How to plan for family photos on your wedding day

Some of your most treasured photographs from your wedding day will come from the time spent taking formal family photos. This can truly be a once in a lifetime opportunity to take photos of your family together, in the same city, full of joy and celebrating while looking their best.

This can also be the most stressful time during your wedding day because family and friends may be missing, opinions might be flowing, every family has their own drama/ dynamic (I promise you this), and you can easily run out of time. So I want to share with you some tips how to plan properly and make this time run as quickly and smoothly as possible!

Plan & Communicate.

It is so important to communicate with everyone involved so that they know when and where to be. If they can be early that is even better. Do you have a friend or family member that can help wrangle people in? Recruit them! Having an extra set of hands is so helpful during this.

It is also important to communicate the family list with your families if they have certain expectations. Having family members add on group requests the day of can make this confusing, frazzle you, and take up a lot of time.

Time.

The last thing that I ever want to tell a couple is that they don’t have enough time for everything they want on their wedding day. Do you have a 5 page list of family photos? Unfortunately, you won’t have time for this. I tell all of my couples to conservatively allocate 2-3 minutes per each grouping request. It is best to plan 25-30 minutes for family photos and expect to get through 15-20 combinations. I would happily take photos of your family all day if I could, but weddings just don’t work like that and time is often limited. You need to make sure that the list you have is realistic to be completed in the amount of time you have allocated for family photos. Especially if you are not doing a first look, running behind on time can mean that you will be rushed for bridal party photos and bridal portraits. I recommend prioritizing the most important groupings, the ones you imagine hanging and framed in your home, and then cut from there if necessary. You can also plan to take a few groups during the reception ????

Relax.

Ultimately, we will all do our best and if things go wrong you want to be able to let it go. You definitely don’t want to snap at family members or look stressed during these photos!

Still need help? I will work through your list with you and I have a list of group recommendations that I share with all of my couples!

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