You're knee deep into planning your wedding, and you want your day to run like clockwork!
But... how do you plan for Aunty Susan who wants to take her own
gallery of iPhone portraits?
Here are some key tips for planning the family photos of your wedding day, and how your photographer will remove the burden from you!!
TIP #1 MAKE A PHOTO LIST (AND INCLUDE NAMES!)
Friends, I cannot stress this enough!
Take the time to sit down with your partner, and maybe your parents, and make a list of what groups you would like to prioritise for family photos.
Write down the title of the group photo (e.g., Smith Family, Smith siblings, grandkids photo), and here's the big tip......
Write down the name of each individual group member in the photo.
Why do you ask?
Wedding ceremonies and receptions can be large places, and often guests will start to sprawl out after the ceremony to grab a bite to eat or go to the loo. You DO not want to be running around trying to find each member, or delegating a member of the family.
Often family members, though we love them, will take their time getting there without clear, firm direction.
Writing down each name means that guests are called individually, and respond better to hearing their name specifically rather than their family group photo title.
.
TIP #2 MANAGING AUNTY SUSAN!
If anyone has an Aunty Susan, I'm terribly sorry. We just had to name these types of guests, you know!
I'm talking about your guests who love family photos so much they want to capture every combination and get their own shots on their phones.
While there is nothing wrong with this, it can dramatically stretch out the time to allocate to family photos if we're not careful.
So how do we navigate this?
Get your celebrant, priest, or pastor to let your guests know at the end of the service that there will be family photos at (insert location), and for guests to gather outside a location near the photos following the ceremony.
HOWEVER, you are totally within your rights to let guests know not to take photos until the photographer says it is okay. Reassure them that this is what the photographer is paid to do; so they will receive high quality images anyway a little later on (much more frame worthy than iPhone pics in my opinion!).
If you still feel uneasy about the 'Aunty Susan' types, let your photographer know. They can firmly but kindly direct these people during photo time, so it's stress free for you!
TIP #3 ASSIGN A GUEST TO MC DUTY!
The last tip to help your family photos run seamlessly!
Allocate a confident (and probably loud) guest to jump on a mic and announce each family photo. They might need to do this several times too!
Even if you have a small ceremony and reception space!
Guests can often feel very unsure of when to come over, and need lots of reinforcement that it IS in fact their photo!
BONUS TIP #4!!!!
Who doesn't love a sneaky bonus tip!
I attended a wedding on the weekend that included this, and honestly, it was so effective!
The bride and groom added to their photo list combinations of friends that they wanted to get a photo with. There were only a few combinations, but it worked incredibly!
You know why?
This ensured they weren't chasing people throughout the night and could just enjoy themselves!
I highly recommend you add key friends and groups onto your photo list. Let your photographer know you would like to add additional time to fit this in too!
It's my goal in these blog posts to best serve you ahead of your photoshoot or wedding day! If there is something you would love to hear about, let me know in the section below!
Always your friend,
Lizzie x
