A Stress-Free Way to Plan Your Family Formal Portraits on Your Wedding Day
One of the most beautiful and special parts of a wedding is sharing it with your loved ones. And what better way to show your appreciation for your nearest and dearest than including them in your wedding photography. Planning formal portrait lists for your wedding can be daunting, but a little in planning ahead of time can make a world of difference on the day of your wedding.
We always advocate for our couples to create a portrait list well ahead of the wedding date. Creating the list early allows you to prioritize the combinations that matter the most to you. And it allows your family and friends to be more prepared, saving you time and stress in trying to track down someone during the fast-pace of the big day.
After photographing hundreds of weddings over the last decade, we’ve compiled some frequently asked questions and advice about making a wedding day portrait list that may help you in deciding the best way to organize yours.
Who should we include in our portrait list?
For many couples, this will likely include nuclear and some close extended family. However, the real answer is: whoever you consider to be your family. For many, including LGBTQ+ couples, there are other people who are not directly related but are no less family. Remember that you are only limited by time. The more combinations of people who you wish to include, the more time your formal portraits will take.
Do we include names on our list?
Identifying names on your formal portrait list will help prevent you and your photographer from forgetting to include someone. Family formals can be one of the most hectic times during the day, with a lot of different people coming together, excited, talking, and distracted. Having a list of names that your photographer or designated point-person can call out will identify which “aunt” is needed, when called.
This brings me to another critical point:
Designate a point-person for formal portraits. Ideally, this should be someone who knows a large portion of the people included on your portrait list and is willing to help corral people to be in the right place at the right time. This person is essential if you have a larger family, or are planning many formal portraits. I cannot tell you how easy it is to derail formal portraits simply by one uncle heading to cocktail hour too early. A designated point-person can help make sure that doesn’t happen.
How should we organize the formal portrait list?
It is best to organize the list by largest group first, and then gradually decrease the group size. This is by far the most efficient way to take photos with multiple combinations of people. The benefit to organizing your list this way is that at the end of the ceremony everyone is in one place, so you (or your designated point-person) can easily grab everyone for photos. As you decrease the group size, people who have already been photographed and will not appear in any other portrait combination can leave and enjoy cocktail hour. Once the largest group images have been taken and more people have left for cocktail hour, it becomes increasingly easier to organize the remaining people for portraits.
Here’s an example of a well organized family portrait list, using the Brady Bunch family attending the wedding of Marcia and Wally.
Marcia, Wally, Mike, Carol, Greg, Peter, Jan, Bobby, Cindy, Alice
Marcia, Wally, Mike, Carol, Greg, Peter, Jan, Bobby, Cindy
Marcia, Mike, Carol, Greg, Peter, Jan, Bobby, Cindy
Marcia, Wally, Mike, Carol
Marcia, Mike, Carol
Marcia, Mike
Marcia, Carol
Marcia, Wally, Greg, Peter, Jan, Bobby, Cindy
Marcia, Greg, Peter, Bobby
Marcia, Jan, Cindy
A grouping like this should not take no more than 10 minutes, so long as the group is ready and cooperative! Some couples choose to eliminate many groupings, opting instead for one or two larger family photos. It might look like Marcia, Wally, and the whole family (1), Marcia and her family without Wally (3), and Marcia with just her parents (5).
If you wanted to include both Marcia’s nuclear family and Wally’s nuclear family in one family formal portrait, it is best to do so at the beginning of the scheduled family formal portrait time. Then we would branch into the separate groupings of individual families.
Are there any special family considerations the photographer should be aware of?
After spending so long with your wedding photographer on your big day, as well as an engagement session, and emails back and forth throughout the planning process, it may feel like your photographer is already part of your family. However, it is important to remember that every family has delicate relationships, ways of communicating, and context that your photographer may not be aware of.
These kinds of considerations can encompass many things (divorced family members who are not on good terms, children with special sensitivities to groups or noise, etc). Although it may feel like an awkward conversation to have with your photographer, it might prevent an uncomfortable situation from unfolding on your big day.
When it comes to planning your formal portrait list, these are just a few tips that we’ve found valuable in maintaining a stress-free wedding day. When should you schedule family formals? Glad you asked! Here is a great resource for how to create the perfect wedding day timeline, which includes a few different scenarios regarding when to schedule formal portraits.