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How many family photos should a couple ask for?
I remember a wedding where the group photo list never made it to the right person. Nobody had been assigned to call out the names, and nobody knew who was supposed to join who. The couple spent their entire cocktail hour standing up, lining up family groups, while their guests enjoyed the evening without them. Each photo itself took only a few seconds. Everything else ate the cocktail hour.
The number I always gave: fourteen groups maximum
When a couple asked me how many family photos to plan for, I always gave the same limit: fourteen groups maximum. Not because a fifteenth group would take longer to photograph than the others. Because beyond that number, the total time becomes impossible to fit into a cocktail hour, even with two hours to work with, as I explain in the timeline I built backwards from sunset.
Well organised, this sequence took twenty to thirty minutes. Badly organised, it could swallow the entire hour, along with the reception décor and the couple’s golden hour session.
Why a three-second photo can take twenty minutes
Couples almost always asked me how long a group photo takes. The real answer surprised them every time: the photo itself took three seconds.
What took time was everything around it. Cocktail hour is often the first moment in the day when guests actually reach the couple. So when they were called up for a group, they did what anyone would do: they said hello, they hugged the couple, they exchanged a few words. Multiply that by five people and fourteen groups, and that’s where the time goes, time couples never picture when they’re building their list.
The written list, with first names
The number of groups wasn’t enough on its own. What really changed things was the shape of the list itself: a written list, with specific first names. A line like “family photos” was never enough. I wanted something like “Group 4 — Lucy, Matthew, Barbara, Karen, John.”
I asked for that list at least a month before the wedding, then asked again a week out. Being the one who asks twice was part of the job.
Someone to call the names
The second non-negotiable condition: someone other than me had to call the names out loud and keep guests from drifting toward the bar between groups. A bridesmaid, a brother, the wedding planner, the DJ, the officiant. It didn’t matter who. What mattered was that this person knew they had the role before the wedding day, not once cocktail hour had already started.
Some of the groups happen before the ceremony
What few couples anticipate: some of these groups can be photographed during getting ready, well before cocktail hour. While the bride and groom are getting ready separately, the people closest to them are already there: parents, siblings, grandparents, the wedding party. I photographed those groups right then, each in their own space.
Every group photographed during getting ready was one less group to chase later, in the middle of a scattered cocktail hour. It’s exactly the kind of detail worth including in the list of questions to ask a couple before their wedding day: separating, from the start, the groups that can be done during getting ready from the ones that need everyone present after the ceremony.
And if there’s a first look
In that case, the sequence changes. Once the couple has seen each other, there’s no longer any reason to keep the two families apart. The groups happen together then, at the time and place of the first look, and it goes considerably faster. That’s, very concretely, the main logistical benefit of a first look.
What I’m often asked
How much time should I plan for group photos at cocktail hour?
Twenty to thirty minutes, if the list is written, capped at fourteen groups, and someone is in charge of calling the names. Without those three conditions, it can take twice as long, or swallow the entire cocktail hour.
Why cap it at fourteen groups and not more?
The photo itself only takes a few seconds. It’s the hellos between each group and the couple that take time, and multiplied by the number of groups, they quickly become longer than the cocktail hour itself.
Who should call the names during group photos?
Anyone, as long as they know about it before the day. A bridesmaid, a brother, the wedding planner, the DJ. The photographer can’t photograph and gather the groups at the same time.
What I’d do again
If I had to do it again, I’d ask for exactly the same thing, every wedding: a written list with first names, a cap of fourteen groups, someone assigned to call the names, and as many groups as possible moved before the ceremony. Four simple conditions, and more than anything else, they decide whether a couple actually enjoys their own cocktail hour or spends the whole thing standing up.
Shooting weddings solo?
If you want to go further in structuring your client and planner communications, download The Pre-Wedding Checklist for free.
It is an 11-page PDF guide containing every logistical detail to confirm with your couples months before the wedding day, in chronological order: what to ask, when to ask it, and how to handle responses so you are never caught off guard on the wedding morning.