How Many Photos Will I Get From My Elopement?

Most elopement photographers deliver 300-500 images. We deliver way less. And we think that’s a better deal for you. Here’s why.

When couples ask us “how many photos will we get?” they’re usually trying to figure out value. More photos = more value, right? That’s how most things work.

But photography isn’t most things. And after photographing over 200 elopements across Scotland, we’ve learned that more photos often means less — less impact, less intention, less of what actually matters when you look back at your wedding day ten years from now.

The Question Behind the Question

When you ask “how many photos will I get?” what you’re really asking is: “Will you capture everything that matters? Will I have enough to remember this day properly? Am I getting good value?”

All fair questions. But the answer isn’t in the numbers.

Think about it this way: how many photos from your elopement will you actually print and frame? How many will you put in an album? How many will you look at regularly in five, ten, twenty years?

For most couples, the answer is somewhere between 10 and 30. Not 400. Not 500. A handful of images that genuinely capture how it felt to stand there together.

So the real question isn’t “how many photos will I get?” It’s “will those 10-30 photos I actually care about be in there, and will they be incredible?”

What a 400-Image Gallery Actually Looks Like

Here’s what happens when a photographer delivers 400+ images from an elopement:

You get the same moment captured fifteen times from slightly different angles. You scroll through twelve nearly-identical shots of you walking, trying to figure out which one is “the” one. You have forty photos from your ceremony where the difference between each is a millisecond of expression change.

It’s overwhelming. It feels like abundance at first, but it’s actually a burden. You’ve been handed the photographer’s job — to sort through everything and find the ones that matter.

Most couples never do it properly. The gallery sits in a folder somewhere, too big to process, and they end up using the same five or six photos for everything because they can’t face scrolling through hundreds of options again.

That’s not value. That’s a data dump.

What a Curated Gallery Actually Looks Like

When we deliver a gallery, every image is intentional. Every single one.

There are no duplicates. No “safety shots.” No filler. If two photos capture the same moment, we’ve already chosen the better one for you. That’s our job — not yours.

What you get is a complete story of your day, told in the strongest possible images. The quiet moment getting ready. The nervous walk to your ceremony spot. The look on your partner’s face when they first saw you. The vows. The tears. The laughter. The landscapes. The golden hour portraits. The champagne toast. The stolen glances when you thought no one was watching.

Every moment that mattered, captured once and captured well.

Why Fewer Images Means More Work (For Us)

Here’s something that might surprise you: delivering fewer photos takes more time, not less.

Editing a curated gallery to a high standard takes significantly longer than batch-processing 400 images. When you’re delivering quantity, you can apply presets, make global adjustments, and move on. When you’re delivering a curated gallery, every image gets individual attention.

Colour grading. Exposure adjustments. Skin retouching where needed. Composition tweaks. Each photo is finished to the level you’d expect from something you’re going to print and hang on your wall — because that’s what these images are for.

The curation itself is a skill. Looking at 2,000 raw files from a day and selecting the 100 that tell the complete story, without gaps, without repetition, without weakness — that takes experience. It takes knowing what matters in a wedding day. It takes having done this hundreds of times before.

We’re not saving time by delivering less. We’re spending that time differently — on making what we deliver actually worth having.

The Luxury Difference

In most industries, luxury means more. More features. More stuff. More everything.

In photography, luxury means curation. It means someone else has done the hard work of deciding what matters. It means you receive a finished product, not raw materials.

Think about it like a restaurant. A buffet gives you quantity — piles of food, endless options, all-you-can-eat. A fine dining experience gives you a curated menu, each dish perfected, each course intentional. The fine dining meal costs more despite being “less food” because someone with expertise has made thoughtful decisions about what you’re eating.

Your elopement gallery should work the same way. You’re not paying for volume. You’re paying for someone who knows what they’re doing to make the decisions that result in a gallery you’ll actually love.

But What If You Miss Something?

This is the real fear behind wanting more photos. What if a moment happens and the photographer isn’t ready? What if something beautiful occurs and there’s no record of it?

Here’s the thing: after 200+ elopements, we don’t miss moments. We know when they’re coming. We know to watch your partner’s face during your vows. We know the light will be perfect at a certain time in a certain spot. We know when the tears are about to fall and when the laughter is about to break through.

Experience means anticipation. We’re not firing the shutter constantly hoping to catch something — we’re there, ready, in the right place at the right time, because we’ve done this enough to know.

Delivering fewer photos isn’t because we captured less. It’s because we captured what mattered and then had the discipline to cut everything that didn’t.

What Actually Matters

In ten years, you won’t care how many photos you received. You won’t remember the number.

What you’ll care about is whether those photos make you feel something. Whether they transport you back to that hillside, that moment, that feeling. Whether they capture who you were to each other on that day.

That’s not about quantity. It’s about intention, skill, and knowing what matters.

We’ve built our entire approach around this. Fewer photos, finished properly, curated with care. A gallery you’ll actually look at, not one that overwhelms you into avoidance.

So, How Many Photos Will You Get?

From us? Significantly fewer than you’d get elsewhere, depending on the length of your day and how it unfolds.

Every single one will be worth having. Every single one will be finished to a standard you can print and frame. Every single one will earn its place in telling the story of your elopement.

No filler. No duplicates. No data dumps.

Just your day, captured properly.

Want to see what a curated gallery actually looks like? Check out our portfolio or get in touch to chat about your elopement. We’re happy to answer any questions about what you’d receive.