Family Photos

The family photos were taken 2 ways:

Immediate families individually with each groom as to get ready to save the time than after.

All group pictures and families invited from my moms side had their pictures taken with us after the wedding and a big family shot with both families and just mine separately. I do regret not having one with my new family forgetting they were a smaller bunch than mine. It did work out well and timing was perfect to start the cocktail hour.

Our ceremony and reception are under the same roof, but in different rooms. We are doing family photos right after the ceremony, then wedding party, then couple. We're doing biggest group of people first, and slowly trickling down to just us so we have some breathing room/semi alone time while family/wedding party freshens up, and head to cocktail hour.

I would do the extended family photos at the church, that way you don't have to wait for them to show up at the other venue, then when the aunts/uncles/cousins are done, they have free time.

Our ceremony and reception are at the same site. So we will have our extended family pictures right after the ceremony. Our officiant will make an announcement at the end of the ceremony that they will need to be ready for pictures so they can get done faster!

We are doing ours at our ceremony site - The church has a beautiful brick wall, a bench or two we can use for people who need to sit, and some big green pine trees as back drops.

Our pastor will announce at the end of the service for family to remain in their seats while others leave the venue. After consultation with my photographer, we decided that my mom and his mom will have a list of extended family we want/need pictures with. The list will be in the order in which we're taking them and name each person needed for the picture. That way, my FH and I can just stand there, and people can move in and out of the frame for each shot.

I'm not sure we will have any photo's with extended family - but if we were to this is what the timeline would look like:

first look photo's, immediate family and wedding party photo's, CEREMONY, sunset photo's, extended family photo's, GRAB DRINKS, RECEPTION

Our ceremony and reception are being held at the same location, we are going to do the family photos just outside the venue as soon as the ceremony is done, during cocktail hour.

I was at my FH's cousins wedding last year, they had the ceremony in a church and the reception at a different location. They did the family photos right after the ceremony at the church- there was a 2 hour gap between the end of the ceremony and the beginning of the reception, plus the church was a beautiful backdrop for the pictures. I would say if you have the time, do them at the church then everyone can head to the reception after and enjoy themselves at the cocktail hour with the rest of the guests.