Part II – Making the Most of Your Wedding Portrait Experience

How much time you designate on your wedding day for portraits should be a direct reflection as to your expectation on how many photographs you would like. The more groupings you have and the number in each, will greatly affect how much time it will take to get everyone posed. If you have a “shot list”, designate someone (who won’t be in many of the portraits) to gather people and make sure everyone is present. I am not going to know who your Aunt Sue is. So when we call for the aunts and uncles shot (just as an example), I won’t know if she is missing or not.
Even brides that don’t necessarily want posed pictures, still request formal photos of themselves, bridal party, and parents & grandparents at minimum. You might not like posed photos all that much, but your parents & grandparents will. Take this into consideration, especially if they are footing the bill.
If you stay in one location for photos, and have one grouping/posing each you should plan for about 30 minutes. That is, unless you have 16 bridesmaid and 16 groomsman like a wedding I did recently (if that’s the case, you will need a lot more time). It can go a lot faster than this if everyone you want for pictures is already available and waiting for their turn.
Now the truth of the matter is…there is no magic formula to say….x number of images with this many people take x amount of time. Every photographer is different in the time they take & it relates back to their style.

16 Bridesmaids, 16 Groomsman

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Boston Celtics Kendrick Perkins Weds in Houston

Saturday evening Holly and I photographed Kendrick and Vanity’s wedding. It was truly a unique experience. I would love to share some pics, but you will have to wait a little while. There are no pictures attach at this time, check back in 4 weeks.

The ceremony and reception were held at the Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands. This was my first wedding there. The staff was fabulous & the venue was very elegant. Definitely one of nicest venues I have shot at. I look forward to going back!
The bride’s gown was from Priscilla of Boston . Baby blue heels by Gucci.

The bride rode into the ceremony in on a horse drawn carriage with her father. It was the biggest wedding party I have ever photographed….17 bridesmaids and 17 groomsman.
The reception was decorated beautifully with linens provided by The Linen House. Jan Cancila, President of The Linen House, runs the column Houston Bridal Scene Examiner
Both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald published a couple of my photos from the wedding on Tuesday.

Grooms Ring

Engagement Ring and Bands

NBA Player and Fellow Groomsman dances in Memory of MJ

Wedding Cake

16 Bridesmaids and 16 Groomsman

Bride's Chair

Groom's Chair

Something blue by Gucci

Groom and Groomsman

A Royal Affair

An enchanted entrance

Making the Most of your Wedding Portrait Experience on Your Wedding Day – Part I

In my commitment to blog on a more regular basis, I thought this topic would be great as a starter series.
Making the most of your wedding portrait experience. This topic is going to specifically deal with wedding portraits and not any other aspect of the wedding (we can cover something related to those topics at a later date).
This is going to be my intro entry for the topic. Over the next week I will cover tips and tools brides…and other photographers can use to make the portrait experience at weddings a happy and smooth one.
Most often referred to as Formal Portraits or Wedding Portraits, it’s the time at the wedding that the bride and groom take to pose for photographs of themselves, their bridal party, their family, etc.
When talking to brides, it seems that since the trendy thing to do these days is to focus on candids and photojournalistic shots, formal photographs are not “important.” Nothing can be more true from the opposite. While many of my clients walk in stating something to the effect of, “I don’t like posed photos. I love candids, capturing the moment, etc.” These clients have the best intentions in mind & truely do love these types of shots. The ugly truth is that the candid/photojournalistic shots make great 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 images. They aren’t exactly what you are going to hang on your wall at home. Our big print orders and albums are composed of our posed formal portraits and artistic images (that were either posed or directed).
Think about this when you are making out your timeline for your wedding day. If you are going to plan on putting these images in your album and/or know these types of images you will display in your home, you will want to make sure that you allot enough time for them. How much time, when is it best to do this? Those are topics that are coming up in the next week, so stay tuned. Feel free to leave a comment in the meantime!

Mary