This blog post aims to help you learn essential tips for having a seamless, streamlined experience for taking wedding-party photos on your wedding day.

This is a very similar approach to family photos, but can be tailored more to the group’s overall dynamic with the couple.

This blog post offers some wonderful tips for setting expectations with your group about the wedding day – specifically when and where eech wedding party member will need to be 100% “photo-ready” by! By sharing what everyone can anticipate, we can help ensure everything goes smoothly, capture beautiful photos, and create a truly fun-filled experience for everyone involved.

What Your Photographer Can Capture

A great wedding photographer is going to make sure we cover all bases, no matter what the relationsip dynamic of each individual person in the wedding party may be with the couple. If you’re curious to know what this means in terms of curating a shot list, this is what most wedding photographer’s default to, to keep this streamlined for the couple:

• 1:1 photos – these are called “individuals” sometimes, in the wedding industry, in case myself or my second shooter call it out on your wedding day! Basically, these are photos that are taken of the bride with each of her bridesmaids, and the groom with each of his groomsmen. We typically capture these when each person is especially significant on each side of the wedding party, and when the couple wants each person to feel included!
• Bride’s Group Photos – these are photos where the bride is photographed in photos with her entire bride squad together. These may range from formal to casual, or anywhere in between, depending on your group dynamic!
• Groom’s Group Photos – same thing, on the other side of the wedding party! The groom photographed with everyone on their side of the wedding party in different ways. We love variation!
• Combined Wedding Party Group Photos – these are photos that are taken with the entire wedding party – the couple, bridespeople, and grooms people all photographed together as an entire group. We will usually start with the more editorial-styled photos, then evolve to more candid, authentic, casual and fun photos to cap the photo-taking experience!

Your Photographer’s Approach

We’re fully aware that don’t want to spend too much time in front of the camera. Trust me, we don’t want the day to feel like a huge photoshoot either! The last thing we want for you, is to get what’s known as “smile fatigue,” or feel like the photo-taking experience is super posed, forced, and drawn-out. Right?!

A very experienced wedding photographer will make every effort to capture these photos beautifully, while keeping efficiency top of mind too. Because these are usually close friends and loved ones together in one place, before or after ceremony, we want to help make sure this experience feels fun and engaging, and can bbe a memorable experience on your wedding day!

More Wedding Party Members = More Moving Parts

To be totally honest, the bigger the group, the more there is to track and manage throughout the course of not only wedding planning process and the lead up to the big day, but logistically on the wedding day as well.

Even before we talk about capturing photos with your wedding party, there may be a hair and makeup schedule that involves some scheduling tetris with a hair and makeup timeline. That, and making sure that your bridesmaids remember to bring their bouquets for photos.

Same goes for anyone who may be on a groom’s side – potentially rememberiing where and when to be photo-ready by, and remembering to bring pocket squares, the right-colored socks, and possibly boutonnieres if-applicable.

After all, there is a lot of investment that goes into all of these details! We’ll discuss towards the end how you can communicate ahead of time, set expectations with each wedding party member, and do so through email, tet threads, and supportive communication from your wedding photographer.

Keeping Things Fun & Efficient

When do these photos start to become time-consuming? We always aim to make this experience super fun, capture things efficiently, and to finish on a super positive, high note! With larger wedding parties, though, there tend to be more moving parts, especially after some drinks, which might mean guests are a little less focused, no matter how engaging we are and the clear direction that we give. This is where the couple can really shine in helping our photo team keep everyone engaged—you have the biggest influence on everyone! I can’t wait to kick things off with some beautiful, formal shots and then transition to a really fun ending!

First Look vs No First Look: How this Directly Impacts Wedding Party Photos

As you might have noticed through the wedding planning process, the decision to do your first look before ceremony, or to see each other for the first time during ceremony directly impacts your wedding-day experience, and what vendors need to plan to do any given point during your day.

When a couple decides to do a first look during their wedding day, before ceremony, it does unlock the ability for you to take all of your. wedding party photos beforehand. Why? Because the couple will have seen each other, they have the ability to take any and all photos that requires them to be photographed together.

When a couple decides to forego seeing each other before ceremony, and instead makes the decision to see each other for the first time at the altar, any and all photos of the couple photographed together can only logistically happen during cocktail hour, or immediately following the ceremony’s end before the reception events begin.

Depending on how cooperative your wedding party is in this case, it can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to finish any and all group photos with the couple together during cocktail hour.

That is the reality, because cocktail hour tends to be a fun, social frenzy, where it is tempting to want to socialize, mingle, and for people to wander. If you’re curious to learn how to manage any formal photos after ceremony, I have a separate blog post dedicated to this specifically!

Communication & Setting Expectations is Essential

Once it’s the week-of your wedding, everyone is flying in from all over, reuniting, and getting super excited. about the big day! With that comes curiosity, and some folks who like to plan ahead and know what to expect.

No matter what, whether through that wedding party group text thread, email chain, or whatever’s been working as the best mode of group contact through your MOH and Best Man/ Person, sending out the details before wedding week is such a great move. This will keep things stress-free, especially when you work with your photographer to finalize when and where people should be “photo-ready” for wedding party photos.

Collaborate with Your Photographer for The Communication Gameplan

A great, experienced photographer will absolutely. make this easier for you. We want to share the details, and help you best understand when your favorite people should be “photo-ready,” by, and what to expect.

I’m excited to share a detailed and handy template that I love putting together for my couples about two weeks before their special day! Once I’ve confirmed the overall timeline with their event planning team, I ensure it’s all set for them. Just a quick note, there are two different versions of communication- whether the couple decides to have a first look before or during the ceremony- so be sure to check these out:

WEDDING PARTY PHOTOS (When the couple is NOT doing a First Look UNTIL ceremony):

“Bride’s Wedding Party Members: Please be photo-ready by XX:XX AM/ PM for Wedding Party Photos at X location. This means that your hair and makeup has been finished and touched up, and you are fully ready in ceremony wedding attire. We will be taking a portion of photos with the bride before guest arrival for ceremony. Immediately following ceremony, please stay to complete the remaining wedding party group photos, with both sides photographed with the couple all together, before being released to cocktail hour.”

“Groom’s Wedding Party Members: Please be photo-ready by XX:XX AM/ PM for Wedding Party Photos at X location. This means that you are fully ready in ceremony wedding attire, with ties already tied (if applicable), and boutinneires in place (if applicable). We will be taking a portion of photos with the groom before ceremony. Immediately following ceremony, please stay to complete the remaining wedding party group photos, with both sides photographed with the couple all together, before being released to cocktail hour.”

WEDDING PARTY PHOTOS (When couple IS doing a First Look BEFORE ceremony):

“”Bride’s Wedding Party Members: Please be photo-ready by XX:XX AM/ PM for Wedding Party Photos at X location. This means that your hair and makeup has been finished and touched up, and you are fully ready in ceremony wedding attire. Our goal at the couple’s request is to have all wedding party photos captured before guest arrival for ceremony.”

“”Groom’s Wedding Party Members: Please be photo-ready by XX:XX AM/ PM for Wedding Party Photos at X location. This means that you are fully ready in ceremony wedding attire, with ties already tied (if applicable), and boutinneires in place (if applicable). We will be taking a portion of photos with the groom before ceremony. Our goal at the couple’s request is to have all wedding party photos captured before guest arrival for ceremony.”

All in All, Preparation is the Key to Success

When your overall event timeline is finalized, sharing the details with the people you love most, ahead of time, will save day-of confusion of headache. Utilizing your MOH, Best Man, or a trusted wedding party member to help share with people what to expect will be super helpful!

Utilize your wedding photographer to help you better understand when you and your wedding party needs to be ready by for photos, and whether or not any wedding party members will need to stick behind during cocktail hour to take photos with you/ your partner.

Taking these steps before wedding week helps “future-you” enjoy a stress-free experience. Instead of making last-minute decisions and sending countless texts to your wedding party, you’ll be able to focus on what truly matters—being fully present on your special day!