When to take the Pictures?

[akw94]

Everyone else''s threads seem to inspire me these days. I was talking to my mom about pictures and realized that I''m getting a little confused.
We decided to do pics before the ceremony. So now I can''t figure out, what pics are those? Are they just bridal party pics? What about immediate family that''s not in the bridal party (like my brother''s fiance and his kids or my step-brothers and their wives and kids)? Do I have them come early and take those photos too or do I just do those during the reception? Part of the reason we''re taking pics before is b/c I don''t want my guests to have to sit around and wait while we''re gone for 30min. to 1hr taking pics.
The ceremony and reception are at the same place so I''d rather take them before and then enjoy my reception. But I''m unsure about having people who aren''t in the bridal party pics to come early. Is that weird for them or is before the appropriate time for all immediate family?
Then, what about extended family... aunts, cousins, etc.. Do they come early too or we just take them during the reception? I would like a photo or two of all of my family and all of his and possibly all of ours together but to ask aunts and cousins to come early doesn''t seem to make sense.

Oh, and when I say come early, our general timeframe is before pics start at 10:30 to approx. 11:30, ceremony starts at 12, reception from 12:30 to 4:30.

HELP Please!

 

[jcrow]

we did bridal party pics before the ceremony. girls separately from the boys that way i didn't see fi before the walk down the aisle.
immediate family (parents & grandparents) also took pics with us. after the ceremony, we stayed in the church and took formal pics. more family (aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family, etc). families together. bridal party together.

 

[kimberlina13]

Ditto to what Jcrow said. Do as many as you can before the ceremony. We''re doing all the formal family pictures at the church, and then doing all the fun bridal party pics at the reception area. But, the way my church is, they give us an hour and a half before hand and only about 45 minutes after the ceremony. So before the ceremony, I will have my fiance take all the family pics on his side and then switch out and do my side.

 

[basil]

Disclaimer: My wedding is over a year away and I may not know of which I speak.

I think what we''re leaning towards is family pics before the ceremony. Me, my bridesmaids, my ''rents, my brother, my grandmothers, fiance and his fam, in various combos before the ceremony, but me and fiance separated. After the ceremony, the formals of everyone together. Substantial time allowed for semi-candid pics of me and fiance frolicking in the gardens, etc. during cocktail hour. Cause that''s what I care about most, and what my photographer specializes in.

I wouldn''t think that your brother and his family/aunts/uncles/cousins would mind coming early for pictures even if they aren''t in the bridal party, as long as it''s not a ridiculously long amount of time. Ask your photog how long he/she expects pre-ceremony pics to take based on what you want, and base your timeline on that. And just let the involved people know personally with advance notice.

 

[So_happy]

Here was our timeline (yes, WAS....we''ve since decided to flip it and not see eachother before now) with a ceremony start time of 5pm and reception start time of 7pm. Ceremony and reception site are 45 minutes apart. Caterer suggested to bump our ceremony BACK a 1/2 hour as a buffer so now it''s at 5 instead of 5:30 and I''m so happy I listened to her. It helps ease my mind even now that we aren''t seeing eachother before the ceremony:

Pics of just FI and I: 3 - 3:15
Pics including bridal party: 3:15 - 3:30
Pics including immediate family: 3:30 - 3:45
Travel to ceremony: 4-4:45
Have ceremony: 5-5:30
More pics: 5:30 - 6:00
Travel to reception: 6 - 6:45
Reception: 7 - 11

Keep in mind, our photographers are known for being super fast at what they do and they do beautiful work so whatever works! It saves us time I''d ask your photog how long they expect thier shoots to take. Also notice, FI and I will have a full 1/2 hour after the ceremony to take MORE pics which is devine I love that idea. Lastly, notice that guests not included in the photo sessions will probably have a 1/2 hour wait until they can get into the reception venue. I don''t love that this will happen BUT to remediate it, we are actually not going to push people on so fast from the ceremony. We''ll let them linger a bit longer so they have less time waiting on the other end. And, if luck should have it, we may not be completely on schedule anyway so things probably will end more by 5:45/6 anyway. I''m counting on things not going as planned

(too many people involved for it NOT to I think

)

What do you think? What do you have thus far for a timeline? Wanna share?

 

[snlee]

We took bride and groom pictures before the ceremony. Then pictures with family and guests after our ceremony. We didn''t have a bridal party. In your case, since your reception starts right after your ceremony, I''d take pictures with your bridal party and immediate family before the ceremony.

 

[janinegirly]

am i the only one doing pics after the ceremony?

we have an early ceremony (noon) and reception doesn''t start till 5pm. so we have the time. plus i don''t want to see FI until I''m walking down the aisle..

 

[KimberlyH]

We took all of our pictures before the ceremony, including those with family. My BIL brought my nephew a bit late so as to not make it too long of an evening for him. We didn't have a bridal party so that made it easier. We started pictures at 5:45, the ceremony began at 7 and we had the rest of the night to just spend time with our guests.

 

[Pandora II]

I''m doing pics at home before the ceremony just of me, and me and my father.

Then the photographer will go to the venue about 15 minutes ahead of me and take some of FI and his team. My mother will aim to arrive 5 minutes before to make sure everyone is inside and ready before I get there.

Then photos at the ceremony - I really want the moment of first seeing FI as I''m walking down the aisle, so I wouldn''t want photos with him beforehand.

Main batch of photos will be after the ceremony during the 2.5 hr cocktails.

I''ll do all the usual parents, bridesmaids, groomsmen, siblings, grandparent shots and then some nice ones with FI and I, as well as the standard ''cutting the cake'' shots etc; but I really want to avoid the ghastlyness that overtook my sister''s wedding where all the relatives decided they wanted group family shots or all the grandchildren together etc It took FOREVER and I wanted to chat to people instead - and no-one ever bought the prints (and they were lovely photos).

At the end of the day I want a record of the day and a nice couple of pics of FI and I and that''s it. Luckily my photographer is a friend so we are going to put a complete list together in advance so it doesn''t take too long and there''s no faffing about.

 

[poptart]

We did bridal party pics before the ceremony, as well as my bridals. The family and couple pictures were done after the ceremony during the reception. It worked fine because the reception was outside right by where we were taking pictures.

*M*

 

[surfgirl]

Why not have a cocktail pre-ceremony reception so that people can at least have a drink, not necessarily an alcoholic one, while they wait for the ceremony?

 

[San Diego Bride]

we choose not to see each other prior to the ceremony, mainly because we got married early in the day. we took a few pictures after the ceremony--- pictures with immediate family (parents and 1 sibling on each side) and pictures with our small bridal party. these took 15 minutes or so. we left everything else until after the reception was over. we didn''t want to miss anything, so we did all of our bride/groom photos in 30 minutes after all our guests had left. i was initially a little worried about what my hair and makeup would look like by the time everything was over, but it wasn''t an issue at all.

 

[akw94]

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and suggestions.

It seems like I need to talk to my photographer b/c there are a lot of suggestions and I just don''t know! Part of the issue is that we''re taking pics on a golf course so we''ll be going to locations on their golf carts. I''d rather not have everyone need to follow along to all the sites.
I do think we''ll do extended family at the reception b/c the area where the ceremony is, is also very pretty and right outside. As for immediate family not in the bridal party, just not sure.

So Happy, my timeline is pretty basic right now and not nearly as specific as yours! As a matter of fact, I have to find that sheet of paper that I wrote it down on

. Hmmm, I guess I better get to work on that timeline! But pretty simply, I account for 1 hr to get my hair done and get ready, 1 hr to take pics and 30 mins. before the ceremony to freshen up and wait or not be as rushed if everything doesn''t go as planned!

Surfgirl, unfortunately, given that all of our before pics will be on the golf course, it wouldn''t help much to have a reception in the main area before. There''d be no one there to partake in it! But thanks for the idea!