Question: Would you like to spend less time posing and more time partying? If your answer is ‘yes’ then keep on reading!
Ah, family photo time. The part of the day where everyone gets a lovely, professional portrait with the newlyweds! It’s got to be done, but I’m not going to lie, this is hands down going to be the most challenging part of your wedding day (and not just because of your constant standing and smiling!) which makes it all the more important to prepare in advance to make it run as smoothly as possible.
Your family photos usually take place after your ceremony but before your wedding breakfast; this is so everyone is still clean, sober and no one’s lost a shoe or anything (yet!)
I have been a part of a lot of weddings and I can tell you, there are five crucial things you need to do right now to avoid the pitfall of family photo madness.
It is completely up to you whether you take my advice, but if you want to spend less time posing and more time partying, then I highly recommend taking it on board!
1. The magic family photo list
You need to prepare your list of family photos. These are the must-have photos that you can not wake up the next day and say “Ahhh! How did we not get a shot with x?” Going through this list is the only way for me to ensure we have them rather than relying on capturing them candidly.
Try to keep it as concise as possible. There’s only so much standing and smiling one can do before it starts to drive you nuts. Also, try to avoid large groups like both families in one shot. The bigger the group shot, the worse the photo looks and the more time-consuming it is to wrangle.
If you can’t cut down a longer list, we can always do it in two halves! Just make two separate lists of your higher priority and lower priority portraits and we can make sure there’s a nice big break for you both in between.
2. Designate a photo wrangler
Ask your loudest, bossiest friend or family member, ideally even one from both sides, to be your ‘Photo Wrangler’. This cannot be either of you! As soon as either of you leave to look for someone, you run a gauntlet of well wishers and will have a hard time coming back so we just need to stay in one spot while our wrangler does their job.
We need someone who is comfortable being authoritative, someone who won’t be half keeping a watchful eye on their beautiful children and someone who can handle the responsibility. They will need to have a printed copy of the photo list on them on the day. Word them up on the family photos ahead of time and also the day before so it’s fresh in their mind.
3. Keep your groupings small
As far as I’m concerned, you can have as many family photos as you want! My advice as a photographer however, is to keep your groupings small. It’s completely your choice, but I wouldn’t feel as though I’m doing my job properly without giving you a friendly ‘heads up’ ahead of time.
I know how appealing a big family photo of everyone all together is, but the more people in a photo (particularly somewhere with no elevation), the smaller the people look – the framing has to be much wider to get everyone in the shot, meaning we have a lot more unused dead space in the image above and/or below the subjects.
This is why photographers make the infamous ‘could you all please squeeze up’ request rather than us moving back!
Besides, smaller groupings are much more intimate and special, especially for the people in the photo with you as they each get their own special moment with you instead of being a part of a larger crowd.
I’ve included a random selection below to give you an idea of how it looks!
Larger groupings are also significantly more challenging for your photo wrangler/s to ‘wrangle’, they leave the guests wrangled first waiting around longer for their photo too which means your family photos take much longer than say, your wrangler ‘wrangling’ a family of four while a family of five has their photo taken with you!
There’s also a much higher chance that someone is going to itch their nose, blink or look away as the photo is taken – I always give a loud ‘3… 2… 1…’ before I take the photo, but you wouldn’t BELIEVE how often it still happens! Which brings me to my next tip…
4. Beware the mobile phones! 🤳
During the formal family photos, there is always at least one person right behind me with a mobile phone grabbing their own versions of the portraits.
I have absolutely no issue with people taking photos! As far as I’m concerned, the more photos you have of your day, the better!
but…
This can unfortunately lead to everyone in your professional family photos looking in different directions! It’s instinctual to look at the people we know and love, and totally understandable, but my priority is you guys and getting the perfect family photos that mean so much to you.
Through my viewfinder, I’m checking so many things every single photo! Composition, exposure, aperture, balance, spacing, posture, subject hands, subject outfits and even hair covering faces. I do everything in my power to make sure the portraits are perfect, that people are alert and paying attention, but the one thing I can’t see, is which direction people are looking because their pupils are too small to me.
How do I handle the situation?
I will never ask people to not take photos! Instead (if I spot them!) I will smile and politely ask “would you like to take yours first?”
I give a brief opportunity for the phonetographers to get their image, but I have to be mindful that it’s dragging out the standing and posing for you both and taking up more of your day!
I’ll ask everyone in the shot to look at me, then give a “3… 2… 1…” before I take 4-5 versions of the image to reduce the chances of people looking away or blinking!
Why is this important?
My priority is you, my couples, I want you to have a collection of amazing and treasured family photographs with those you love the most.
I also don’t want anyone you care about to look at the photos and dislike the way they look or feel embarrassed.
And lastly, but most importantly, the impression I have on you and your guests is paramount; and this seems to be the most effective way to ensure everyone is happy during the photos and after seeing them!
5. Be precise and in control!
It’s very helpful to your photo wrangler (and to me) if you have the names of people written next to who they are, people respond more quickly to their names being called, for example.
Us with: Bridesmaids (Chelsea, Leanne, Charlotte and Amy).
Us with: Maid of honour (Chelsea) and best man (David).
Us with: Bride’s parents (Colin & Michelle)
Us with: Bride’s parents (Colin & Michelle) and our kids (Tyler, Lola & Ben).
You are always going to get one person that will innocently pop in and say “don’t you want a photo with so and so?” or “Why don’t we do all the girls on the such and such side of the family?” but what they won’t realise is the careful planning we put into the family portraits together and that every extra photo is a few minutes less spent partying!
Be mindful not to let your guests, parents or whomever take over the situation, not just because it’s your day and they’re your photos, but also because you’ll run out of steam, fast, and it will show in the photos as the gallery progresses!
My priority is making sure you’re not burning out by sticking to your priority images. Having your magic list ready is essential to ensure no portrait is missed.
Why it’s important
Something to keep in mind is that no one else will appreciate that the longer they take to get into their photo, or the more demands they make of you, wanting infinite combinations, the less time you two will have for your couple’s photos and the rest of your day afterwards.
It’s entirely up to you how you both want to spend your day, and I am on board with you 100%. So if you prefer to spend more time taking family photos than enjoying prosecco, canapés and your couples’ portraits, no worries at all! Let’s rock those shots. Totally your decision.
If, however, the celebration time and the couples’ portraits are more important to you and you know you’ll be looking at those photos for the rest of your life, let’s try to maximise that time and following the steps above is probably the best way we can do that.
Download my template
To make it easier for you, I have created a template which you can download below.
Sorry if that scared you, but I really hope that helped you feel prepared! Take the above advice on board and the family photos will be smooth sailing!
