How Long Did It Take to Photograph the Royal Wedding Party?

Royal photographer reveals how long the Duke and Duchess's wedding photo shoot lasted

With months of preparation and ultra-lavish nuptials, it would only be fitting for Duke William and Duchess Kate's wedding photos to be just as time consuming, right?

Wrong.

According to London photographer Hugo Burnand, who photographed the royal wedding party Friday, the shoot lasted mere minutes thanks to a bit of extra preparation.

"We had spares of everything — cables, lights, cameras, lenses — and spares for the spares," Burnand told Women's Wear Daily. "Before the day, we staged dress rehearsals with stand-ins and stop-watches. We knew that if everyone had sprinted back from Westminster Abbey, we would only have had 44 minutes to shoot. In the end, we did everything in 26 minutes."

Whew.

But Burnand didn't undergo the task of the quickie (but fabulous) wedding day shoot alone. He worked with seven others, including Kate Middleton's dress designer, Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton, who was on hand to handle any last-minute issues. 

And just like with her dress design, Middleton didn't take a back seat to helping plan out the wedding photo as well….months in advance.

"There were a lot of preliminary meetings and walk-throughs of the Throne Room," Burnand told WWD. "Catherine loves photography and is very interested in it. Just how light we wanted the family picture to be became a project for us. We wanted the room to look like it was flooded with sunlight from a spring morning, filled with glorious light. And we knew we couldn't count on the weather, so we created it with the flip of a switch."

So when did the wedding party have the time to fit the photo shoot into an already jam-packed day?

The royals were photographed right after the ceremony ended in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, and just before the couple shared their "aww"-inducing kiss on the balcony.

Because there was no time for mistakes or stalls, Burnand also prepped for possible temper tantrums from the young bridesmaids and page boys.

"I promised the kids jellybeans and wiggle worms, and it worked out," Burnand said.