Weddingbee Blog

I’m half-Filipino, meaning half of my heritage is abundantly photographed and the other half is not.

Har har. But, really, though. Filipino folks tend to love enormous portraits with, like, 40 people in them. Family, other side of family, certain groups of friends, and any other combination you can think of. This is especially true at weddings. I think it’s really nice to get photos of multiple generations, or even a single generation that doesn’t see each other regularly. Even updated photos of you and your pals are great, too.

But…

It tends to be logistically difficult at weddings, from what I’ve seen as an observer/participant in such photo sessions. Given a handful of other logistical obstacles to contend with, including parents with mobility issues and a complicated “room flip” from ceremony to reception, portraits like these were a low priority. For similar reasons, we didn’t pose with each table for group photos, either, which is also unusual compared with the Filipino-centric weddings I’ve been to.

So, this post stems off this post, which is when we actually took the photos below.

Obviously, I didn’t originally plan to write about these. But the when/why/how turned out to be more interesting than I gave it credit for, and I thought maybe you’d dig the pics.

We tried to keep it simple. Not counting the bridal-party portraits done pre-ceremony, we did both sets of immediate family and spouses; us with our officiant; and us with our flower girl/dog.

Pics by Ashley Forrette.

Ode to Run DMC.

This is the nice one you show grandma. But we decided on the one in this post for our album.

I had a “what’s my face doing?” moment with this one, but the adorbs among 2/3 of us is killing me.

That’s not to say we didn’t love everyone who came and want photos of them. Professional pictures of people experiencing the event, even if this method did not guarantee a photo of every guest, was just our preference. It tends to be our preference in real life, too. Snapshots, with some really nice guest cameras in many cases, worked perfectly for pictures of couples and small groups. We gravitated toward photographers who shared our feelings on this, which was part of what sealed the deal with Ashley. Plus, given our photo booth, we knew we’d get high-quality pics of most guests, anyway, laughing their asses off. I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts and preferences on this, because it’s certainly a polarizing issue in some cases.

I’ll dive (figuratively) into the raging dance floor next.

Catch up:

• The nice, naughty, and cardboard among us enjoy the photo booth.
• Introduction to the Snot Wall (from childhood, not for the wedding, during toasts).
• Led Zeppelin and The Beatles kick off a rockin’ buffet dinner hour.
• Cocktail hour, just-us time with the photographers, and, hey, cutouts.
• Ceremony: “comedy hour,” not falling, and a canine flower girl.
• First look, bridal-party wanders around Civic Center.
• Getting ready for showtime with sandwiches and mimosas.