A Hudson Valley wedding timeline that works

Most of the Hudson Valley weddings I photograph happen between May and October, and almost every timeline I receive puts portraits at the wrong time of day. Here is the version I suggest to couples.

Work back from sunset

In mid-September the sun sets around 7:05 pm, and the hills to the west take the light about twenty minutes earlier. Your best portrait window is 6:15 to 6:45. Put the ceremony at 4:30, cocktails at 5:15, and slip away from cocktails for twenty minutes of portraits.

Keep the morning slow

Getting ready always runs long. Give hair and makeup a forty-minute buffer, and get dressed an hour before you need to leave. The quiet half hour after the dress goes on is often my favorite part of the day.

Put the ceremony at 4:30 and slip away from cocktails for twenty minutes of portraits.

If it rains, we use the barn door, the porch or the inn’s tallest window. Grey days in the valley are soft and kind, and some of my favorite galleries were shot under a closed sky.