Family Pictures on a wedding day can be a tricky thing.

Knowing who you should include can be difficult to figure out because no one wants to hurt anyone’s feelings over a picture, however, including every single family member distant and close can quickly consume all of your post-ceremony time if you aren’t careful!

Worry over including or not including a family member can make the family picture list quickly become a sore subject for couples.

From the very first meeting with our couples, we encourage them to consider who they would like to include in their family pictures and to start creating a list with the names of family members and their relations. We ask for names because its easier on our end if we say we need Aunt Sally for a picture than we need your aunt for a picture. Then we know for sure we got Aunt Sally’s picture. 🙂 We ask for a list from our couples for two reasons…

• Number One: There is a less likely chance that someone will get left out or a photo grouping forgotten.
• Number Two: So our couples can see just how many family pictures will need to be taken.

We then ask for them to bring or send us their list before their final wedding day meeting so we can go over their list with them.

Once they’ve made their list and we’ve gone over it with them we add this into our wedding day timeline. After we’ve determined about what time family pictures will occur we strongly encourage our couples to communicate with their family members involved in wedding day pictures prior to the wedding, the time pictures will be taking place and where they need to gather for pictures. Having all the family gathered together helps prevent lost time spent looking for missing family members.

For us family pictures take place either just before or just after the ceremony, depending on whether or not our couples choose to do a first look. If our couples aren’t seeing each other prior to the ceremony, it means we have all of the following pictures to take before our couples arrival at the reception…

• Family
• Full Bridal Party
• Bride and Groom Portraits

Our goal is to spend as much picture time on our bride and groom as possible because, well,  you guys are the focus of the day! Your what it’s all about! On average family pictures take about 30 minutes on a wedding day, the longer your family picture list is the longer it takes. With that said, family pictures on a wedding day can quickly eat away at your own personal portrait time if you aren’t careful and your wedding day can quickly turn into a family photo shoot!

We never want our couples to miss out on desired family photos but we also don’t want them to miss out or take away from their own personal picture time either. So we often suggest to them to think of ways they can group family members together… for example instead of a picture with each individual aunt and uncle… is there a way you could group them… maybe a picture with all of your aunts and uncle together instead of multiple picture breakdowns. Or instead of a picture of you and your aunt and then you, your aunt and your groom… maybe keep it at just the two of you with your aunt included… and if a picture of just you and your aunt is needed grab it as a fun snapshot at the reception! We’ve even seen a growing trend of couples just doing one or two big group shots.

If you want to include cousins, aunts, and uncles, consider doing one big group shot on the dance floor. Maybe even make it a fun one with everyone striking a pose! If your family is anything like mine… a shot like this is more true to our family dynamic and honestly so much fun to look back on! Who says all your wedding family photos have to be formal anyways! Make family pictures your own we say!

Everyone’s family make up looks different… the good news is there is really no right or wrong way to go about family pictures on your wedding day!

If you’re not sure where to start on your family picture list here is our recommended list for all our couples.

Our recommended list for formal family pictures…

• Bride with Bride’s Mother and Father
• Bride and Mother of the Bride
• Bride and Father of the Bride
• Bride with Siblings
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Parents
• Bride, Groom, Bride’s Parents, and Bride’s Siblings
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Grandparents
• Groom with Groom’s Mother and Father
• Groom with Mother of the Groom
• Groom with Father of the Groom
• Groom with Siblings
• Groom, Bride and Groom’s Parents
• Groom, Bride, Groom’s Parents, and Grooms Siblings
• Groom and Bride with Groom’s Grandparents

We’re currently booking 2019 weddings and some early 2020 weddings. We would love to chat with you about your wedding day! Capture Thirteen Photography is based out of the Northeast Georgia area between Braselton and Gainesville, Georgia, serving the North Georgia areas and beyond! To view more from information on our wedding day investments click here. Or to check your wedding date, please fill out the form below!

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