There is one aspect of wedding photography that is usually not that glamorous and typically doesn’t get the ooohs and ahhhs from your friends but at the same time is still in my opinion very important. What I’m talking about is the traditional formal wedding photographs of the bride, groom and their immediate family.

The reason I want to touch on this subject is that it generally doesn’t get that much attention at first in but quickly becomes important on the wedding day when everyone is dressed up and looking their best, and you quickly realize that you probably won’t have this opportunity for awhile if ever at all. I typically don’t like to spend a lot of time with these types of photographs as I prefer to spend as much time as possible with the couple, but with some planning we can make it as painless as possible and be able to quickly move on with the day.

At this point, I would recommend that you either enlist one of the bridesmaids or that aunt or uncle that knows everyone in the family (we all have one) to help out and gather everyone together. I will usually take the formal photographs immediately following the ceremony. In order to make this process less time consuming and confusing for all parties involved I would appreciate that your helper have everyone ready and standing by for your desired formal groupings. The general standard formal groupings are listed below, and will generally take 15 minutes:

* bride and groom with bride’s parents
* bride and groom with bride’s parents and siblings
* bride and groom with groom’s parents
* bride and groom with groom’s parents and siblings
* bride and groom with all bridal party
* bride and groom with each respective party (if not taken pre-ceremony)

Please note that it is very important that you consider time restraints when adding to this list of formal photographs. You can estimate an average of 3-4 minutes per grouping. It is absolutely vital that everyone who is in the formal groupings be ready to begin when called on.

I should also mention that with everyone at the wedding having a digital camera of some kind, including your grandmother, I would hope that they won’t interfere with the formals by distracting anyone in the group. I certainly don’t mind the odd photo, and I’m not going to yell at your grandmother, but often times I’ll need to take these photos in an area that is somewhat quiet from the post ceremony buzz so we can get it done. As always, I’ll go over this portion of your coverage at our pre-wedding meeting.

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