Family portraits are undeniably one of the most hectic and stressful parts of the wedding day. If your wedding day has a strict timeline, you might only have 20-30 minutes to capture family portraits. It’s amazing how fast 20-30 minutes can go when trying to wrangle up your family members. If your timeline allows, I usually recommend setting aside 2 minutes (give or take) for each shot on your shot list, some shots will be quick while others can take time if it’s a large group we are trying to rally together. Family portraits do NOT have to be 30 minutes of straight chaos. Here’s how to ensure family portraits run as smoothly as possible:
- Do family portraits immediately after the ceremony as this is a helpful way to ensure everyone is at the same place at the same time.
- Tell your family members who are being photographed ahead of time to not leave the ceremony location afterwards. Better yet, tell them to meet at said location by a certain time. If your ceremony is projected to end at 3:30 PM, tell family members to meet at “x” location by 3:40 PM and to stay put!
- SKIP the receiving line and “hide” from your guests as they exit the ceremony and head to cocktail hour. Skipping the receiving line allows you to save time and allow for more time for family portraits. I’ve watched receiving lines last beyond 30 minutes and time is often critical during a wedding day. A quick hug at the receiving line is not as valuable as a conversation later at the reception. More than likely, your guests won’t hold grudges as they cannot wait to enjoy a drink and some horderves.
- Create + organize a family shot list. Organize the shot list in a way that makes sense. Start with all the family members and slowly take away family members. Include exact family members names. Do not just put “bride’s mother” and instead put her actual name.
- Allow TWO minutes per each shot on your shot list.
- Do you have a loud + crazy family member? Put this family member (preferably one for the bride’s family and one for the groom’s family) in charge of wrangling up family. Give a copy of your shot list to these people!
- Narrow it down to immediate family only. An example of a shot list with immediate family only is below. You’ll find that just with the immediate family, it’s still a pretty lengthy shot list, and does not include any sort of step-family situations. Trying to wrangle up your 30 cousins is quite tasking. And let’s be real, will you be hanging this crazy cousin photo on your living room wall? You’re more likely to actually print out a photo of you with your parents or grandparents. Now, we can still get that big cousin photo because it’s your day and you should get the photos you want. Consider saving any photos with family members outside of immediate family OR friends for the reception. During any downtime at the reception, your DJ can be a great help in wrangling these large groups. You get more fun and less formal photos then too!
- Take all your photos together as husband and wife and cut out the photos of just you with family and just your spouse with family if you’re in a pinch for time.
Family Shot List Example:
- Bride + Groom with BOTH parents and siblings
- Bride + Groom with BOTH parents
- Bride + Groom with bride’s grandparents, parents and siblings
- Bride + Groom with each set of bride’s grandparents
- Bride with each set of bride’s grandparents
- Bride with bride’s parents and siblings
- Bride + Groom with bride’s parents
- Bride + Groom with bride’s siblings
- Bride with parents
- Bride with mom
- Bride with dad
- Bride with siblings
- Bride with each sibling
- Bride + Groom with groom’s grandparents, parents and siblings
- Bride + Groom with each set of groom’s grandparents
- Groom with each set of groom’s grandparents
- Groom with groom’s parents and siblings
- Bride + Groom with groom’s parents
- Bride + Groom with groom’s siblings
- Groom with parents
- Groom with mom
- Groom with dad
- Groom with siblings
- Groom with each sibling