Planning Family Portraits
Family portraits are the photos you and your loved ones will treasure for years to come. We’re happy to photograph as many combinations as you’d like, provided there’s enough time in your wedding day timeline to gather and photograph everyone.
Please allow approximately 2–2½ minutes per combination. For example, 10 combinations will need around 20–25 minutes. If you’d like more than 8–12 combinations, please allow additional time after the ceremony. Depending on your plans, that may mean bringing your ceremony forward or adjusting the time set aside for other photos.
Preparing your list
Please send us a detailed list before the wedding, with the first name of every person in each photo. A description such as “couple with bride’s family” doesn’t tell us who to call over. Your list should look like this:
Couple with bride’s immediate family (Lisa, Paul, Tom, Lily, Patrick, John and Amber)
Couple with bride’s parents and siblings (Lisa, Paul, Tom and Lily)
Couple with bride’s parents (Lisa and Paul)
Couple with bride’s grandmother (Margaret)
We usually photograph the largest combination first, then work down to smaller groups so family members can leave as soon as they’re finished. When you make your list, try to keep combinations from the same side of the family together. This saves us from having to find someone again after they’ve wandered off.
If grandparents or young children are in the portraits, we recommend photographing their combinations early. Grandparents can then sit down or get out of the heat, and children can head off before they get tired.
Helping everyone get into place
Please let everyone on your list know before the wedding that they’ll need to stay nearby after the ceremony. We also ask you to choose a confident helper with a good “teacher’s voice” to call people over. Ideally, they’ll know the family and won’t appear in too many of the photos themselves. If one person doesn’t know both sides, choose a helper from each family.
A photo with all your guests
If you’d also like one big photo with all your guests, please tell us in advance. Gathering 100 or more people can take around 10 minutes, and some venues may need a suitable elevated position so everyone can be seen. We’ll factor this into the timeline and work out what’s possible at your venue.
A detailed list, a little help gathering everyone and enough time in the schedule make this part of the day feel relaxed while ensuring you get the family photos that matter to you.
