Family photos before or after the ceremony with the newlyweds can be a bit of a scrabble if not organized properly. If the cocktail hour is in the same venue location as the ceremony site, family and guests will naturally gravitate towards the food and drinks while the couples take photos. With so much excitement for the family reunion at your weddings, you won’t want Uncle Tom or cousin Vinny missing out on your wedding day family photos.
Here is a helpful tip on how to make your pre/post ceremony family photo session run smoothly and organized. Your photographer(s) and coordinator(s) will thank you!

Create a group shot list of each family members and wedding party you’ll want to have in your portraits along with all their names. We recommend our couples to use our sample outline that we send our couples 30 days out when arranging their group photo list.

GROUP A : Bride/Groom/Parents of the Bride (List out everyone’s names under the grouping)

GROUP C: Bride/Groom/Parents of the Groom and groom’s siblings

GROUP D: Bride/Groom/Combined with all Wedding Party members

We also recommend that immediate families, grandparents, uncles, aunties, and cousins photos with the couples get done first. That way they can go out and enjoy cocktail hour with the other guests. If you’re planning to take some wedding party photo prior to the ceremony, you can still have the wedding party be added in the group listing after all the family photos have concluded.

If you both couple have a large family, we recommend creating a group photo list per each side of the family. Don’t forget to add the combined family and new families on your list.

We also recommend that immediate families, grandparents, uncles, aunties, and cousins photos with the couples get done first. That way they can go out and enjoy cocktail hour with the other guests. If you’re planning to take some wedding party photo prior to the ceremony, you can still have the wedding party be added in the group listing after all the family photos have concluded.

If you both couple have a large family, we recommend creating a group photo list per each side of the family. Don’t forget to add the combined family and new families on your list.

The way we help manage the family photo session day of:

• A | We email the final list out to your photographer 7 days out.
• B | We inform your family and wedding party at rehearsal to stand by after ceremony for a family/ group shot session.  
• C| We attached a copy of your finalized group photo list to our onsite manifest (aka wedding day playbook)
• D | Our assigned PSW team member will be dedicate to call up each groups by names for their formal photo with the couple.

The worst feeling is to look back on your wedding day and think, you forgot to get formal family photo with your favorite aunt Susie and uncle Marty that came in from Michigan. Count on us, we got you covered!