FORMAL GROUP PHOTOS

(EXTENDED FAMILY, IMMEDIATE FAMILY, AND FRIENDS)

We all know that wedding formal (group) photos are an important memory from the day but please when selecting you photos remember that you will be asking for your guests along with yourselves to be standing in the heat for an extended period of time.

• Formals should take around 25 minutes to 45 mins depending on the size of your wedding party and of course the amount of photos that you want taken.
• We advise to plan on 1 to 2 minutes per group photo on average. For example, if you have 10 group photos, schedule in a 20 minute time slot.

Some couples have decided that they want a picture with all guests while others have decided that they only want pictures with select VIPs to save time. We recommend something in between.

We also recommend being very organised, so we ask for list of formal photos and a helper from each side of the family that can assist us in rounding up your guests, this helps us in speeding up the process

Once you know who is attending your wedding then we advise that you start to plan who will be on the groups –  we advise against masses of group photos, and you should limit these to just a few – we suggest maybe parents, siblings and grandparents, then larger groups that will limit the amount of photos. And of course we will do one big group shot of you and all of your family and friends.

We suggest all of the above due to the intense heat that can be experienced here in Cyprus.

We do request for you at least one week prior to the wedding a list of your desired formal photos. We then print out and take 4 copies of this list us (one to give to give to each helper,  one for Bridget and one for myself).

We will plan with you before the day where we are actually going to do the group shots – at the ceremony venue, church, or at the reception? In some cases we may split the photo locations.

• Tip: We find that the best time to do the larger formal groups straight after the ceremony exit, simply because everyone is there – once you get to the reception it’s amazing how many guests get bored and go missing! And it’s much harder to get them all together again, extending the time of the formal photos.

We do ask that you inform the main people (before the wedding) that they will be in the formal photos and they can stand near the photographers when we are taking the shots. It’s looking for the people that takes the time when you’re doing groups – and people get fed up hanging around. Planning like this speeds everything up considerably. Having your guests help us at this time will really reduce the amount of time the formal photos takes us to capture, the quicker we get through the list, the quicker you and your guests can enjoy a nice cold KEO!