The Family Formals List: How to Shoot 20 Groupings in 25 Minutes

Why formals run long

Twenty groupings is not many photos. Shot well, it's twenty-five minutes. Shot badly, it's ninety and you've lost your golden hour.

The difference is almost entirely about whether people have to be fetched. Each time a grouping needs someone who has wandered off, you lose three to five minutes — and the loss compounds, because the people standing around waiting also start wandering.

The peel-away method

Start with the biggest group and remove people one layer at a time. Everyone required is already in the frame; each subsequent shot is a subtraction, not an addition.

This is standard practice among wedding photographers, and it's the reason well-built templates order shots from large groups down to small ones — it's easier to take people out of a frame than to bring them in.

The rule that makes it work: the last shot of a side should be the smallest group, and the first should be the largest. Everything in between only ever loses people.

A list you can copy

Run this on one side, then the other, then combine. Adjust the names and delete what doesn't apply.

Partner A's side

1. Couple + all of A's extended family
2. Couple + A's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins
3. Couple + A's immediate family + grandparents
4. Couple + A's immediate family
5. Couple + A's parents
6. Couple + A's siblings
7. A + A's parents
8. A + A's grandparents

Partner B's side

The same eight, mirrored. Do this side second so B's family only needs to arrive partway through.

Both families

17. Couple + both sets of parents
18. Couple + both immediate families

Wedding party

19. Couple + full wedding party
20. Couple + each side of the party
21. Each partner + their own attendants
22. Each partner individually with each attendant (optional — this is where lists balloon)

That last one is the most common source of overrun. Eight bridesmaids means eight extra setups. Decide in advance whether you want them, and if you do, budget the time honestly rather than hoping.

Step-families and divorced parents

No template solves this, because the question isn't logistical. It's about who stands next to whom and whether that's fine this year.

What helps is deciding it in advance and writing it down plainly, so your photographer executes rather than reads the room. Three things worth stating explicitly:

• Whether both biological parents appear in the same frame, and whether that includes their partners
• Whether a stepparent is included in “parents” shots or gets separate ones
• Any two people who should not be in the same photograph — stated as a flat instruction, no explanation needed

Sequencing helps too. Do one parent's set completely, then the other's, so they aren't waiting in the same six square metres. There's a fuller guide to this here.

The logistics nobody plans

Three things cause more delay than the shot list ever does:

• Nobody told the family. Announce at the end of the ceremony: where formals are happening, when, and who's needed. Have the officiant do it. Without this, a quarter of your list is at the bar.
• No wrangler. Somebody who is not the photographer and not you needs to call names. A planner, a coordinator, or the one relative who enjoys this. Give them the printed face sheet and they can do it without knowing anyone.
• No fixed location. Pick the spot in advance with your photographer, and have a covered backup. Deciding where to stand while eighteen people watch costs ten minutes.

How long to budget

Roughly 90 seconds per grouping once people are present and organised, plus ten minutes of setup and gathering at the start. Twenty groupings is about 40 minutes; a tight, well-wrangled list of twelve is 25.

Then add a buffer, because the ceremony will end late. If your timeline has formals ending exactly when cocktail hour ends, formals will eat your portraits.