When couples tell me which wedding photos they’re most excited about, the formal family portraits usually aren’t at the top of the list. They’re thinking about the first look, portraits together, the ceremony, their friends on the dance floor, and all of those candid moments they can’t wait to see afterward. I completely understand. But I also think formal family wedding photos deserve a little more credit than they get.
These are some of the simplest photographs we’ll take on your wedding day, but they’re also some of the only ones intentionally documenting your family exactly as it exists at this particular point in time. Years from now, when your wedding gallery has become part of your family’s history, those straightforward photographs of everyone together can take on an entirely different significance.
Why Formal Family Wedding Photos Still Matter
Wedding photography has become much more candid and documentary-focused over the years, which I love. So much of what I photograph on a wedding day is what’s naturally happening around me: your mom helping you get ready, your grandparents seeing you for the first time, siblings laughing together during cocktail hour, or your dad out on the dance floor later that night. But those candid photographs and formal family portraits serve two different purposes, and I think there’s room for both.
A candid photograph captures a moment you might otherwise have missed. A family portrait makes sure you have a photograph of the people who matter to you together, in one place, on a day when everyone has made the effort to be there. And as obvious as that sounds, think about how often your entire family is actually dressed up, gathered together, and standing in front of a professional photographer. For most families, it doesn’t happen very often.
These Are the Photos That Become Family History
One of the things that’s easy to forget while you’re planning a wedding is just how long these photographs are going to be around. Someday, someone may look at your wedding photographs who wasn’t even there. Your children might flip through your album and see what their grandparents looked like. Your nieces and nephews may find photographs of their parents when they were younger. Decades from now, the people in these images and the relationships between them will be part of your family’s history.
That’s one of the reasons I don’t think of formal family wedding photos as an outdated tradition we need to get through before moving on to the fun stuff. We’re intentionally creating a record of the people who were there with you during an important chapter in your life. The photograph itself may take thirty seconds. Its value can last much longer than any of us realize at the time.
Your Formal Family Wedding Photos Don’t Need to Take Over the Day
I think some of the resistance to formal family wedding photos comes from imagining an endless lineup after the ceremony while everyone else heads to cocktail hour. It absolutely doesn’t need to be that way.
Before the wedding, we’ll talk through the family combinations that are important to you so there’s already a plan in place. That might include immediate family, grandparents, siblings and their partners, or another person who plays an important role in your life. Every family is different, so your list should reflect yours rather than following some generic checklist of photographs you’re “supposed” to have.
Having that list ready ahead of time also means we can work efficiently on the wedding day. We’re not standing around trying to remember whether there’s another combination you wanted or searching for Uncle Bob after he’s already made his way to the bar. We know who we need, we get everyone together, and then everyone can go celebrate.
Formal Doesn’t Have to Mean Stiff
The word “formal” probably doesn’t do these photographs any favors either. Yes, we’ll make sure everyone is looking at the camera for some of them. I want you to have that classic photograph of your immediate family together where we can actually see everyone’s faces. But that doesn’t mean every photograph has to feel rigid or overly posed.
There can still be personality in your formal family wedding photos. There can be laughter between siblings, hugs with your parents, grandparents pulling you close, and all the interactions that happen while we’re moving from one grouping to the next. And because we’re intentionally bringing these people together for portraits, there are often candid moments that happen in between the formal photographs too. Those end up being some of my favorites.
Think Beyond What You Want to Post After the Wedding
It’s natural to think about wedding photography in terms of the photographs you’re excited to see immediately afterward. Those are probably the ones you’ll share with friends, post online, and put on your phone background while you’re still riding the high of the wedding. But a wedding gallery has a much longer life than that.
Some photographs become more important with time, and formal family wedding photos tend to fall into that category. The photograph of you with your parents might mean something completely different twenty or thirty years from now. The portrait with your grandparents may eventually become one of only a handful of professional photographs you have together. There’s no way to know which image will become especially meaningful later, and that’s exactly why I think it’s worth making room for them now.
Making Space for the Photographs That Last
I will always want to give you the photographs that capture what your wedding day actually felt like. The spontaneous moments, the ridiculous dance floor photos, the hugs you didn’t know I photographed, and all of the little interactions happening around you are a huge part of telling that story. But I also want to give you photographs that might not reveal their full importance for years.
Formal family wedding photos are part of that. They document the people who showed up for you, the relationships that surrounded you on your wedding day, and your family as it existed in that exact moment. So yes, we’ll take the photo where everyone stands together and looks at the camera. One day, you might be really glad we did.
If you’re looking for a wedding photographer who will capture all of those candid, in-between moments while also making sure the photographs that matter for generations don’t get missed, I’d love to hear what you’re planning. Get in touch here to learn more about working together for your wedding day.
