Family pictures on a wedding day are important.

And we dare to say these pictures are even more important than the details.

What other occasion are you going to be at where everyone is going to be present and happy?

Luke & I understand how important it is to get pictures of all family members.  The pictures with your great grandmother, your brother, and of course all your cousins!

These are the pictures that will be framed and displayed on the mantle.  These are the pictures that will be used for Christmas Cards.

And of course these will be the ones your children will look at while you tell them stories of the generations before them.

We know weddings can be hectic.  We have witnessed hair & makeup running over, shoes going missing, people going missing and more!

These things can push the timeline behind and pictures are usually rushed and hurried along so that the couple can move on to the next thing.

Over this past year Luke & I have put a system together that works for us and helps us get all the family pictures that the bride & groom want in a timely and efficient manner.

Here are some tips that help us successfully achieve beautiful family formals quickly.

•  Communicate!!  The first thing we do with our couples is communicate with them.  We let them know that we will do the family formals right after the ceremony ( unless stated otherwise).  We tell them this early on so that they can appoint someone to help corral everyone together. We also let them know that we want to keep this time at 30mins the most.  Getting their guests to the cocktail hour/ reception is important to us.
• Announce!  We have the Officiant announce that family pictures will be taken right after the ceremony so we ask that everyone stays seated.
• Create A List!  We send out a form that has a list of about 10 family combinations.  We tell them to list names not just mom & dad.  Using names helps the process go so much faster.  The couples also can add on shots to fit them & their family.  We just let them know to keep it simple as we can always do more shots during the reception.
• Roles!  Because there are two of us it makes it easy for us to speed through the family list.  I will call names and pose while Luke shoots.  If you don’t have a second shooter don’t be afraid to grab a guest or bridal party member to help you call names.
• Be Flexible!  People will wander off and things won’t always go the way we planned.  And that is okay!  We just have to remember that we are there to serve the bride & groom and give them our very best.  Sometimes we have to think outside the box and change things up to best serve them.

With 16 weddings down and 5 more to go for 2015,  we feel that we have really grown in this area when it comes to weddings. We are able to approach this situation with confidence and swiftness.  We hope this helps & thank-you always for following along!!

Luke & Ash