Are you stuck on where to start with your wedding day family photos? Are you dreading choosing who is going to be in your family photos?

Here are some top tips to help you on your wedding day, to make things easy & most of all stress free!

Who To Choose

This can be one of the hardest parts right?

You have so many guests, so much family and the last thing you want to be doing is standing around for ages!

The important thing to remember is that your photographer will be snapping photos of all of your guests all day long. So one thing you don’t need to worry about is if you will have photos of each of your guests, because I can assure you, with a good photographer, you definitely will!

Only you two know who is MOST important to you both. My best bit of advice is to select those people for your photos, the ones that you would regret not having photos with!

Below are a couple of examples:

List 1 (family orientated):

• You two + parents from one side
• You two + parents from one side + siblings
• You two + parents from other side
• You two + parents from other side + siblings
• You two + both parents
• You two + both parents + both siblings
• You two + grandparents
• You two + wedding party
• Whole group photo

List 2 (friends orientated):

• You two + wedding party
• You two + besties from one side
• You two + besties from other side
• You two + all besties
• You two + all family
• Whole group photo

Sometimes, if you have enough time, it is nice to have individual photos which each member of your wedding party. If you have one of course! These are so lush to have as the members of your wedding party are usually your ride or dies! Plus they are perfect for sharing on birthdays!!

Brief The Chosen Ones Beforehand

This may seem obvious but is virtually never done!

You will have written your family photo list before the wedding so why not let the people in the photos know that they will be a part of them! Not only is this nice for them to know, but it also means they will make a conscious effort to be around when they know the photos are being taken.

By not telling them, your chosen guests may wonder off or will not be prepared to have their photo taken!

Schedule Time

Your wedding schedule will include every part of your wedding day. One really important thing to factor in is enough time for your formal photos!

I normally recommend around 5-7 minutes per group photo and around 10 family photos. It is better to have more time so if you finish early you can continue to enjoy your special day. Not planning enough time could mean things begin to run late and will only make you more stressed.

Your wedding day family photos are normally either straight after the ceremony or after you have had some time mingling. By having your photos at this time, most of your guests will still all be in one place which will make the photo taking process much easier! Plus you can get them done and out of the way!!

Have A List

Having a list of your important photos is vital to make things run smoothly!

Something that I do as a photographer is that I’ll send out a questionnaire for you to include your photo list. This will allow me to have a copy so that I can organise the photos and keep things as stress free as possible.

Another top tip is to write down peoples first names rather than what relation they are to you. This way, your photographer can call out their name and they are much more likely to hear and respond quicker.

Send this list to a couple of your closest helpers before your wedding day so that they also have access to the list and it isn’t just your photographer. This will help to prevent any delays and also keeps things running smoothly.

Ask Someone To Help

A best man or bridesmaid is perfect for this role! This job is perfect for someone who knows both sides of the couple. A helper will massively improve the ease of your wedding day family photos!

They will be able to line up the next group of people whilst your photographer is taking the photos!

This definitely halves the time your formal photos will take!

I hope this blog has helped you to make some notes ahead of your family photos! You don’t have to dread them at all, being organised and prepping these steps will help everything run smoothly!

Check out this Step by Step Wedding Planning Guide to help you plan your wedding with ease!