TOG posed photos time question

Alot will depend on how quickly the groups can be organized,, with the help of ushers. It could take anywhere from 45 minutes, to over an hour. So many factors are involved,, how many in each group,, making sure people are expected to be in multiple shots do not wander off, delaying things,, etc. To be honest, 20 is quite alot. I usually say plan for a bout 8 group shots after for some time after the ceremony. Before the ceremony, group shots with just the bride and her parents/possibly grandparents and bridesmaids are taken care of, as well as for the groom and his immediate side with his best man/ushers. This just leaves the formals of B&G both sets of parents, siblings, grandparents, extended family, hens/stags, complete wedding party and the group shot. It's all in the organization. Hope this helped, lol.

Teri

8 group shots, ok thanks! Glad I asked. I didn't think about pictures being able to get done while we are seperate before the ceremony!

OH gave me a massive list of the family members he wants on pics, mine is just me and my mum and my bridesman!! And one of us with his dad and my mum. After that I just want natural/spontaneous ones of me and OH mingling.

The problem is his dad and his mum are divorced and OH wants his sisters and parents and grandparents to be on some formal shots, but his dad and mum will not be in the photos together, so everything is doubled up

Thank you Teri, I feel clearer now and can work on our timings from this.

No problem, always happy to help I have done a few of these wedding things, LOL. Be sure to explain the groom's family situation to your photographer, just to make sure he/she doesn't try to get the groom's parents together accidently. If you are really concerned that your H2B is planning too many group shots and they will take over the day,, tell him that you have been adviced to plan for it to take up to 5 minutes per group shot. What eats up the time, is finding people needed for the shots,, and recollecting those who wander off to the bar, lol. When you start to add up 5 minutes per group,, it can really eat into the day. Best of luck

We were told to allow around 3 mins per group shot, and told that it might be helpful to have someone on hand doing the "round up" of people and ushering them over as the pictures will be 50metres from where the guests will be standing on the church drive.

You need to sit down with your photographer and go through everything with him, he'll be able to advise.

Mine worked out a schedule based on the photos we wanted, but also cleverly scheduled so we move the children and some oldies as less as pssible, because they are the ones who slow it down with children running off to play and with my old aunties not being too steady and on two sticks these days.

I proabbly have double that number scheduled and I was told between about 20-30minutes.

Teri_m Is correct in saying to allow 5 mins per group shot, as you have to allow for guests wondering off, going to the bar/toilet just as you need them. I also work to around 7 key group shots and allow 30 mins to do them in. Theres little point in rushing the job at hand as groups are notorious for guests not looking in the right direction or blinking so a little time is best spent in getting the job done right.

When looking at the list you have see what you can cut down and what you would realisticly want from the shot. Theres no point in having 2 groups of 4 (lets say brides family) if the 1 group of 8 will do.

We had 14 formal group shots and it took roughly 45 minutes. This was our list:

1. bride parents
2. bride parents and bride sister
3. bride parents, bride grandparents, bride sister
4. groom parents
5. groom parents, groom sister and husband
6. groom parents, groom grandparents, groom sister and husband
7. bride parents, bride grandparents, bride sister, groom parents, groom grandparents, groom sister and husband
8. bride sister, groom sister
9. groomsmen and bridesmaids
10. groom's side of the family
11. bride's side of the family
12. bride's work buddies
13. Kilts
14. Everyone

Hope that helps!

Thanks everyone, that's really useful!

We will go through it all with our TOG nearer the time, but before we changed our ceremony time (if we do) we wanted to see how long shots might take. We were told allow 1.5 hours but we don't want to take that long.

Based on the info here I have worked out we can get a lot of the OH family shots done in the time before the ceremony, plus me with my bridesman and mum.

After the ceremony it leaves us with about 8 shots of me and OH and the various family members. At the most it is only me and OH with 6 others, so the moving around shouldn't be a problem too much, it isn't like it is a massive group. 2 grannies, 1 10 yr old, so nothing too horrendous logisitcally. Roughly I expect that will take 30-40 mins, and then maybe another 20-30 of me and OH when we go off to the water garden away from the guests.

I haaaate formal posed photos and originally didn't want any, just one of me and H2B. I was strong-armed into having more, so now we've got a list of 8:

Bride and Groom
Bride, Groom and Bride's Parents
Bride, Groom and Groom's Parents
Bride, Groom and Bride's Grandparents
Bride, Groom and Groom's Grandparents
Bride, Groom and Groom's Grandparents (other set)
Bride and Bridesmaids
Groom and Best Man

I'm really hoping it won't take longer than 15 minutes because we'll have an hour's journey to get to the reception venue and I'll be hungry by then! I have usherettes to order people around and I'll have my bridesmaids under strict instructions so we can just get the photos and go.

I'm sure Teri will be delighted to hear that we'll be leaving as much time as our photographers tell us to for the images we want!

3 minutes seems slight to me. Just think what you can actually achieve in 3 minutes. Throw in some chatting, some blinking, the odd pervy uncle misplaced hand, the drink held in front of someone's face etc and the time has whipped past.

LMAO, CB, your photographers must adore you so much I can only dream that there will be an odd pervy uncle at your wedding, LOL. Make sure to designate one!

I am on facebook to much, I keep wanting to click on a 'like' button, LOL. Pandora, sounds like you are right on track

It'll be my FIL you should watch out for, Teri. He's got the 'cheeky bottom pat' perfected!

Without covering what's already been said if your photographer is there for bridal prep shots as well you can have the bridesmaids + bride, mum + bride, father + bride etc all down there. Then if the tog goes ahead to the church / venue they can grabe the best man and men before you arrive.

There's some of them done already.

With the 'formal' formals then usually there's a big group shot of everyone, then just family, then just the brides side etc.... breaking down into smaller and smaller groups. That way not everyone is hanging around (and also not diverting peoples attention).

With the assistance of a couple of ushers I've turned out 12 sets of formals in 25 minutes. But that's assuming everyone is bright and alert. Sometimes uncles will already be half cut and nans go for a wander lol.

Some also insist on holding their Clinton cards carrier bags in the shot too and take a little persuading to part with them.

Bloody hell, didn't even think of any pervy uncles! OH has a weird fake 'uncle' who brushed past me and my mates at our engagement do a few too many times for our liking, must make sure he is positioned far away from me (even we even have him in any of our formal photos)

?

Afetr the ceremony I think we would have one of everybody present as it seems standard, though doesn't appeal to me at all. Then just:

me and OH with his dad

me and OH and my mum

me and him and his dad and my mum

me OH his mum

me OH his mum my mum

me OH his sisters and nephew

me and him and grannies

So maybe we could even shave it down to 30 mins, particularly if the grannies are the sort of stay put ones, and I know the nephew will behave perfectly.

I am really unhappy at the thought of endless posed photos, mainly because I mess them up shutting my eyes, so if it goes on and on it will be down to me! I would much rather that the TOG get some nice natural ones of me and OH in our venues gardens, esp as that is the only amount of time we will be sort of alone together all day, and then natural snapped ones of us with our various relatives throughout the rest of the day.

I guess an hour is optimistic really, which leads me to thinking our ceremony time could do with tweaking.

We have decided to go for a reverse order on the photos.... do the group of everyone and then the families in shrinking order.....because i don't want a crowd of people waiting on me and staring the hope is that they will wander off and start heading to the reception venue...

It's the best way to do it!

If it doesn't appeal to you, and your OH either doesn't mind or doesn't want one, then don't have one. We're not going to. Coordinating 100 people is difficult and in all likelihood there won't be a single photo where everyone is looking in the right direction, smiling, and visible. Fixable with Photoshop, of course, but seriously... it's your wedding, so if you don't want it then don't have it!

I really hate people taking photos of me, really really hate posing for them. Which is why we found a tog who specialises in reportage photography, and why we will not be spending hours on the photos. As long as you get photos of yourself/ves with the people you want to during the day, does it matter whether they are the formal ones or not? I'm planning on just going up to my tog during quiet periods in the day and saying "can you just get a shot of me and person x please?"

Always the large group shot first,, just make sure after that you don't lose your ushers to the bar,, you will be needing them to help with the rest of the group shots! Also make sure the parents of both bride and groom don't go wandering off, they are often spirited away by guests who want to chat, lol.

That is exactly what we did, big group first, then family group, then all the boys, all the girls.. the non-immediate family members and friends were then allowed to head to the reception and we got a few more posed shots with the bridal party and immediate family. Then everyone to the reception venue and we stopped off at another location for a few of just us. By the time we arrived, everyone was settled and we made our entrance!

Our photos took about an hour once we had all finished chatting outside the church and got ourselves sorted!

I suppose part of me thinks one day would I really regret not having the traditional formal shots, esp for mums and grans who we know will want to have some copies. May skip the usual one of everyone, stick to a few of parents, sisters, grans and be done with it. The rest of them I will leave to the TOG as she is lovely and does reportage as well, I love her work and she is clearly flexible on formality.

TOGs is an hour reasonable to get about 6 formal shots of no more than 6 people, and then some privately of me and OH together?

More than enough time to do it twice over.

As Chris mentions, some of your 20 shots may be gettable and the bridal prep and time before the ceremony.

If you really want to have any group shots done quickly, I would recommend doing them immediately you exit the ceremony. There is a technique I learnt from an ex BIPP President on how to do group shots relatively quickly, yet still do them well. ( The record is finishing all the main bridal party variations before the last person exited the church....some 12 shots done in under 5 minutes.) The reason for the speed is that the key people are the first to exit after the couple and keeping this group of people together saves a shedload of individual searching if these are photographed later.

This all allows more time for more relaxed photography.

Peter

Speak to your photographer, and let them take the lead

Example, I can shoot "everyone" and whittle the groups down to the B&G in a very short time, because I have a methodology. If you can look at your group shots and see how your requested ones slot in with the way your photographer works, you will probably end up with more "interim" shots in the mix too, and be done in less time to boot. Whats even better about this approach is that you end up with just a coupe of "must haves" that dont fit in the box, which the photographer can just slot in in the best moment

My issue with overly prescriptive lists of shots is they never flow well, and the moment is lost, and the grumpiness the waiting around causes shows in the photo's. No on likes standing around waiting for photographs, any decent photographer knows this and will have a tried and tested system for "dealing with the majority of the shots" with very little fuss and hanging about

Slight thread drift, but relevant to the question.

Is there an efficient way to deal with divorced parents shots... making important people happy without having to duplicate all the parent shots so that the divorcees aren't in the same photos as neither would actually want a copy with the other in (if that makes sense...)! Don't think it would be exactly politic to keep swapping mum and stepmum in the posed family shots!

It will vary from circumstance to circumstanc and if the divorceees are amicable or not

They will be on their best behaviour... or else.. Not exactly amicable, but they communicate when required...

Add in the complication that I consider my step mum the mother of the bride, but would prefer not to rub this fact in to my Mum on the day - neither will be "helping" me get ready, and I'm leaving from a hotel as family homes on the other side of the country!

Again, it depends on circumstances, although if possible to achieve, I would spend the extra couple of minutes getting the variables of parents to avoid ANY isues when the images are viewed after the wedding. Beleive me, people get upset quite easily if one couple is seen to be highlighted ahead of another.

IF the biological parents will appear together in a photograph with your and oh, I would do this AND also include a shot of you with the new partners. I once had an incredible 11 parents at one wedding, so anything is achieveable if the issues can be put on the back burner for the day and you have a sensitive tog. This way no couple feel excluded and all sides are satisfied. Naturally, I would avoid standing divorced couples next to each other in any photograph.(unless explicitly advised that they were fine with this)

hth

Peter