will take hundreds of photos per hour, and a lot of these need to be reviewed for removal. On a full wedding day, easily over 2,000 photos can be taken. Some of these photos will have blurs, or be duplicates, or have people looking into the camera. Even if it takes a photographer 3 seconds to consider whether to keep a photo or not, after a full day that turns into 2 hours of just culling the photos and choosing the ones that make the cut.

"On a full wedding day, easily over 2,000 photos can be taken"

Then, there's the editing. We can edit a photo in about 2-3 minutes. In a gallery of 1,000 photos that is 30 to 50 hours (so, one full week of non-stop editing). Until AI takes over everything, most photographers will hand-edit their photos, and to avoid exhaustion it's best to edit in short bursts (also much better for eyesight!).

During peak wedding season, many photographers will be fully booked at each weekend. At the time of writing this every weekend next month is fully booked, plus some weekdays. This means we're working non-stop. On top of this, we're keeping up to date with clients via emails and consultations, so we're often working late into the evening.

But what if you want the wedding photos unedited? These are called RAW photos and rarely do photographers ever hand these out. Unedited wedding photos are removing the whole point of a photographer: to show the beautiful memories of the day. By removing the editing you remove the magic. Sure, you could ask to borrow the make-up artist's make up for you to apply yourself, but you are then removing the years of experience that makes the make up artist worth having. It is the same for photography.

"By removing the editing you remove the magic"

It is always best to wait for the finished product and get an outstanding gallery for you to cherish.This is why wedding photos can't be delivered on the same day: it's about the art and the craft of photography.