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No not those kind of mugshots. I am talking the “traditional” family photos taken at weddings. You know the ones, where everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder like they are in a police line up.
To me that feels like a mugshot. I know, I know. Moms love this stuff, but they are just not us! I already have a ton of these kind of photos from various family get togethers. What I want is creative, fun photos of our family and bridal party.
These are way more our style. They looks less forced and like everyone is having a ton more fun.
After I had mentioned this idea to a few people I got horrified looks like I was committing some kind of crime against nature. Is it really that wrong to not want the traditional photos? Everyone keeps telling me we will regret not having formal, posed photos. I’m just not convinced we will.
Has anyone else thought about bailing on the traditional photos? I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with this!
i’m a fan of the nontraditional portrait shots. 
that said, i’m putting together photobooks for grandparents now and i know they only care about the big standard group shots so they can remember who was there! the important thing, i think, is that everyone’s faces are nice and visible!
We didn’t do too many formal shots at all, but Sewing is right- the grandparents and hubby’s parents really like them. Don’t waste too much time on them though, We had about an hour and a half of “just us” shots and looking back, I still don’t think that was enough!
Really, the ones that you posted are completely posed, they are just posed in a different way (more creatively) than the “shoulder to shoulder” poses. I think a variety of posed and candid shots probably works best, and the ones you posted fit in the posed category. I think you have a perfect plan!
They don’t have to look overly stiff, but just make sure you don’t neglect to get them. They’re nice keepsakes for the parents/grampses.
Awww, really? The traditional family photos are among my favorites! They’re some of the most useful and sentimental. Though like nmsoonerbride said, it looks like you just prefer different poses.
If it’s important to your family members, it’s not that hard to take a couple traditional shots. The bridal party shots can be a lot more creative though, since your friends and young family will probably be more open to it. I’m going to probably take a million pictures in every possible configuration, until we run out of time. What’s the harm?
Totally having this argument with my sister and mom now. My mom likes to interject at random moments of the day - “youll want those years down the line.” My compromise - spend 30min doing the traditional photos (a lot of family), and spend 1.5hr doing the photos i want - the one’s where it looks like we have a personality
I went for the non traditional! My fav is when me and my bridesmaids all had our sunglasses on!
I’m definitely with you on the nontraditional photos, although with the size of my extended family I will unfortunately have to sit through at least one or two traditional ones just to fit them all in!
I am not a huge fan of the traditional family pics either, but I know our parents and grandparents want those pictures so we will do them anyways - for about 30 min max - and then head out with our BP for some more dynamic, fun photos!
We’re doing just a few of the traditional shot (although I’ve never seen the variety that looks like that. Most of the ones I’ve seen are much less stiff), but mostly non-traditional ones. We have the bridal party pictures going back 3 generations with various great aunts, parents, cousins etc in between and there’s such a wonderful history that links my pictures to the past (plus it’s going in the family book, and that’s just awesome)
I think you can do traditionals were they aren’t stiff looking, like others have said, those other shots are posed as well.
I love the new age family and friends shot, I think the only traditional picture that we are going to do is with our kids, he has two boys and I have three girls so we are going to do a really nice kinda Traditional Family pic other then that one we are going to mix it up so later on when our grand kids look at the pics they wont look so dated as our grand parents and parents pics look to us.
Great photos! The only place the traditional photos really belong is in an antique frame… this new style is wonderful. Think of un-posed. Think action, think of different locations (one bride recently used the rails of a railroad for her group photos!)
I would show them your example photos. They may be untraditional, but they show all the main players and have them posed so that they’re easily visible, in the same convenient way “mugshots” do. I think when people are horrified, they’re thinking that you only want the journalistic style or something.
Oh my! Those are lovely and creative! I wish we would have used pictures like these as inspiration, we just kind of did whatever at the time because everything was so crazy.
i love how you used a picture from supernatural! LOVE jensen ackles!!!
@airythia: I *heart* supernatural! I am so a Castiel girl! 
Ugh, I hate traditional photos too! Everyone (aka moms & dads) seems to stare at me blankly when I explain this. “Well there has to be a few.” No, no WHYYY? One of the biggest hurdles I will have to overcome wedding wise with the families.
[...] back before the wedding when I was whining about how I hated the standard family photo pose? The ones where everyone stands shoulder to shoulder and it looks like a mug [...]
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Mrs. Meerkat, Kalamazoo, MI/Riviera Maya Age and Occupation: 30, Application Engineer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, IT Consultant Engagement Date: July 26, 2008 Wedding Date: December 2010 Venue: Al Cielo / La Laguna About Me: I’m a tech-savvy tomboy with an affinity for hot tea and good sushi. Us Meerkats are just a couple fun lovin’ geeks from Michigan. We love anything having to do with movies, books, video games or technology and we hold a special place in our hearts for our two very spoiled shih-tzus, Wicket and Bravo. We also LOVE to travel. We love it so much it only took us 12 hours after we got engaged to decide to have a destination wedding. We are working our little Meerkat tails off planning a rustic-chic, travel themed destination wedding in the Riviera Maya with a semi-formal, vintage-turned-modern, outdoor at home reception back here in Michigan.
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