Weddingbee Blog

Ours happened kind of naturally right after mass. Our guests were standing around outside as they left church and the photographer just asked them to cluster closer around us and poof- there was our group shot.

we want to do this too! Your photographer will probably have a good suggestion about organizing this. I like the program note to the effect of, “please join the bride and groom for a group photo immediately following the ceremony at the XXX” I’d include a cue about where this will be done — in the church, in front of the church, etc. Everyone will follow the lady in the white dress anyway

Our photographer gave us a few options - immediately after the bouquet toss, outside after our ceremony (ours will be a short-ish ceremony,) or even right after dinner when everyone’s getting up to hit the dance floor. He said we could look at more options when we got closer to the wedding. Those shots are such great keepsakes, it’s a must-take for us.

I was at a wedding that did that, at it was in the middle of the reception — It really interrupted the party, and I generally found it to be a pain. My reception hall is trying to get me to do it since there is a balcony and they always to do group shot.

i went to a wedding and they did this after the ceremony [it was a catholic mass] while everyone was milling out front of the church. it was an easy enough shot and took about a minute. no problem.

i agree that it was a bit of a pain for the guests at a friend’s wedding because they had to move from one end of the garden to the other. but when the shot happened, it was pretty cute. so you just need to weigh how much of a hassle you’re willing to have in order to have the shot. if there’s a natural balcony area and everyone will be below it anyway, that would be the best time to do it.

this can be a great idea, depending on how big your wedding is. my friend did it for her 80 guest wedding and it was similar to the picture you’ve posted, except the bride and groom were standing down on the floor with the other guests. plus, like you said, there is no easy way since it will be quite disruptive. one idea is to have your emcee announce at the end of the cocktail hour that everyone meet for a group photo. this would also be a good segue to dinner. make sure your photo brings a really wide angle lens, maybe even a fish eye.

Hey, that’s me!! I’m mrs.julia.goolia—I’ve only lurked here, but a friend said a photo of mine was up. That picture was actually taken before dinner, right after our cocktail hour. Both the ceremony and reception were in the same building, so before everyone filed upstairs for dinner (and right after they were all listening to our awesome toasts in that same spot) our photographer just snapped this really quick. I love it. I want a big fat print of it to see all of our gorgeous guests smiling away. But it depends on your venue and timeline if it will work out.

I’m so excited that you posted this - we’re getting married on Sunday, and we’re planning to do this. Our ceremony is actually on the second floor, and it’s a loft overlooking the reception area. After the cocktail hour and just before dinner, the DJ will ask everyone to get on the dance floor and the photographer will run up to the ceremony area to take the picture.

We did it at a cousin’s wedding. @ 200 guests. It happened after cocktails. The photog assigned a few “wranglers” and he took the pic from a balcony similar to this pic. We missed a few people, but got a nice shot!