How Many Days Do You Need for a Perth Pre-Wedding Shoot? Suggested 3–10 Day Itineraries
“How many days should we stay in Perth?” is one of the most common questions I receive from overseas couples planning their pre-wedding photography.
The honest answer depends on where you want to shoot and what kind of holiday you want to experience.
A relaxed session around Perth can fit comfortably into a shorter visit. Lancelin requires a full day, including approximately three hours of return driving. Margaret River is best enjoyed as a two or three-night escape rather than a rushed day trip.
Your pre-wedding shoot shouldn’t feel like another appointment squeezed into your travel itinerary. It should become part of your holiday—giving you time to explore Western Australia while creating photographs that genuinely reflect the adventure you’re sharing.
This guide will help you decide how many days you need for a Perth pre-wedding shoot based on the locations you’re considering.
If you’re still deciding where to go, explore my guide to pre-wedding photo locations across Western Australia before building your itinerary.
How Many Days Do You Need for a Perth Pre-Wedding Shoot?
There isn’t one perfect number of days for every couple.
The best trip length depends on:
- How far you want to travel
- Whether you’re comfortable driving in Western Australia
- How many locations you want to include
- Whether you’re bringing one or two outfits
- Where your hair and makeup appointment will take place
- How much time you want for sightseeing
- Whether you want a buffer for weather or travel delays
As a general guide:
| Length of trip | Recommended shoot experience |
|---|---|
| 3–4 days | Stay within Perth Metro |
| 5–6 days | Include a full-day Lancelin shoot |
| 7–9 days | Spend two or three nights in Margaret River |
| 10+ days | Add the Great Southern or Coral Coast |
The goal isn’t to fit as many places as possible into your trip. It’s to choose an itinerary that gives you enough time to enjoy both the photography experience and the destination.
3–4 Days: Keep Your Pre-Wedding Shoot Close to Perth
If you only have three or four days in Western Australia, I recommend keeping your pre-wedding shoot within Perth Metro.
There is already plenty of variety without spending hours in the car. Depending on your style, we can photograph around modern city architecture, heritage streets, gardens, beaches or quieter natural locations.
You can also explore places such as Kings Park, Fremantle and the Perth coastline during the rest of your visit without making every day feel like a race against the clock.
A possible four-day itinerary could look like this:
Day 1: Arrive and Settle In
Check into your accommodation, collect your hire car if needed and give yourselves time to recover from the flight.
I don’t recommend booking your shoot immediately after arriving internationally. A quiet first day gives you time to adjust, prepare your outfits and begin the holiday without unnecessary pressure.
Day 2: Explore Perth
Spend the day exploring the city, visiting Fremantle, walking through Kings Park or enjoying one of Perth’s beaches.
This can also be a good day for any final outfit preparation or beauty appointments.
Day 3: Hair, Makeup and Pre-Wedding Photography
Enjoy a slow morning before your hair and makeup appointment.
Most Perth sessions begin during the afternoon and finish around sunset. Once we’re finished, you’ll still be close enough to your accommodation to enjoy dinner or continue exploring the city.
Day 4: Departure or Final Day in Perth
Depending on your flight time, enjoy breakfast, visit one final location or simply take your time checking out.
A Perth session works best for couples who:
- Have a shorter itinerary
- Want minimal driving
- Prefer an easy afternoon experience
- Want plenty of time for other holiday activities
- Love city, garden or coastal photography
Explore my guide to the best pre-wedding shoot locations in Perth Metro to compare the different settings available.
5–6 Days: Add Lancelin to Your Perth Itinerary
With five or six days, you’ll have enough time to include Lancelin without making your entire holiday revolve around photography.
Lancelin is approximately 1.5 hours north of Perth in each direction. Once you include hair and makeup, driving, the photography session and walking through the dunes, it becomes a full-day experience.
The white sand dunes are expansive, minimal and cinematic. They’re ideal for couples wanting photographs that feel completely different from the city.
A possible six-day itinerary could look like:
Day 1: Arrive in Perth
Check into your accommodation, collect your car and rest after your flight.
Day 2: Explore Perth
Spend your first full day enjoying Perth without any photography commitments.
Day 3: Lancelin Pre-Wedding Shoot
Begin with breakfast and hair and makeup in Perth.
Once you’re ready, drive approximately 1.5 hours north to Lancelin. We’ll photograph through the afternoon and finish around sunset before you make the return journey to Perth.
Because the sand is very soft, wear flats, sandals or comfortable shoes while walking through the dunes. You can bring formal shoes for selected photographs, but heels will sink quickly and make moving between locations much harder.
Day 4: Rest and Enjoy Perth
Keep the day after your Lancelin shoot relatively relaxed. Sleep in, enjoy a long breakfast or spend time somewhere close to your accommodation.
Days 5–6: Explore and Depart
Use the remaining time to visit Fremantle, Perth’s beaches, Swan Valley or other places you’d like to experience before flying home.
What If You Add the Pinnacles?
Adding the Pinnacles creates a beautifully varied desert gallery, but it requires more planning.
The additional travel and photography can add up to two hours to the overall day. We need to carefully plan hair and makeup, departure time, outfit changes and sunset at the dunes.
If you want two locations, allow the full day and avoid booking anything important that evening.
You can explore possible additions in my guide to locations you can include with a Lancelin Dunes pre-wedding shoot.
A Lancelin session works best for couples who:
- Have at least five or six days in Western Australia
- Want dramatic white dunes and open landscapes
- Don’t mind approximately three hours of return driving
- Are prepared for a full-day experience
- Have access to a hire car
- Are comfortable walking through soft sand
For regional travel inspiration, the official Australia’s Coral Coast website is a useful planning resource.
7–9 Days: Make Margaret River Part of the Adventure
If you have seven to nine days, Margaret River becomes an excellent option.
Rather than driving down for the day, treat Margaret River as its own destination within your Western Australia holiday.
The region is approximately three hours south of Perth, and travel between individual photography locations can take another 30–60 minutes. Trying to drive down, complete the shoot and return to Perth on the same day would make the experience unnecessarily exhausting.
Couples spending several days in Margaret River can also organise their styling through my Margaret River hair and makeup guide and turn the shoot into a date night with one of these romantic Margaret River restaurants.
I recommend spending at least two or three nights in the region.
A possible eight-day itinerary could look like:
Day 1: Arrive in Perth
Check in, collect your hire car and give yourselves time to rest.
Day 2: Explore Perth
Enjoy the city, organise any final details and prepare for the drive south.
Day 3: Travel to Margaret River
Drive to your Margaret River accommodation and check in.
Keep the day relaxed. Stop for lunch along the way, explore the town or enjoy a quiet evening at your accommodation.
Day 4: Margaret River Pre-Wedding Shoot
Begin with a slow morning before visiting your hair and makeup artist or having a mobile artist come to your accommodation.
I’ll meet you at your accommodation or another agreed location before we begin travelling to the first photography setting.
Depending on your itinerary, the session might begin beneath the tall trees of Boranup Forest before continuing towards the coast for sunset.
Day 5: Explore Margaret River
Use the day after the shoot to explore without needing to worry about hair, makeup or keeping formal clothing clean.
Visit the beaches, cafés, wineries or coastal walks that made you choose the region in the first place.
Day 6: Return to Perth
Enjoy breakfast before making the drive back to Perth.
Days 7–8: Relax, Explore and Depart
Use your remaining time for anything you missed before travelling south.
The photography becomes one memorable part of the holiday—not the reason every other day had to be rearranged.
For a closer look at the session itself, see my Perth South West pre-wedding shoot itinerary.
A Margaret River shoot works best for couples who:
- Have at least seven days in Western Australia
- Can stay in the region for two or three nights
- Want both forest and coastal photography
- Prefer a slower, more immersive experience
- Want the shoot to feel like part of a romantic getaway
- Are comfortable driving between regional locations
Use the official Margaret River Region website to compare accommodation, attractions and experiences around your stay.
10+ Days: Continue Into the Great Southern or Coral Coast
If you have ten days or longer, your pre-wedding shoot can become part of a larger Western Australia road trip.
After Margaret River, you could continue south towards Albany and Denmark. The Great Southern offers rugged coastlines, white beaches, granite formations and a noticeably different atmosphere from Perth and Margaret River.
Alternatively, you could travel north through the Coral Coast. Destinations such as Kalbarri offer dramatic cliffs, red landscapes and scenery that feels completely different again.
The important thing is to choose one direction.
Trying to include Perth, Margaret River, Albany, Lancelin and Kalbarri in the same short trip may look impressive on a map, but it will result in an enormous amount of driving.
With ten or more days, you have enough time to create a meaningful road trip—but Western Australia is still vast. Give each destination enough time to be experienced properly.
A longer trip works best for couples who:
- Enjoy road trips
- Are comfortable with longer driving days
- Want their photography to be part of a broader adventure
- Prefer regional landscapes over a city-based holiday
- Have enough flexibility for weather and travel changes
You can use Tourism Western Australia to research regional itineraries and travel information.
Why Driving Time Matters More Than Couples Expect
One of the biggest mistakes overseas couples make is underestimating the size of Western Australia.
A location may look close on a map while still requiring several hours of driving. Once you include rest stops, meals, outfit changes and photography, moving between destinations can use most of the day.
This is why I recommend choosing one main regional experience instead of trying to photograph everywhere.
Less driving gives you more time to:
- Rest after your flight
- Enjoy your accommodation
- Explore without formal clothing
- Stop for meals and coffee
- Watch the sunset without rushing
- Be present with each other
- Leave room for unexpected discoveries
Your gallery doesn’t need five rushed locations to feel complete. Two carefully selected settings will usually create a stronger story than a collection of places you barely had time to experience.
Allow Time for Hair, Makeup and Outfit Changes
Your photography session isn’t the only part of the day that needs to be planned.
Formal hair and makeup can take several hours, particularly if both partners are being prepared. You’ll also need time to eat, get dressed and travel to the first location.
If you’re including two outfits, allow time to change and complete any touch-ups.
Regional destinations require even more careful planning because hair and makeup artists may be based away from your accommodation or have limited availability.
When you enquire, I can help you work backwards from sunset to determine when hair and makeup should begin.
Leave Space for the Unexpected
Not every hour of your holiday needs to be scheduled.
Flights can be delayed. Weather changes. A café you planned to visit might be closed. You may find a beach or lookout you want to spend longer exploring.
Leaving some breathing room gives you flexibility without creating stress.
If your shoot involves national parks or regional locations, check Explore Parks WA and current WA Park Alerts before travelling.
A flexible itinerary is particularly valuable during winter or when travelling long distances.
Less Driving Creates Better Memories
Your pre-wedding shoot should never feel like a race from one location to the next.
Some of my favourite sessions have been the simplest ones—the days when couples weren’t constantly checking the time or worrying about reaching another location.
They had time to stop for coffee, walk slowly through the landscape, watch the sunset and enjoy being together.
Those in-between moments are often where the most authentic photographs happen.
When you feel relaxed, you move differently. You interact more naturally. You stop thinking about the camera.
That experience becomes visible in the photographs.
Final Thoughts
There isn’t one perfect number of days to spend in Western Australia.
The best itinerary is the one that gives you enough time to enjoy the destination and each other.
If you have three or four days, keep the experience close to Perth.
With five or six days, Lancelin can become an unforgettable full-day adventure.
With seven to nine days, spend two or three nights in Margaret River and allow the photography to become part of a slower regional escape.
If you have ten days or longer, consider extending the journey into the Great Southern or Coral Coast—but choose one direction and experience it properly.
Slowing down will almost always create a better holiday and more meaningful photographs.
Continue Planning Your Destination Pre-Wedding Shoot
If you are visiting from overseas, begin with my complete destination pre-wedding shoot guide for Perth. It will help you decide which Western Australia location suits your trip and how many photography locations to include.
These guides will help you plan the next part of your experience:
- What Couples Should Know Before Planning a Pre-Wedding Photoshoot in Perth
- Top Pre-Wedding Shoot Locations in Perth Metro
- Top Pre-Wedding Photo Locations Across Western Australia
- Locations to Add to Your Lancelin Dunes Pre-Wedding Shoot
- Perth South West Pre-Wedding Shoot Itinerary
- Should You Bring Your Wedding Dress to a Destination Pre-Wedding Shoot?
Not Sure How Many Days You Need?
Tell me your travel dates, the locations you’re considering and how much of Western Australia you’d like to explore.
I’ll help you choose a photography experience that fits naturally into your itinerary—without unnecessary driving or turning your holiday into one long photoshoot.
You don’t need to have every detail decided before enquiring. We can build a realistic itinerary around the time you have and the landscapes you love.
Explore my Perth pre-wedding photography packages or get in touch to start planning your Western Australia pre-wedding adventure.
SHARE: