When did you take family portraits?

Not the ones you take pre-ceremony, but the ones after ceremony.

See...my ceremony is at 3:30. Cocktail hour starts at 6. Sam at Duet thinks we need a half hour at the church, maybe an hour at the park for BP pics and an hour at CLM for family pics. Obviously this is not possible with the amount of time we have.

Should I just give in and have family pics during Cocktail hour? So wanted to avoid this! But the way it looks. we'll have zero time to take pics at a park if we have to get to CLM by 5pm for family shots.

So what did you do? Did you have enough time before cocktail hour or did you end up taking them during cocktail hour? I really wanted cocktail hour time to be about making the rounds and talking to guests...but I guess it won't happen. How much time did it take to do family shots? We both have fairly small families, I can't imagine it taking long.

TIA for any advice!

And yes I've spoken to Duet about this but it's only been frustrating communicating with them....I hadn't suggested doing it during cocktail hour last time we spoke, though.

I don't know what we're doing yet, but we have at least an hour more than you do (but our RH is 45 min - 1hr from the church with traffic - would be 35 min without traffic).

Here's what I recommend:

Take pics with your BM's before the ceremony - not just 'getting ready' pics, but formals too.

Also take your formals with just you and your mom, you and your mom& dad, you and just dad, you and siblings, etc. before the ceremony.

Have your FH do the same (him and groomsmen formals, him and parents, him and siblings, etc).

That really minimizes the amount of family formals to take after the ceremony. Then you just need to get you & fh with parents, siblings, parents&siblings, etc. I think if you both have a small family, you could get it done in a half hour. I would make a list of all the exact combinations you want. This will make the picture taking faster (go in order by the list) and also will ensure you don't accidentally miss an important family member or combination of family members as you try to get pics done quickly.

And if it still takes longer than a half hour, arrive late to your CH. I would definitely express to Sam and also to your maitre'd that you do not want to miss your entire CH, so 25 minutes into your CH (or whenever) is your cutoff for taking pics and then you're going in. This way everyone is concious of the time, etc.

Good luck!

We used Duet- ALberto and Nick. I had an 11 AM mass with a 1 pm cockatail hr. We took as many family shots as possbile before hand. We took maybe 10 min utes at the church. A few pictures there is plenty IMO. We then took BP and family pcictures for 45 minutes and went to the RH. THe rest of my BP anf family enjoyed the cocktail hr while we took just bride an groom shots for half an hour.

I got my proofs and there are plenty for an album. I;m not missing anything.

Another thing- take all you him and his guys and you and your girls shots before. THey just waste time afterwards.

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Posted by jax1023

We used Duet- ALberto and Nick. I had an 11 AM mass with a 1 pm cockatail hr. We took as many family shots as possbile before hand. We took maybe 10 min utes at the church. A few pictures there is plenty IMO. We then took BP and family pcictures for 45 minutes and went to the RH. THe rest of my BP anf family enjoyed the cocktail hr while we took just bride an groom shots for half an hour.

I got my proofs and there are plenty for an album. I;m not missing anything.

Another thing- take all you him and his guys and you and your girls shots before. THey just waste time afterwards.

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Thanks so much! (and Yesenia, too!) Do you think I should have the family come to the park then? I really wanted to do BP pics at the park, then family at the docks at CLM...it's just getting complicated right now and it's really making me nuts But then I think, scrap the park and take all pics at CLM- which to me is kind of boring. I want BP pics to be different from family.

But from what you both are telling me, if I get individual family shots out of the way, it should be quick when we bring them all together. Sam just made it sound like he needed an hour for that which seemed crazy to me. Family shots are so easy...there's nothing creative about it.

So do you think maybe we could shoot for 5:30 family shots at CLM, ready for cocktail hour at 6?

This is the plan in my head....ceremony at 3:30, hopefully done with receiving line by 4:15, pics until about 4:30 at church...then move to Amityville for park, leave there around 5:15 for CLM? Ugh I dunno still sounds rushed...

TIA!