Family Photos: How to efficiently navigate this important part of the day
Family photos are arguably one of the most important parts of a wedding day. This is kind of odd because it can be one of the most chaotic and uncomfortable aspects of your wedding. These portraits are ultimately what you and your family are going to be printing the most of and hanging up in your homes. In the beginning of my career, I dealt with a great deal of anxiety at every wedding because this it required me to orchestrate a crowd and that was never one of my strongest skillsets. I learned early on that getting good and efficient at family photos was paramount to my success as a Wedding Photographer. Being able to effectively cover all of the shots we needed in a timely manor made sure that my clients, their family, and my fellow vendors were happy. This also allowed us to stay on time and reserve enough time in the cocktail hour for the bridal party group shots and the newly wed portraits. In this article I am going to help you prepare for family photos so that your wedding day doesn’t get derailed by them.
I would like to note that this part of the day, even when it is well under control, can still feel like a zoo. Trust me, we will get through it.
How long do the Family Portaits take?
My basic rule of thumb is to never spend more than 20-25 minutes on family photos. There are some exceptions for this and those exceptions are always part of the timeline. For example, many religious ceremonies like Catholic Weddings will block out time at the end for a lot of family photos. For the most part though, 20 minutes should be plenty of time. I advise my couples that each photo takes about a minute to line up and shoot. This doesn’t happen without some prep on the front end (more on that later). So if you have 30 photos in your list, the photos are going to take about half an hour. Creating your list with this in mind is going to help you understand the structure of your cocktail hour.
Who should be included in family photos?
I wish I could give you a simple and definitive answer on this but the reality is that every family and every couple is far to different to make a simple determination of who should be included. I find that a good baseline is to include just immediate family. You have to account for your family as well as your partner’s. If you are totally unsure of where to draw that line, I recommend including just Parents, Siblings, and Grandparents. Are your parents still married? Divorced and remarried? Are your siblings married? If so, do they have children? As you can see, even by sticking with just immediate family, things can branch out quite quickly.
Let’s now get into extended family (Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, etc..). More often than not, extended family is excluded from family portraits. We have already gone over how quickly things can branch out with your immediate relatives, imagine how much crazier that can get when you include everyone else you are related to. That being said, if you are especially close with anyone in your extended family you should include them.
Creating a family photo list
Every photographer does things a little bit differently but here is how I prefer to do family photo lists. I like to have my couples notate each photo with the first names of everyone that is in that photo. Here is an example:
Bride and Groom with brides parents
John and JaneBride and Groom with bride’s Immediate family
John, Jane, Scott, AlyssaBride and Groom with Bride’s siblings
Scott, Alyssa
The part of this list where I see most couples go a bit overboard is when they make a bunch of variations of the same grouping. For example, I often see one group being brought in and the couple wants to do one photo of that group with the bride and groom, then again with just the bride, and again with just the groom. Copy and paste that accross your whole list and you have family photos taking an hour when they should only be 20 minutes. I think there are a few exceptions though, especially as it pertains to parents. It doesnt mess us up really if you want to get a photo with your partner and your parents, then again without your partner.
If you do want to include your extended family in the list, I recommend painting this with broad strokes. Rather than getting individual groupings, get one large group shot with all of them. This often takes a bit of time to set up but it will always still be less than doing a whole bunch of smaller groups.
Some tips to make all of this run a little bit smoother
Put grandparents at the front of the list so that they can get it done and go relax
Between you and your partner’s familes, the smaller side should go first
When your list is completed, share it with everyone that is on it. That way they know where to be and when
If there is any drama in your family, be mindful of that when you put together your list
Share the list with your parents and give them a chance to express anything they might want to add (boundaries are important here because most parents will take that and run with it)
Conclusion
The family portraits are the least exciting part of a wedding day but they are pretty important so it is worth doing some preparation so that we can get them done efficiently. Be mindful of your parent’s wants because I have seen this be a point of contention when they feel like they aren’t getting the shots they want. The more prep we do, the more we can establish order to this part of the day. I hope this has been helpful and as always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
