Weddingbee Blog

*Warning – pic heavy post ahead!*

I’ve talked before about our decision not to have a first look. As many of you pointed out, this is a photographer’s nightmare. This means a photographer has only a short, precious time pocket to capture the pages-long list of must-have shots: Bride with Mother, Bride with Father, Bride & Groom with Mother, Bride with Sister, etc. I get it. But worry not—I have a plan.

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We’re not taking posed family portraits. There is no “must-have” list of photos. We don’t want them.

Here’s the thing:

We both love our families dearly. One of the biggest draws, for both of us, has been the importance we each place on family. To us, maintaining quality relationships with both sides is one of our priorities. But the last thing we need are stiff, posed photos of all of us together. We don’t want to display photos that bring back memories of a photographer yelling, “Adjust your chin to the left!” or, “Stand up just a little bit taller for me/Bend just a little bit more!” or, “MOTHER OF THE GROOM! WHERE’S THE MOTHER OF THE GROOM?!”  The Husky walls will be covered in photos like these:

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And this:

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And of course:

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But what about our wedding party, you ask? Well, we want pictures like these:

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And family photos? How about these:

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So here’s the plan:

After the ceremony concludes, the majority of our guests will begin enjoying Happy Hour—cocktails, lawn games, appetizers & music. The wedding party, and our immediate families will head in a different direction for 20-30 minutes. But we won’t be posing for photos. We will instead be hanging out together, enjoying the company of each other, enjoying our own more private cocktails. The photographer will be on hand to document the experience, but not in a formal way—in a very candid, personal way. We basically want to give him opportunities to capture the moments we experience—to catch those beautiful seconds between the big moments of the day.

Meanwhile, our second photographer will be back at happy hour, hopefully capturing shots like this:

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But what about couple photos? Of course we want photos like these:

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Since Husky & I will be the first to eat, we’ll elegantly scarf down our food as fast as we can, in order to sneak off for a “sunset session” before the toasts begin. As all the other guests will be eating, we figure this will be our best opportunity to escape for some alone time. We’ll wander the property together, and get as many photos in as we can in our short time window. There’s an awesome old trading post on the property that I think will make a perfect backdrop:

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So this is my grand photography plan.

Are you having formal portraits done with the whole family? How will you make sure you have time to enjoy the happy hour?