The formal portraiture of your family might not be the part of your wedding day you are most looking forward to. In terms of photography, most people don’t particularly care for portraits that look very posed, with everyone standing in a particular way, smiling and looking at the camera. However, for your formal family portraits this is exactly the kind of photos your family are expecting and want! These photos are actually really important to your family, as many times weddings are one of the few times that all your family get together, so portraits commemorating this is a must-have for most weddings.

As a wedding photographer, I’ve discovered little tips and tricks to make these portraits more fun, organized and comfortable for everyone involved, so I wanted to type up this blog to help all couples have a better experience during their family formals! So get ready to take some notes, and if you are able to incorporate these tips in your Big Day then you’ll have a wonderful family portrait experience!

Family Photo Tip #1

Create a portrait list which includes the names of each person in each portrait grouping and give it to your photographer to bring to your big day!

One of the things that can create more stress than is needed and take more time than is necessary is the organization of your family portraits. Trying to think on the fly what family combinations are ones you want and then trying to get people together by calling them “uncle of the bride” or some other title that isn’t as recognizable as their own names is difficult and something that can be easily avoidable!

Sitting down with your partner and family, make a list of each combination of family groupings you would like a formal portrait of and write down the name of each person in each group. Writing up which combinations are important for you are especially important with blended families where you are much more knowledgeable on all the different family dynamics than your photographer might be.

Sending this type of a family formal portrait list to your photographer will then allow them to bring this list to the wedding with them. Once the time comes for family formals, your photographer can then call out each grouping of family by name, people will respond and line up for their portraits faster, and you’ll know you’ve got all the different combinations you want!

An extra-organized tip is to further organize this list to make sure the groupings listed first include the elderly and really young family members so they can escape to their seats in your reception area the soonest and without having to wait through all the portraits to be completed.

Family Photo Tip #2

Save your Extended Family Portraits for after your ceremony.

This is mainly a tip for those couples who are choosing to do a First Look and therefore doing the majority of your portraits pre-ceremony.

Saving your extended family portraits for post-ceremony ensures that you still get that “wow” effect by the majority of your guests when you enter your ceremony space when you walk down the aisle. If you have all of your aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all showing up and posing with you pre-ceremony then that surprise of seeing you for the first time during the ceremony will be a bit spoiled for them.

Family Photo Tip #3

Keep in mind how long each photo-combination takes and consider cutting down on the formal portraits a bit.

Between rounding up each family member in each grouping, and arranging them for a nice portraits, it can take a bit longer than you may think to get each family portrait complete. A good rule of thumb is to calculate about 3minutes per each family portrait.

When you first make your family formal portrait list, do a quick calculation and multiply the number of groupings you’ve written by 3 and see about how long it will take you to get through them all.

If you’ve gone a bit overboard with the number of groupings you’ve listed, try splitting the groups into one list of the most important groupings that you want the more formal and fully posed images of. The second list can be those portraits you wouldn’t mind your photographer grabbing “on the fly” during your reception.

If you have any group portraits that you’d like which might not be “family,” adding these to your reception images will also make sure you get those fun group shots of your college friends, work friends, or whatever other grouping you want without taking more time for portraits pre-reception.

Splitting your family portraits into two lists in this way will allow you to avoid spending your entire cocktail or appetizer hour doing only formal family portraits, and will also be a fun thing during your reception to go around and grab the remaining family photos on the side of the dance floor, at the tables or in the lounge area you might have set up.

This tip is especially important for those couples who are planning a traditional wedding timeline where the bride and groom do not see each other prior to the ceremony, and therefore you must fit all of your portraits into the time you have post-ceremony and pre-reception. Having a ton of family portraits to get through in addition to all of your wedding party photos and bridal portraits is a bit much and is more likely to make you feel stressed and might put you quite far behind on your dinner timeline. So, if you are planning a traditional timeline be quite conservative on the number of family formal portraits you want!

Family Photo Tip #4

Feel free to take a moment and enjoy being next to those you love!

Especially if you’ve paired down your groupings and have supplied your photographer with an organized family formal portrait combinations list, you’ll have a comfortable amount of time to do your family portraits. Allow yourself in this time to enjoy one another! Feel free to hug, look at each other and laugh once your “look at me and smile” photo has been achieved.

Most photographers will appreciate the candid love that is unfolding in front of them and will keep snapping away, giving you not only the formal portraiture you were expecting, but some candid, emotional gems as well!

As the bride and groom, you can initiate these candid moments with your family. I bet your parents, siblings and those will love will easily follow suit and enjoy these moments of real emotion amid what is normally a more formal, posed experience.

Family Photo Tip #5

When your mom is next to you, have her place one of her arms on your forearm to show off her corsage and give her a nice shape in your family portraits.

One of the things that can make your family portraits appear a bit more awkwardly posed is when your guests don’t really know where to place their hands.

Lucky for you as the bride you are normally holding your bouquet so your hands look wonderful already, but what about your mom? In those portraits where she is next to you, if you have her place one arm on your back and the other resting on your forearm it makes your whole portrait look more comfortable and also shows off a corsage if she has one!

For your dad, you can also have him place one hand on your back to make sure he is close enough to you to convey the love he has for you! You can also have him pop his outside hand in his pant pocket for a more relaxed and polished look as well!

I hope these tips aid you in your wedding planning and that your family portrait experience can be something you actually enjoy!

Now go and have an amazing wedding!