How long for wedding photos

When I first met with my photographer he told me to expect up to 8 weeks for edits.

Depends on time of year, this is considered peak wedding time so they are probably busy. Does it specify in your contract? It can't hurt to send an email asking if they had an ETA on the finished photos.

I think the normal time is around 6-8 weeks.

My contract states 30 days for digital files after postproduction. I'm just not comfortable with any longer....6-8 weeks as others have said is not unreasonable. After that, in the weeds. Good things take time but there is a point when it should just be done....

BUT what did their contract say? That's all that really means anything here.

Whatever your photographer had promised (in writing or verbally).

There're two methods wedding photographers use to edit their client's wedding photos:

1-Outsource: This is when photographers use professional editors to edit their own photos (the quality here depends on how serious these photographers are about their work). The delivery period here will vary (sooner usually more expensive).

2-In house editing: That's when the photographers/or their sub-photographers edit their own photos, this can take weeks or unreasonably months.

Technically: as a professional wedding photographer coming from a background in high-end fashion retouching with 60-100 weddings a year. You shouldn't really have to wait more than a couple weeks for your wedding photos BUT:

-Good photographers are busier.

-Most wedding photographers are not efficient with editing.

-It's a healthier practice to wait a day or two during the editing process to re-examine the edited images as many times as possible before delivery (looking at the images for too long will compromise the photographer's judgment).

I hope that helps