Wedding Family Portraits

The wedding day is a fun and busy occasion. You’re surrounded by all of your family and closest friends making memories that last forever. Throughout the day we will be capturing all of your candid moments with others, but there’s one portion of the wedding day that we dedicate solely to capturing formal portraits with close family and friends.

Benefits of Preparing A Family Portrait List

Deciding whom to include in your family portrait session before the wedding day is important for a few reasons. The first reason being it gives you the opportunity to think of all of the different combinations of family that you would like captured the day of your wedding day. Putting together a list of all of the individual portraits that you would like helps ensure that you receive everything that you desire to have captured when it comes to your family portraits. This also takes the burden off of you the day of to remember who all you wanted portraits with regarding family and friends.

Putting in the work before the wedding day helps ensure you don’t leave anyone out by accident. Another pro to orchestrating your list prior to the big day is that it takes less time because we can call out names and run them through like an assembly line which gets you through the formal wedding portraits with your family and friends while getting you to the party much quicker!

It is important to note that a formal family portrait can take 3-5 minutes to set up due to waiting on family members to arrive to the portrait session area or setting up a large family portrait of 10 or more people. This means that just 12 portraits can take up to an hour if we don’t have complete cooperation from everyone on your list. We move as quickly as we can but it is important that all family members that you would like in your portraits are told ahead of time to stay close by and pay attention after the ceremony. We also suggest communicating with the family you wish to have in your portrait session beforehand and let them know to be mindful of the fact they are going to be photographed immediately after the ceremony. With that being said here are a few examples of the different combinations of formal family portraits to consider.

Unique Wedding Family Portraits

Bride + Bride’s Mother + Groom’s Mother

Bride + Groom’s Mother

Bride + Groom’s Mother + Groom’s Sister + Groom’s Maternal Grandmother

Bride + Groom’s Sisters

Bride + Bride’s Father + Groom’s Father

Bride + Groom’s Father

Bride + Bride’s Mother + Bride’s Sister

Bride + Bride’s Mother + Bride’s Sister + Bride’s Maternal Grandmother

Groom + Groom’s Mother + Bride’s Mother

Groom + Bride’s Mother

Groom + Groom’s Father + Groom’s Brother + Groom’s Paternal Grandfather

Groom + Groom’s Father + Groom’s Brother

Groom + Groom’s Father + Bride’s Father

Groom + Bride’s Father + Bride’s Brother

Groom + Bride’s Father

Bride + Bride’s Cousins

Groom + Groom’s Cousins

Bride + Groom + All Cousins

Bride + Bride’s Aunts and Uncles

Bride + Bride’s Aunts and Uncles + Bride’s Cousins

Groom + Groom’s Aunts and Uncles

Groom + Groom’s Aunts and Uncles + Groom’s Cousins

Bride + Groom + All Aunts and Uncles + All Cousins

It is important to prepare for the formal portrait session part of your wedding day. By preparing for these important photos, you can save time and minimize the stress of trying to remember your list. Putting together a wedding family portrait list of must haves helps us serve you better and gets you to the party much faster so you can enjoy the rest of your day!