Family Photos | Wedding Tips | Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer

Family pictures are important.  Your wedding day is probably one of the few times in your life that you will have this particular group of family all in the same place at the same time.  You definitely want to get photos of them all together.

That being said, as you probably know from many family parties, gathering everyone together can be a challenge if it’s not planned out.  So, how do you avoid the chaos?  First, decide how large you want the groups to be (just immediate family? aunts and uncles? all of the cousins?)  Then, let them all know ahead of time (at the rehearsal dinner or the week before the wedding) when and where the family photos will be taken.  We recommend scheduling this immediately following the ceremony if you’re not doing a “First Look” and about an hour before the ceremony begins if you are.

Lastly, select a few close family members (preferably ones that don’t also happen to be in the wedding party), to help round up the family on the day so that you don’t have to.  We will talk about and lay out a full family photo list when we meet for your final consultation, but it’s good to think about this prior. That way, at the wedding, we can rattle off the names of the family members you would like in the picture to make sure they are all there. I like to know all the family photos you would like and make sure that you don’t forget that important picture you wanted with your great aunt.

Now I won’t deceive you and say family photos are the most fun portion of your wedding day. I can almost promise they are not. However, they are some of the first photos our couples run to when life doesn’t always turn out as we hoped and those photos suddenly have more meaning and are more treasured. So Aaron and I will try to make family photos run a smoothly as possible while you two simply smile.

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