Planning and Organizing Your Family Photos in an Efficient and Stress-Free way
Close your eyes and think of what your wedding day looks like. You’re probably thinking of spending the rest of your life with your soon to be husband or wife, the beautiful décor and your stunning wedding portraits that you’re going to frame and hang on your wall. While this is what you should be most excited for, we need to remember that we also have to focus on capturing your loved ones on your wedding day. As your wedding photography, it’s my responsibility to help you organize this section of the day so that it’s as painless and stress free as possible.
Make a List
Sit down with your fiancé and make a list of every grouping and arrangement for your family and your bridal party that you’d like to photograph. Having a list that’s clear and organized will help this portion of the day moving fast so that you can spend more time taking your portrait photos. Here’s an example of what this list should look like. I always send a thorough list of this arrangement a week prior to the wedding to make sure we don’t forget anyone.
- Bride, Groom, Both Families
- Bride, Groom, Parents of Groom, Groom’s Siblings
- Bride, Groom, Parents of Groom
- Bride, Groom, Groom’s Dad
- Bride, Groom, Froom’s Mom
- Bride, Groom, Siblings of Groom
- Bride, Groom, Groom Sister
- Bride, Groom, Groom Brother
Organizing your photos in this way make is to that you can easily add and remove different family members to keep the day running smoothly.
Start With Immediate Family Members
As you can see from the above arrangement, I always start by taking photos of your immediate family members. Parents, siblings, grandparents. From there, you work your way to the extended family. Your wedding family photos are arranged this way because if we’re tight on time, we make sure that the most important family members are photographed. Right before your portrait photos, you’ll want to take the same organization of photos with your bridal party.
Assign a Helper
Prior to the wedding day, I always ask my couples to assign a helper for the family photos, preferably someone who’s familiar with the family and bridal party. This helps us wrangle everyone together and make sure that we’re calling the right family and friends.
Keep It Simple
The best part about a wedding day is that we can always take photos with you and all of your guests are the reception, as most of the wedding day is spent during the reception. Because of this, we don’t want to take 100 combinations of photos as it will eat into the for your wedding portrait photos.
Let Us Know of the Family Dynamics
If there are any type of sensitive relationships (divorced parents, people who don’t get along with each other etc), let your wedding photographer know in advance. This way we can avoid any awkward pairings and we can adjust the photo arrangement accordingly. We want to make sure everyone has a great experience and are comfortable.
Final Thoughts
Family photos are usually seen as a stressful part of the day – and for good reason. Having to wrangle everyone and making sure you get a photo with the right people is time consuming. However, with a with a big of planning we can keep things moving and knock this portion out in 20-30 minutes.
Do you have any questions or you need help putting your list together? Let’s chat about your wedding day!
