Let’s face it, one of the most stressful parts about a wedding day can be wrangling all of your family and wedding party together to take formal photos. Whether someone shows up late (or not at all), or someone isn’t cooperating, here are 4 ways to rock your formal photos without the headache!
1.) Have a definite start & end time
Like many things during a wedding, it is incredibly useful to have a solid start and end time. This gives you a definitive time that you can tell all of your family members to arrive by. Having a solid end time is useful so that you don’t get sidetracked with photos that you aren’t sure if you want or not.
2.) Give yourself buffer after your end time before your ceremony
This only applies if you are having a first look (click here for 3 reasons why you should have a first look!) but giving yourself at least a half hour (I always budget a full hour for my couples) will ensure that you have time to relax before the ceremony, and that if formals do start to run late, you have plenty of time to finish before the ceremony starts.
3.) Assign people as “Wranglers”
There is a good chance that your photographer does not know every single person in your family. Because of this, the best thing you can do is assign one person from your side & your partner’s side to be the photo wranglers. These people will go around and gather all of the people who need to be in the photographs. This is much easier for them to do since they know everyone in your family!
4.) Have a shot list
It is very useful to figure out the exact group photos that you would like photographed before your wedding. This way you have a definitive list of “must have” photographs and you don’t have to think twice if you got them. You can create this list yourself or often times you can seek the help of your photographer to create this list as well! A full formal photo shot list comes standard for all of my couples!
