[QUOTE=Ferret Herder]
Some brides have this thing about the groom not seeing them in the dress before they’re married. [ /QUOTE]
I suppose it depends on the circles you run in, but in my experience something like 80% of the brides I shoot for keep this tradition. Even a lot of “non-traditional” couples keep this tradition–for example, I had a rather punky couple a couple weeks ago–she wore pink Converse Chuck Taylors as her wedding shoes, he wore black Cons, but they didn’t see each other before the ceremony.
Anyhow, back to the OP. So, I am a wedding photographer for a living, and for me three hours is excessive. A typical wedding schedule usually looks like this for me: Ceremony @ 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., cocktail hour starts at 6:00 p.m. Given a full church service, that means we’re out of the church by about 4:30 or so. I spend a half-hour getting the main altar shots. (I don’t particularly care for these, but the parents and grandparents generally still want them). So I take care of the groups at the church. At 4:30 we might head out with the wedding party and bride and groom to another location, take a set of photos there, and be back at the cocktail, no later than 6:30 p.m., or a half-hour into the cocktail hour.
Schedules at weddings at, say, a country club are usually tighter, since they don’t require travel. A wedding like this may have the ceremony start at about 5:00. At 5:30 we finish, take pictures immediately after, and wrap up by 6:30 or posisbly 6:45.
So, for me, the ideal amount of times spent on group formals and portraits would be something in the 1 1/2 hour max range (30 minutes for groups, 15 minutes for wedding party, 30-45 minutes bride & groom). I’ve done them in as little as 45 minutes. I think three hours is excessive for the type of photography I do, plus I think during a wedding day that amount of photography becomes very tiring for the subjects.
My philosophy is that it’s a wedding day, not a day-long photo shoot. You want to get good pictures but not at the expense of the couple or guests’ fun. Just research your photographers to make sure they’re comfortable working with possibly a compressed timeframe. However, one hour for photos, once on location, is plenty.