Whether you like them or not, chances are group shots are going to be a part of your wedding day in some capacity (in 9 years, I’ve not done a wedding that didn’t have any). They are the classic ‘mantlepiece’ photos that you and your family will have framed for many years to come. However, what a lot of people forget (or don’t realise) is that the process for creating these photos can sometimes take a lot longer than you might imagine.
The main motivation behind this post is to help my couples understand the realities of family photos, to know what difficulties can arise, and to minimise the time taking them. Ultimately, it’s to ensure you are maximising spending time with friends and family on your wedding day (nobody wants to look back and remember standing in a line smiling at the camera).
Even if you take on board just one or two of these top tips, they will all help in some way to make your day run smoother..
1 - You don’t have to have ALL the combinations
Although there can be many factors that determine how long family photos take on a wedding day, the main one is the sheer number of different combinations.
Modern families can be complicated, I get that. You may also have family members who wish to kindly offer (or strongly insist on) their opinion, which can sometimes lead to a very long list of different groups.
I want you to think 10, 20 or 30 years into the future and imagine the photos that you will have framed on your wall that your grandchildren will look at. Is it the one your mum insisted on taking with all the cousins and their new partners? Or your parents’ friends who you only see once every few years? Chances are, it’ll be with the people most dear to you and that you love the most in the world.
It can be so difficult (as with any part of wedding planning) to keep yourselves at the centre and not get trapped into people pleasing (and that’s coming from a certified people pleaser). However, if you end up taking group shots for over an hour on your wedding day, you’re bored as hell and you just want some canapés.. you’ll be wishing you’d kept the list short.
2 - Allow at least 3 minutes per group shot
So, let’s get into the reality of how long these photos can take. As a general rule of thumb, I encourage couples to allow at least 3 minutes per group shot. So yes, if you’re wanting 20 different combinations, this will take up around an hour of your drinks reception.
I always say to my couples that they can have as many or as few group photos as they like – it’s your wedding day after all! However, I feel it’s my job to inform you of the realities of how long they will take. When I have a particular group in front of me, the photos take a matter of seconds. The thing that takes the time is the gathering of those people.
You can pretty much guarantee on the wedding day that a random uncle will have just nipped to the loo, or someone has gone to check into their room. Patiently waiting for them to come back is most certainly NOT a fun use of time on your wedding day, which brings me onto tip number three..
3 - Choose your ‘gatherers’ wisely
As I touched on above, once we have the right people we need for a particular group shot, it takes a matter of seconds to get the photos (providing everyone is well-behaved and looking in the right direction!). Therefore, if we can have the next group of people ready and ‘waiting in the wings’, it is the biggest time saver I can offer you as your wedding photographer!
Choosing the right people to help gather is paramount to saving yourselves heaps of time on the day. The people you choose should ideally fit the following criteria:
- Someone who is loud but isn’t likely to get trapped in other conversations.
- Someone who knows your side of the family but isn’t necessarily a family member (if they are featured in lots of the photos, they will struggle to be gathering other people).
- Someone who is well-organised and isn’t likely to get flustered with their role (depending on the crowd it can sometimes be like herding cats!)
My advice is usually for both partners to each choose somebody, so you have two people working together who respectively know the families they need to be gathering from.
4 - Don’t stray too far
I can often advise on a good location for photos on the day or in advance, but it’s generally a good idea not to do your group photos too far from where your guests will be for the drinks exception (with the exception that everybody we need can come with us to the location).
It can become a problem if group shots are far away from your guests if we hit a standstill (i.e. the next group of people is not ready to go when we need them). It can become a messy scenario of ‘could someone phone such and such and get them to hurry up’!
5 - The order is key
Believe it or not, the order in which you have your group shots can massively determine how long they take. This is something I am always happy to help with in advance of the wedding.
Below is an example template which generally works really well for flow on the day (again, there is no pressure to stick to these)..
1 – Group shot of everyone (works very well to do immediately after confetti so we have everyone’s attention)
2 – Bride’s extended family
3 – Bride’s immediate family
4 – Bride’s parents
5 – Bride and groom’s parents
6 – Groom’s parents
7 – Groom’s immediate family
8 – Groom’s extended family
9 – Groomsmen
10 – Bridesmaids and groomsmen
11 – Bridesmaids
This is typically a good structure not just in terms of number of combinations, but also in terms of the order we do them. The winning method is to start off with your biggest groups (minimal gathering when we already have everyone’s attention), and to slowly whittle these down to the smallest group. We then slowly build up again until we are back with another bigger group.
I always like to start the group photos with family members rather than friends as these often include the older generation, who may wish to find a nice comfy seat within the venue once they’re no longer needed for photos. Bridesmaids and groomsmen are generally much easier to gather (just look for the matching outfits!), so it makes sense to leave these until the end.
So there you have it! I hope this has given you an insight into what works well when it comes to group shots as well as what to avoid. As I said, I’m always really happy to advise on your group shot list ahead of the wedding day, and to offer any tips that should make your day run much more smoothly.
If you have any questions or concerns you can drop me a message any time, and also feel free to let me know of any top tips you may have from a previous wedding!
