How We Organize Family Formals {Education for Photographers}

How we organize family formals indiana wedding photography indianapolis wedding photographerIf you have ever photographed a wedding, you know just how quickly family formals can get out of hand. I think it’s about time we share how we organize family formals on a wedding day! With tons of groupings to get through, family members running late, Uncle Bob hovering over you, family members requesting new groupings on the spot, and a very limited time frame, family formals are one of the most stressful parts of any wedding day! But they don’t have to be. After shooting more than one hundred weddings over the years, we have figured out a system to get multiple photos of each grouping in under 15 minutes! We struggled with family formals at first, and we don’t want to see anyone else make the same stressful mistakes we did! Are you ready to impress the socks off your clients by learning how we organize family formals?!

How We Organize & Manage Family Formals

This is the very first step in creating an easy, stress-free family formals experience for your clients, your client’s family, and yourself ! A few weeks before the wedding, we send our brides a sample family formals list along with a few details she’ll need to know when creating her list:

– If her and her groom are not sharing a “first look”, all family formals will need to take place after the ceremony. To them, this means that they will have to spend more time taking photos before they can go to the reception, and because of that, their formals list will need to be short in order to keep the formals time frame to a minimum. We recommend a maximum of 20 total groupings for formals taking place after the ceremony. And a maximum of 30 groupings for formals taking place before the ceremony.

– When creating their list, they should considering the amount of time each grouping will take. We let our brides know that each grouping will take about 2 minutes, but the larger, entire family groupings will take much longer. But because we reorganize her family formals list in a certain order, it actually only takes us 15-60 seconds per grouping. Now, when the formal photos go smoother and quicker than anticipated, your clients and family members will be extra thrilled!

How we organize family formals indiana wedding photography indianapolis wedding photographer

How We Organize & Manage Family Formals

B&G with Bride’s Immediate Family
(Parents, Siblings, Grandparents, Nieces, Nephews)
B&G with Bride’s Parents
B&G with Bride’s Siblings
Bride with her Parents
Bride with Mom, Bride with Dad
B&G with Bride’s Grandparents
B&G with both sets of Parents
B&G with Groom’s Immediate Family
(Parents, Siblings, Grandparents, Nieces, Nephews)
B&G with Groom’s Parents
B&G with Groom’s Siblings
Groom with his Parents
Groom with Mom, Groom with Dad
B&G with Groom’s Grandparents

 

How We Organize & Manage Family Formals

We send that exact family formals listed above along with instructions for our clients to replace the relationship of each family member (parent, sibling, etc…) with the family members name. It’s much more effective to call out names, rather than call out relationships because people respond immediately to hearing their names! It’s also important for your clients to know that they can add or remove any groupings they’d like!

Oftentimes, our brides not only want photos of her & the groom with each grouping, but they also want photos of just the bride with her family, and just the groom with his family. If this is the case, the bride might fill out our list, but then also make a list for the same groupings without the groom and again without the bride, making her list 3x longer than it needs to be! Instead of going through all three sets of groupings, we will reorganize the groupings to look like this:

“1. B&G with Mom & Dad (Sally & John)
2. Groom steps out (aka just bride with mom and dad)”

Once we have that grouping set, the groom will take just a second or two to walk out of the frame. Which means we won’t have to spend any more time redoing that grouping later when the bride wants a photo with just her and her family. We do the same for the groom’s side! B&G with Parents, bride steps out! Saving just a minute or two might not seem like much, but these minutes add up quick!

How we organize family formals indiana wedding photography indianapolis wedding photographer

How We Organize & Manage Family Formals

The final portion of our organization process is to reorder the groupings so they start with the brides family and go from largest to smallest. It’s more simple to remove people from groupings than it is to add people! If you have the largest group set up first, all you’ll have to do is slowly begin taking family members out until its down to the final few, instead of having someone in one photo, and then out the next, and then in another photo, and out the next! Once the bride’s formals are complete, we will start again with the groom’s side! Our reorganized list would look something like this:

1. B&G with Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother (Sally, John, Kara, Kyle)
2. Kara & Kyle step out (aka B&G with just mom and dad)
3. John & Groom step out (aka just bride & mom)

It might take a little planning at first, and it might take a little time getting used to organizing with this system, but it will be time well spent when your family formal sessions become a well oiled machine!

How We Organize & Manage Family Formals

It’s the wedding day and formals are starting in one minute! How do you get the ball rolling?! All of the family members have arrived and are waiting to begin! This will likely be the first time you are meeting most of your client’s family, and because first impressions mean so much, starting off on a good note is key!

-Tanner and I begin by introducing ourselves! Your clients family will immediately feel a little more comfortable around you and your second shooter!

-We follow by genuinely thanking everyone for the time! We understand that not everyone likes having their photos taken, so we want them to know that we appreciate them being here!

-Now that everyone has had a chance to feel out the vibe, Tanner and I will move on to briefly setting expectations. We’ll explain our process; “When you hear your name, join us for a photo! You’ll stay in that grouping until we specifically tell you to step out for the next one! Easy peasy!”

– Most of your client’s family members are probably wondering how long this will take. So it’s important to kindly explain that if you can have their undivided attention, it will only take 20 minutes! Over estimate the amount of time if you aren’t sure or want to extra cushion time!

How we organize family formals indiana wedding photography indianapolis wedding photographer

How We Organize & Manage Family Formals

We begin family formals by placing the bride and groom first! Tanner stands off to the side and kindly but firmly calls names on the list. Sometimes it can get a little rowdy during family formals, especially if they have a talkative family. Remember that the louder you have to be when calling out names, the more positive of an inflection you need to have in order to come across as friendly! If you don’t have a second shooter with you, have the Maid of Honor call the names for you! She’ll love that she gets an extra chance to help!

As we go down the list, we make sure to take at least 3 different photos of each grouping! We want to give our clients as many photos with their family as possible! As the groupings get smaller and more intimate, we will take additional photos with slightly different posing as well! Our workflow during family formals would look like this:

-Full length horizontal, Smiling at camera (must have)
-Full length vertical, Smiling at camera (must have)
-Half length horizontal, Smiling at camera (must have)
-Half/full length horizontal, Giggling at each other (optional for immediate family)
-Half/full length vertical, Kissing on cheek (optional for parents & grandparents)

How we organize family formals indiana wedding photography indianapolis wedding photographer

How We Organize & Manage Family Formals

Now that you have a system in place, you can go into family formals confident, excited, and in control! Family formals do not have to be something you dread! It can be another opportunity to impress your clients AND your clients family members! They will love you for being organized and efficient! By having these systems, your clients will be able to go into the ceremony or reception relaxed and happy all because you made your client’s family feel comfortable, well taken care of, and appreciated!

We truly hope our system works well for you, but some photographers might find that they don’t love our approach as much as we do! And that’s okay! You can still take the principal of creating a system and implement it into your own business! Good luck and get ready to wow the socks off your clients!