April 9, 2015
The Ceremony & Family Formals | Wedding Day Breakdown
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for!! Your wedding ceremony! You’re tucked away waiting for the ceremony to begin. You peek out the window and see the guests starting to file in. You hear the music start to play. Your wedding party starts to file out for the procession. And then it’s GO TIME!! I still remember so vividly the way I felt during this moment. Up until this point in the wedding day, everything was so crazy and moving a thousand miles a minute. But when the ceremony was about to start and my dad came to get me, it felt like the whole world came to a screeching halt. All the nerves and excitement hit me all at once! That combined with a tight dress and an empty stomach made my dad quite nervous that I wasn’t going to make it down the aisle! But once we started walking and we turned the corner to walk down the aisle, all of that melted away and I was ready to go! I love this picture from my wedding because it illustrates exactly what I was feeling in that moment!
Your wedding ceremony is probably something you’ve been dreaming about since you were little. You’re about to pledge yourself to the love of your life in front of all your friends and family, and that’s what the whole day is all about! So here’s a few things to consider when planning your ceremony, plus some tips on getting through the family formal pictures as smoothly as possible!
Lighting. Ceremony lighting is very important when it comes to the quality of your images. If you’re getting married outside, you’ll want to consider the time of day you will be having the ceremony. If you get married outside at noon, the lighting will be extremely harsh, plus you’ll be squinting. I suggest planning on outdoor ceremony 2 hours before sunset if you are doing a First Look, and 3 hours before sunset if you are not. This will give us the best light for your ceremony while still allowing plenty of time for your portraits afterwards! If you are having and indoor ceremony, you may not have much control over the lighting, but it is best to have soft even light across the entire altar.
Order of Service. There are so many different special things you can do during your ceremony- unity candle, sand ceremony, washing each other’s feet, etc. This is your opportunity to do something that represents your love and is unique to the two of you. Ensure that your photographer knows ahead of time if there will be any special things like this so they can be prepared to capture it!
Coordination. Hiring a coordinator is so important! The only thing you should have to worry about on your wedding day is getting married and having fun! The last thing you want is to the responsibility of coordination to fall on your mom, the photographer or even the bride! Without a coordinator, the responsibility usually defaults to the photographer, which adds to stress and can negatively impact the images they’re able to produce. So hiring a coordinator, whether it be a full event planner or just a day-of coordinator, will ensure that your day goes smoothly and reduces stress!
Once the ceremony is over, it’s time to roll into family formals! With the right preparation, there’s no reason why you can’t roll through these in 10-15 minutes! Here’s a few tips on how to prepare.
Location. If there is a particular location you would like to do the family pictures, be sure to discuss this with your photographer. If you would like to do them indoors, they may need to bring in a flash setup, so this is something they would need to know ahead of time. Outdoors is also a great option, especially if your photographer prefers natural light like me! If you don’t have a location preference, than you can just tell the photographer to pick a location that they think is best.
Make list ahead of time. You will definitely want to make a list of all the different family groupings you want ahead of time. In the list, include specific names so that the photographer can call out names as they put the groupings together. An example would be ‘Bride, Groom, Charlie (Bride’s dad), Rita (Bride’s mom). You will also want to limit the number of groupings you do. Between the ceremony and reception, you only have a limited number of time to do family formals, wedding party pictures AND the pictures of the bride and groom. So we don’t want the family formal pictures to eat into that time too much. I usually suggest to keep it to 10 groupings, with no more than 10 people per grouping. If there are other larger groupings you would like to do, I’d suggest making a separate list so that we can do these during the reception.
Rally the troops. This is a biggie for ensuring that family formals go smoothly. After the ceremony, people will often scatter and head for the bar, if it’s in the same location. So many times we run into the situation where we have a whole grouping set up for a picture, then find that one person in MIA, so we have to send someone to go find them. That right there is going to cost you a good 5-7 minutes. It’s really important to tell everyone on the list ahead of time that they need to stay behind after the ceremony for pictures. If they want a drink from the bar, have someone that is not in the pictures fetch one for them. It’s also helpful to designate a family member from each side of the family as a liaison for the photographer. Since they know who people are, it really helps to have them help gather people as we call names off the list.
Other posts from Wedding Day Breakdown series
Bridal Details & Getting Ready