Family Portraits
How do I know who will be in my family photos?
This is a great question! When it comes to photography on your wedding day, the two major things I need from you are: your timeline and your FAMILY FORMALS LIST!
There will be a time of the day that we allot just for the family group portraits - you can reference my other guide First Look? which outlines options for when these photos should happen. But who should be in these photos can be as easy as chatting with both sides of both your families. I wouldn’t just guess at this one because mom and dad might have very different ideas of this. Should your second uncle twice remove be in these photos? That’s a question for the whole family. Once you guys come to and agreement, I send you a FORMALS HOW-TO word document and it is as easy as filling it out.
This form is SUPER helpful for me on your wedding day. Never have I had a bride or groom who has been excited about family group portraits. It is honestly the least exciting part of the day, but one of the most important! These are the photos that everyone looks back at because this is a historical record of your families coming together, dressed to the 9’s! Weddings are a day where people from all over the globe come to celebrate you and this is the moment that is memorialized…and quite often these are the photos that are printed and framed! So, the more organized we are in knowing WHO is in these photos, then my team and I can arrange people in the most pleasing way for the photos.
Also, this is my cheat sheet for the day. You guys know these people very very well because they are your family. I am a stranger to these people and having a list of who’s who and having their names is more than helpful for me and my team to navigate your rowdy bunch. Oh! And speaking of rowdy… if you have any prickly family dynamics, a heads up is also appreciated!
We often say that this part of the day is like herding kittens… with your help, we can get them all trained and in order!
