Doing family photos on your wedding day after your ceremony doesn’t need to be an overwhelming experience! We have all been to a wedding where this part of the day just took far too long with too many combinations of the same photos. Quite often on the day couples will ditch their original list or skip a few groups just to get it over and done with. It doesn’t need to be this way though, there are things we can do to prepare so it goes smoothly and quickly!

WRITE A LIST OF GROUPS/BE SPECIFIC

It can help to write down the names of everyone in each group so they can be read out on the spot and we can check to make sure no one is missing (it’s never a great feeling as a photographer knowing that someone important was left out of a photo when we had no idea they were missing).

ASSIGN HELP, WE CAN MAKE THIS QUICK!

Prior to the day assign someone who is confident (and not afraid to talk loudly) to help your photographer and read from the list. Assign people from your families so they are familiar with everyone on the list. If you have a larger number of guests 80+, take it a step further by assigning a second person as a runner who can go and find guests so they are waiting nearby and can step into my frame as soon as we are ready. Often what happens is the person assigned to this job gets overwhelmed and it’s too fast-paced so I will end up shouting names while also photographing.

ORDER STRATEGICALLY

Do any images with grandparents or children first. Then work through one side of the family, then the other. Try to move people around as little as possible.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

For our own wedding we made it really simple and had basic combinations with no double-ups. It was more important to spend time with our family than overdo it with multiple photos with the same people.