Let’s talk about Group Photos!
Here’s the thing…
Being a documentary photographer I want you to have the most authentic day with your family and friends, but it’s also not very often that you get everybody together in one place! As much as I believe your day should be completely uninterrupted, I do realise the importance of having family photos and I always make time for these! If you want them, my strong advice is to aim for no more than 5 formal photos and if you want more than that, don’t go above 10! Trust me - this is for your benefit! I have been a guest at weddings in the past where the photographer has taken hours to work through the list of group photos! While the idea of having all these different combinations of family line-up sounds great at the time, the stark reality is that you will be standing in line, forcing out smiles for a very long time away from your guests - which is never a good idea in my opinion! It can also quickly become a stressful experience. Trust your photographer when they say keep the group photo list short and the party time long! They speak from years of experience!
Nominate an Usher or a Bridesmaid (or both) to help gather guests.
This is really helpful for me and it helps to speed up the process too. Remember I don’t know anybody at your wedding, so nominating someone who does is really rather useful! Brief them before your wedding and I will print off your group list and pass this to them on the day. We’ll work together with them to find the right people for each photo.
Each photo takes time.
As a rule, each formal group photo takes around 3-5 minutes to gather the right people, to set up and to shoot. If you are working to a list of 10 groups, this can take between 30 and 50 minutes to complete. Remember to keep your list short.
When to do group photos?
I usually do these during the drinks reception after you’ve had a chance to mingle with your guests. If the list is short enough, we can be finished in under 20 minutes!
Where to do them?
I’ll do your group photos outside wherever possible. If it’s sunny, we’ll find a spot in the shade and if it’s raining I’ll find somewhere quiet inside. The only photo that is weather/space dependent is the big group photo with everybody although not everyone chooses to do this one. If it’s too wet to do this one outside, there will need to be enough space indoors to do it.
Do you really need a big group photo of everyone?
We had the ‘big group shot’ at our wedding - it felt important to me at the time as it was ‘the thing to do’ yet 15 years later, I can count on one finger the amount of times I’ve looked at it! While it’s no problem at all to do (weather dependent and space permitting), consider if you really want this shot.
