Golden Hour, Sunset, & Blue Hour
For this month’s bridal tips, we are chatting about golden hour verses sunset and blue hour, or moreso what they are, when they are, and how they pair together.
Starting off with golden hour… titled for its beautiful “golden” light that falls in during the hour before sunset and the hour after sunrise. Backlighting our couples during this golden period creates a warm and intimate vibe to our imagery.
Many wedding formal portrait hours are typically scheduled during this hour with the ceremony being right before. For example, if the sun sets at 5:30, golden hour would be from 4:30 to 5:30 PM with a ceremony time of 4:00 to 4:30 PM.
However, with this said daylight savings plays a large part, along with the venue’s required end time, into when the ceremony and formal portrait hour will take place. With the sun not setting until 8:30 PM for many nights during this time of year, many couples opt for an earlier ceremony time so that they can still have plenty of time for dining and dancing. Our couples still are able to take advantage of this time of day by simply stepping out of the reception to capture a few beautiful sunset shots before partying on.
So you maybe asking, what about the sunset? Well as the sun moves closer to the horizon, the colors in the sky deepen into more bold hues verses the more pastel lighting of golden hour. Blue hour will also follow sunset, which as you guessed it is when the sky is a deep blue.
