Photography

We’ve booked 6hrs and I’m happy with it! Our wedding ceremony is at 4:30pm so the photographer is going to start at 3pm and our first photos will be my first look with the bridesmaids then a private first look with my fiancé. She’ll finish up at 9pm, which to me is perfect because it’s long enough to capture everything and then for the last few hours of the night we can just enjoy and not worry about being “on” for photos

Your late wedding is okay to have the photographer for the time booked since its not long you need them to get the pictures for what you want. The getting ready is up to you if you feel its important. Some of the family shots can be taken ahead of time for this reason. The same for the videographer goes the same concept. We did the getting ready and shots for outfits/suits/accessories and everything else to get the family ahead done so that the group shots were taken after the wedding to get the timing of the reception started on time. The couple shots were taken during the dinner time of sunset which was nice to get some time alone from everyone.

100% you can get everything you want in 6 hours. You can probably get the tail end of getting ready (i.e. putting your dress and accessories on and fiance putting on his suit) if you plan to do anything during the reception you want pictures of early on. We did 11 hours but only because we were having a NYE wedding and wanting our photographers to be there for midnight. We just wanted the tail end of getting ready photos. There were enough people around with good cameras and good phones for before haha. So for reference:
12:45 photographers arrived and one each went to each of us;
2:15 first look followed by portraits;3:30 wedding party photos;4:00 family photos; followed by a break to warm up (and some time incase we ran behind) 5:30 ceremony;6:00 sparklers outside - then cocktail hour; 7:30 reception - first dance followed by meal and everything else (so here maybe you'd do it all closer together). We were split on video - I wanted video of all those moments I'd want to rewatch (first look, ceremony, speeches...) But it's expensive and my husband thought it's unnecessary. I was also annoyed that it cost more for all of that and really the initial cost is the highlight reel that I couldn't care less about. So a friend who does movies on the side was willing to gift this to us - great! Then in the end, with covid, we decided to live stream. We hired a photo/video company who does this and then you can download the videos. Perfect! We didn't care about the editing, so that made it cheaper, and we had them from ceremony until about 10 pm! It still had a decent cost but it was so worth it for what we got out of it. So so worth it if you can do it. We had our friend video our first look and anything else he thought was important with his phone haha 🤷🏻‍♀️. For anything you need good sound though, you need proper equipment.

I don’t think getting ready photos are necessary, but it’s a personal preference. 6 hours will be enough to capture all of the main things - ceremony, family photos, couple photos, and the beginning of the reception. If your photographer is fast you can probably also squeeze in a tiny bit of getting ready but likely not for both people.
If you want to go all out and have a full day of coverage, I found 10 hours was pretty standard.

We booked our photographer for 8 hours. I want getting ready photos for myself and I want our first dance and some of the reception captured. But if you don't care about the getting ready photos I think 6 hours will be fine!
We decided against a videographer due to budget reasons but we are considering having someone record the ceremony and speeches to have those memories!

If you don't want professional looking getting ready photos, then don't get it. It's pretty much what you prioritize in whatever budget you have.

I personally am pro-video because having an actual recording of the vows and speeches will have more value to me than a photo. But that doesn't mean you have to hire a videographer. Like your getting ready photos, if you feel that you just want the memory but not necessary the production, you can easily sit a phone camera or DSLR on a tripod and record the ceremony and speeches for your own records without all the crazy stabilizers and drone videos.

My fiance and I have our photographer for 12 hours just because we're wanting to have photos done before hand of both of us getting ready and such. That's one of the things my fiance really wanted to have some specials moments getting ready with his family and best man (his brother). If it's not something you really want to have, then you don't have to. We got a really good deal for our 12 hours but if it's not in your budget for more hours then the 6 don't stress too much about it. As for videographer, my fiance and I decided again one because it's not something we're really wanting plus it's also another expense you need to include with your budget.