Wedding #2 Shot list (gulp)

divamum

Just received this from next weekend's bride. This is a casual wedding, so colour me surprised to get this shot list:

Groom Family:
Bride and Groom, immediate family and grandkids
G, two sisters
G, parents
Maxwell family
Smith family
just grandkids
Parents of the groom

Bride and Groom Families

B&G with both sets of parents


Brides family

B&G, immediate family
B with parents
B with sister
parents of the bride
B with grandfather
B&G with all assembled bride's family


Brides family and bride's mother's family

B&G with all assembled bride's family and bride's mother's family

Bride's mother's family
B&G with bride's mother's family
B with grandmother

I'm guessing at minimum of an hour for that, probably longer, even working at warp speed? Last time, we had 6 easy groupings and the only little kids were the flower girl/ring bearer, and that took about 20 minutes.

I've already told her we MUST have a sheepdog to find people (it's in the contract!), and have also suggested we rethink the order to my preference (largest group, whittling down to smallest numbers). And I'd like to get any little kids involved done first and FAST.

Thoughts?

Qarik

seesh..that is long group shot list ..and a little over thought as well..for example

1) Bride's mother's family
2) B&G with bride's mother's family

I don't see the point of 1.

zoomer

Ask her what is more important to her:
Lots of family pictures
Lots of pictures of her and groom with wedding party having fun
Lots of pics of her with groom and their individual portraits

Can't have them all....usually the family shots can be whittled down for the others.

divamum

She's adamant so far. I gather her mother is micromanaging; bride seems less than happy about it, but putting up with it and "hoping we'll run out of time". Eek. Also appears we're being used as quickie "family photoshoot" time, given the shots that don't even include bride and groom (eg your query, Qarik).

I've got her spreadsheet for it all now, and will try to turn it into something more manageable but this is going to be tricky! Thank goodness for tomorrow and Thursday off (give or take holiday time) so I can figure it all out!

ETA: Wedding party and B&G shots happening in a first look before the ceremony; "only" these are happening between ceremony and dinner.

divamum

Ok, here's what I've come up with so far as a remix (oh.muh.guh. This is SO many people! I think the entire wedding is only about 70 which means about half of them appear to be in pictures....... lol). I'm going to strongly encourage here to leave the non-bridal images to the end, and if we really do run out of time, those can just fall off the punch list as required. People will want FOOD by then, I feel sure of it

Does this look better?

B&G with all extended family 20
B&G with all assembled bride's mom's fam 14
B&G with all assembled bride's dad's fam 11
B&G with groom's immediate family and grandkids 16
B&G with both sets of parents 6
bride's parents 2 (both with and w/out B&G)
groom's 2 (both with and w/out B&G)
B&G, immediate family 5 (

G and two sisters 3
B with Grandfather 2
B with sister 2
B with grandmother 2

Groom's sibling #1 family 4
Groom's sibling #2 family 4
just grandkids 4

(sorry - copy/paste from spreadsheet hence the numbers)

puzzledpaul

divamum wrote: »

... // ... This is a casual wedding ... // ...

Priceless ... if that's what they think is 'casual' then someone, somewhere just hasn't got a clue.
What a load of (stage managed) baloney imo.

Thought mine (+ dragon's) was overpopulated, with about 8 ppl total, reg office (no shotgun reqd, btw ) ... and about half a dozen (if that) pics taken.

Waste of money imo - esp these days ...

pp

heatherfeather

Actually this list is pretty much standard with what I end up doing for pretty close to every wedding... All you have to do is just plan and schedule it. I tell them to plan on 3 minutes per combination (for those formal types) and then if we are faster than that then they get bonus photo time for the creative fun stuff. If they are not seeing each other before ceremony, do all but the big group photos with the bride and groom together and the wedding party before ceremony.

If they place priority on the bride and groom photos, they will schedule for that too... But seriously... it doesn't seem like that big of a list to me.

But I publish a schedule and make sure that it is on hand and followed through the day which helps a ton.

divamum

Thanks Heather! I was thinking 3-5 minutes per group depending on size; she has allocated about an hour for these shots (less than I'd like, but this is WAY more extensive than what we discussed at our meeting, when it was only going to be "immediate family") - I think it will be tight, but we'll do what we can. We're doing a first look and wedding party shots for about an hour before the ceremony, so hopefully it will all work out.................

wave01

I find that this pretty standard and i tend to start large and work down rather than trying to add to a group. I also ask the couple if there are shots that they require to tell me in advance so no shocks on the day

divamum

Thanks guys. I think my surprise over the length of her list is that it's way more than the other wedding I did and, more importantly, WAY more people than we discussed (at our meeting, these shots were only going to be immediate family, not even siblings). But, clearly, weddings are all about rolling with the punches - I'm sure we'll make it work (although I will insist that we do my order instead of hers unless there is some pressing reason I don't yet know about to do it her way ............)

aj986s

This thread is very edumacational!

Matthew Saville

The best thing you can do is put the clients in charge of the list. I always make sure my clients clearly understand that it is their responsibility to think of which group comes next, as this is the most efficient way to work.

So, strongly encourage your bride to print out this list, and put one of the family members in charge of wrangling the people.

It sounds like you're shirking a responsibility, but honestly this is so much faster and reliable than if you try and do it yourself...

divamum

Yes, she has human sheepdogs (two, in fact) - it was something I insisted on in the contract!

I've reversed the order so that we're releasing people rather than rounding up, but other than that - her responsibility!!

(and thanks for the input!! )

Icebear

Let's hope they have a nice cocktail party going for all the other guests while you're stuck shooting the famblies. That way the reception will be much more lively and you'll get great cooperation from the guests!

divamum

I do believe that's the plan, John...................... lol

zoomer

Matthew Saville wrote: »

The best thing you can do is put the clients in charge of the list. I always make sure my clients clearly understand that it is their responsibility to think of which group comes next, as this is the most efficient way to work.

So, strongly encourage your bride to print out this list, and put one of the family members in charge of wrangling the people.

It sounds like you're shirking a responsibility, but honestly this is so much faster and reliable than if you try and do it yourself...

exactly this