The Complete Studio KH Wedding Guide
Section 9:
Family Formals
Let’s rustle up your families! Along with wedding party photos, this is the portion of the day when I arm myself with a specific shot list and go right down the line, keeping things easy + efficient while we snap these wedding day classics.
A starter list to build from as you develop your groupings
1) You + Your mom
2) You + Your dad
3) You + Your parents
4) Couple + Your parents
5) Couple + Your immediate family
6) You + Maternal Grandparents
7) Couple + Maternal Grandparents
8) You + Paternal Grandparents
9) Couple + Paternal Grandparents
10) Your parter + Mom
11) Your partner + Dad
12) Your partner + Their parents
13) Couple + Their parents
14) Couple + Their immediate family
15) Your partner + Maternal Grandparents
16) Couple + Maternal Grandparents
17) Your partner + Paternal Grandparents
18) Couple + Paternal Grandparents
After we’ve finished photographing through the list, we’ll add on those groups you may have missed during the planning process, time permitting.
A few tips to keep things running smoothly—
Please let me know if there are any delicate matters within your families that I should be aware of like death or divorce that may come up. We will also talk about this in our pre-wedding meeting.
If you have blended families, please be as specific as possible with the shot list. It’s easier to call out individual names and remove any ambiguity from terms like “sister” and “parents.”
Any non-mobile family members can be accommodated first, regardless of where they’re listed in the order. If our shooting area isn’t convenient for them, I’m happy to photograph these groups in a more easily accessible spot.
For the immediate family group shot, I typically include the spouses, fiancés, and any children you and your siblings have. Boy/girlfriends are a wild card and inclusion is up to you. (I mean, everything is up to you! These are all suggestions!)
Bethany + her parents. The formal poses are the main goal of family portraits, but the silly and the candid are always my favorites!
Family Tips, Continued
If your extended family is present at the tail end of our shooting, we can sneak them in as time permits. I typically like to reserve those extended groupings for cocktail hour to keep things calm and on track as we go into the ceremony. When the time does come to nab these, let’s delegate someone who knows every person we need—your mom? your dad?—so they can corral, you can keep socializing, and we only need to pull you away for a few minutes.
Does anyone in your family wear transition lenses? Let me know and we will try to grab these indoors so they’re not in sunglasses. When it comes to glasses, if you never see your loved one without them, then they should stay on. If it won’t look weird to ditch the glasses for these formal shots, then that gets my vote.
Planning on a church wedding? If traditional altar shots are your jam, please give me advance notice so I can bring the appropriate gear and adjust the timeline for applicable set-up. My preference is to utilize shady spots outdoors for a more natural look and feel, but I can accommodate your fam and their wishes wherever.