How to Simplify Formal Family Photos

Family is everything and this article is all about the best ways to capture that connection with simplicity and joy. You may be thinking “well, every wedding I have been to is chaos when you get all the cousins together”… we get it and these recommendations should help. Wedding day stress is real and we can avoid it by having a practical and detailed schedule to ensure you can cherish your family on your wedding day and have an amazing experience with your friends and bridal party.

But why are we talking about this? We have seen so many times were couples shortened their family photos to save time and or extended the photo time too long and then they can’t enjoy cocktail hour.

Here are a few tips to consider as you think about family portraits to have the images capture that you want and enjoy the flow of the day.

Enjoy the Moment

Above all else, savor the beautiful time you have with your family. Weddings go by so fast and even if your cousins are crazy and loud, just have fun! We will be here to guide you during the day and keep you on track and have fun with you too.

Group Lists

We always take family group photos with a list. This will help us be efficient when we invite everyone into the group to be photographed and ensure that we don’t miss anyone.

Multiple lists – To keep everyone organized, we advise making one list for the bride’s family and one for the groom’s family. Within each of those lists create smaller groups.
First and last names – For your list, use first and last names of everyone you want to be included in your photo groups. We all have different family types and unique situations. We want to ensure everyone feels honored and respected so we never assume relationship, so we tend to use first and last names and Mr. & Mrs. to honor everyone in the process.
Tell your family in advance – If possible, tell your relatives that you want to be included in your portraits to stay at the ceremony location after the service and not go to the cocktail hour so we can have everyone present. This will help save time.

Family Size

Once you know who you want to have in your photos then we can figure out who much time you need to allocate to have all of the photographs take.

Small – Medium: Schedule about 20 minutes to have 5 “groups” per side.
- You can add as many groups as you want, but it will take longer. At our wedding, we only have 10 groups to save time so I had 3 since I have a small wedding and Peter had 7 with his large family.
  
  POST-CEREMONY PHOTOS
  
  BRIDE
  
  1. Bride with brides parents (Eric & Leslie)
  
  2. B&G with brides parents
  
  3. B&G with bride’s brother (Brandon)
  
  4. B&G with brides grandparents (Joe & Marilyn)
  
  5. B&G with parents and brother
  
  GROOM
  
  1. Groom with the groom’s parents (Steve and Mary Jean)
  
  2. G with grooms brothers (Steve, Gabe, Rafe, Josh)
  
  3. B&G with grooms parents (Steve & Mary Jean)
  
  4. B&G with grooms grandparents (George & Jean)
  
  5. B&G with grooms brothers (Steve, Gabe, Rafe, Josh)

Large: There are two main directions we would recommend. Schedule 30-35 minutes for photos OR do some pre-ceremony and some post-ceremony. Here is a sample list from a couple that chose to have photos taken before and after their ceremony.

PRE-CEREMONY PHOTOS

BRIDE

1. B with the bride’s Mom (Stephanie)

2. B with bride’s Dad (Scott)

3. B with bride’s parents (Scott and Stephanie)

GROOM

1. G with groom’s Mom (LaTonya)

2. G with groom’s Dad (Jerome)

3. G with groom’s parents (Jerome and LaTonya)

POST-CEREMONY PHOTOS

BRIDE

1. B&G with the bride’s parents (Scott and Stephanie) and sister & husband (Ashley and Joe)

2. B&G with the bride’s grandparents (Ned and Dawn)

3. B&G with Immediate Family & Sterner family (Parents – Scott, Stephanie, Ashley, Joe) (Grandparents – Dawn & Ned) (Cousins – Jill, Mike, Cole, Grant, Sean, Lance, Amy, Josiah, Kendall)

4. B&G with the bride’s grandparents (Earl and Pat)

5. B&G with Immediate Family & Markle family (Scott, Stephanie, Ashley, Joe) (Pat, Earl) (Jeff, Melissa, Jordyn, Beth, Joey)

GROOM

1. B&G with the groom’s parents (Jerome and LaTonya) and siblings/girlfriend (Mikayla, JB, Raquel)

2. B&G with Pritchett family (Jerome, LaTonya, Mikayla, Skyler, JB, Raquel, Lonnell, Nikki, Hannah, Nathaniel, Daria, Reginald, Towanda, Anthony, Anthony Jr., Angela, Melvin, Vincent)

3. B&G with McGeorge family (Jerome, LaTonya, Mikayla, Skyler, JB, Raquel, Mary, Pam, Grant, Xavier)

One Month Before The Wedding

We will have a video consultation where we review your day-of schedule and your family formals list. It’s most helpful that couples do their best to create these documents, but we love to help talk through scenarios and help guide you in creating your wedding day flow to experience more joy and less stress.