Wedding Photography Tip #5

Wedding Photography Tip #5-- The dreaded formals!

For so many people, the formal portraits are the most dreaded part of the wedding day, but they don't really have to be! Three things you can do to make it less tedious--

1. Find a photographer who has fun with the formal groupings and who works quickly.
2. Accomplish as many of the formals before the ceremony as possible (even without the bride and groom seeing each other!)
3. Limit the number of people and different groupings.

We have done SO many weddings where we spend well over an hour (sometimes two!) after the ceremony working through a formal portait list. This is a major concern for most couples, as they do not want to leave their guests sitting idle for so long (and they also don't want to get face fatigue from smiling so long!)

One of the easiest solutions is to allot some portrait time BEFORE the ceremony. We like to have 45 minutes with the Bride, Bridesmaids and Bride's immediate family followed by 30 minutes with the Groom, Groomsmen and Groom's immediate family. This way, the only shots to take AFTER the ceremony include BOTH the bride and groom.

Sometimes we have six different groupings that either simply add one person or remove one person. Othertimes we have large family groupings that can involve 30-45 people and take 10-15 minutes to set up! The sad thing about both of these situations is that for the most part, the images are not included in an album and no one orders a print of these images, so they are left in photo purgatory.

We advise couples to use their post-ceremony portrait time for the images that are the most meaningful to them. Do you really want an image with your second cousin Larry and his third wife Wanda? If so, do you want it to be in your formal portraits, or do you want to grab a fun shot with them at the reception?

We spend our post ceremony portrait time working from the largest groups to the smallest so that we can send people on to the reception when we are finished. It also means the bride and groom's portraits are last, so they can have a few quiet minutes alone. Unfortunately, this means that their portrait time can be cut short when family members cannot be located for group portraits, or when mom insists on adding another 10 groupings.

While we never limit the number of formals that you can have or the time we will spend on portraits, we do recommend spending some planning time thinking over the groupings you would really like to have. Also consider when they would be best-- before the ceremony, after the ceremony or as a relaxed reception portrait?

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