Most families bring their own photographer, usually one who has shot Indian weddings before and often one who has shot for the family before. That is the right instinct. What changes in Marrakech is the light, the geography and the rules: midday here is harsh in a way it is not in London or Mumbai, the venues are large and walled, and a drone cannot simply be carried into the country.
How many people you actually need
A four day programme is not one photographer working long days. The Haldi and the Mehndi run in parallel across two families on the same morning, the Baraat and the Milni need two positions at once, and someone has to be with the bride while someone else is with the groom.
Two photographers and a videographer is the working minimum for two hundred guests. Above four hundred, or where both families hold their own events, it becomes three and two. Below that, the wedding gets covered and the week does not.
| Day | Where the coverage has to be | The pinch point |
|---|---|---|
| Haldi morning | Two locations if both families hold their own | It is one morning and it cannot be re-shot |
| Mehndi | The bride, and the room | Hours of henna and a bride who cannot move. Pace the crew |
| Sangeet or Garba | Stage and floor, plus the family watching | Low light and fast movement. This is where a weak crew shows |
| Baraat and Milni | Two positions, one behind each family | Twenty minutes, no second take, and the parents are the subject |
| Pheras | Fixed positions agreed with the pandit beforehand | Whatever hour the muhurat lands on, including the middle of the night |
| Reception | The room, the speeches, the floor | Eight hundred people and one couple. Plan the family groups in advance |
The light, and what it does to the schedule
From April, midday sun in Marrakech is directly overhead and merciless. Portraits taken at one in the afternoon have raccoon eyes and nothing fixes it afterwards. The hour before sunset is the reason people photograph here at all.
So the couple's portrait session moves to the golden hour and the schedule is built around that rather than squeezed after it. Say this to the family in month two, because it usually means pulling a portrait hour out of the middle of the reception day.
Tell your crew about the drone before they pack
Morocco does not permit drones to be brought in without prior authorisation and they are routinely held at customs on arrival. International crews assume they can declare one and walk through. They cannot, and the wedding week starts with equipment in a customs office.
Where aerial footage matters, it is commissioned locally through an operator who already holds permission. Where it does not, say so early.
A local second pair of eyes
Your own team knows the family and the ceremonies. What they do not know is which wall glows at six, where the service corridor comes out, how to ask a venue manager for five minutes in the colonnade, or that the light on the terrace goes an hour earlier than the courtyard below.
One local assistant alongside a travelling crew is a small line that returns more than almost anything else on the supplier list.
They are crew, for four days
Rooms, meals and transport for the photography team, the same as for any other supplier, and a schedule that lets them eat. A crew running fourteen hour days across four days without a proper break produces visibly worse work on day three, and it is entirely preventable.
Agree the delivery timeline in the contract as well. Families who have not asked routinely wait nine months for a gallery and are surprised by it.