The advice online is a mess. One Dublin site says nine months. Another says two years for a bank holiday. A directory says "as early as possible", which is true and useless. So here is a clear answer, by season and by day of the week, from our own diary and from the photographers we compare notes with. It won't be exactly right for every supplier, but the shape of it is how the Irish market actually works.
First, the thing nobody says plainly: a good wedding studio in Ireland has about twenty to thirty Saturdays a year to give, and it can only give each one once. We take twenty weddings a year in total. Once the peak Saturdays are gone, they're gone, and there is no waiting list that brings one back.
A summer Saturday is booked eighteen months out. A Thursday in February you could ring about next week.
The map
Read it left to right and the shape is obvious. The dark cells are summer Saturdays, and the bank holiday weekends in May, June, August and October sit at the very top of that range. The pale cells are midweek in winter, when most suppliers have more free dates than enquiries. Everything else is in between.
By season
May to September
Peak. A Saturday in this window with a well-known supplier is booked eighteen months to two years out, and the very best names are gone earlier than that. Fridays and Sundays are twelve to eighteen months. Midweek in summer is still popular, especially with couples taking over a country house for a long weekend, but you'll usually find someone good at nine to twelve months.
October and April
The shoulders, and honestly the best-kept secret in Irish weddings. The light is beautiful, the venues are less frantic, and a Saturday can be had at twelve to fifteen months. October in particular is filling up fast as couples work this out, so it won't stay a secret for long.
November to March
Winter. Saturdays go at nine to twelve months. Fridays and midweek can be six months or less, and a February Thursday may be available a few weeks out. The exceptions are the Christmas fortnight and New Year's Eve, which behave like summer and should be booked like it.
By day of the week
Saturday is a different market from every other day. It always has been. If your date is a Saturday, add six months to everything above. If it's a Friday or a Sunday, the numbers above are about right. If it's midweek, you have more choice than you think, and you will often find suppliers offering a slightly different collection for it, because their Saturdays subsidise their Tuesdays.
Why the videographer shouldn't be last
Couples tend to book the venue, then the photographer, then, some months later, the videographer, as if the film were an afterthought. We understand why. Photography has been part of weddings for a hundred and fifty years and video is newer. But the good videographers have the same twenty Saturdays as the good photographers, and they fill at the same speed. Like everything else in life, the best ones go first. If a film matters to you, book it in the same month you book the photographer, and ideally introduce the two of them to each other while you're at it. It makes the day better, and it means you're not ringing round in a panic the following spring.
If your date is close
- Ask anyway. Cancellations happen. Couples move dates. A supplier who's "fully booked" for your Saturday in March may have had a Friday free up last week. The worst that happens is a polite no.
- Ask who they'd recommend. Every good supplier knows three others they trust, and a recommendation from one is worth more than a hundred directory listings.
- Consider a Friday. Or a Sunday. Same wedding, same venue, same people, and often the supplier you actually wanted.
- Don't book someone you haven't watched. Even in a hurry. A few questions and one full film is the minimum, and it takes an evening.
The honest summary is this. If your date is a summer Saturday, book both the photographer and the videographer the moment the venue is confirmed, and don't be surprised if your first choices are already gone. If it's anything else, you have more room than the internet suggests. And whichever it is, watching a full film before you book matters more than how early you book.
With warmth,