Formal pics with guests

wdc*bride

I understand from the SA weddings I've been to so far that it is tradition for each family at the wedding to get a formal, posed shot with the couple.  At the last one I went to, the entire reception was the couple sitting in the staging area and guests filing through.  We don't want to do this, and I'm curious what experiences y'all have had on this front and how any of you successfully avoided having to do this.  Maybe we can share tips and tactics.  Our current plan is to not have any area to do pics in the reception.  At some point in the evening, the band will announce for Hashim's family to gather outside.  We'll all go back to the ceremony room and do one big group picture, then small family pics.  The thought is that maybe none of the other guests will follow us or realize what's happening. 

shilps2000

There was no way getting around this one for us, but I was able to somewhat control it.   We did our pictures in the morning immediately after the ceremony, and limited it to IMMEDIATE family only.  And we had pre-determined group numbers, and told everyone what group number they were in.  After the ceremony, we called up all the group numbers in order.   I was afraid that other guests would still line up - but they didnt, they got the hint.   We still had a lot of groups b/c we boht have large families, but we made large groups and got it out of the way pretty quickly!  And that was IT for large family pics, we didnt do anything at the reception.GL!

neha1683

We tried to get a lot of the group/family pictures out of the way the day before the wedding at the Sangeet.  Near the end of the night, our MCs announced different key groups of people to come take pictures with us on the stage, and other people who wanted to take pictures with us also joined in.  Luckily, there wasn't any lining up!For the wedding ceremony, we limited to immediate family before the actual ceremony, and got a few group shots with our wedding party also.  There was no way getting around this one for us, but I was able to somewhat control it. During the reception, we had a 20 minute segment near the end of the night where we did pictures with large groups (the MC announced this and went around to tables to get people).  To get the individual shots with each family, DH and I went around to each table while dinner was being served and took pictures with each couple.  It's a pain, especially since I didn't want to spend my entire night taking pictures with random guests!    But it ended up working out okay....

meghaks

I knew the parents and guests would really want this so I built in time to do this right after the ceremony. We are doing a morning ceremony followed by lunch so we are going to sit in front of the mandap in our wedding attire and family will have the chance to come and get a formal picture with the newly married couple. I think we are also going to do lists to make sure we don't miss groups of people and to attempt to fake some sort of organization in this process. Also, this will help with a staggered lunch approach, otherwise the lines will be long for food. I have seen something similar at other weddings as well -- I have never seen it done at the reception though. The other option is to do it during the cocktail hour and just with the important folks. Have a room set up and then have people guided to that room for the professional pictures. It's one of those things that is a bit of a pain but at the end of the day, it will be worth it to have those pictures and a good memory of who was there at your wedding. Otherwise with all the running around all day, you might not get pictures with some of the folks at all. Sorry for the super long winded answer -- hope it helps!

Meghana55

We had a morning ceremony and lunch. After the ceremony and while most of the guests were eating we did formal family portraits in front of the mandap. We just did it with immediate family and family friends. We moved things along pretty quickly and got people grouped together fast so there was never much of a line. It was great because we freed up a lot of time and were able to enjoy the reception. I went to a wedding recently where they did formal at the reception kind of in the middle of everything and most people lost interest in what was going on. It definitely disrupted the flow of the reception

wdc*bride

For those of you who did pics while walking around to see the guests -- did you take the pro photog with you for this or just do it more spontaneously?

neha1683

we had told our pro photographer ahead of time that were planning on walking around to the tables during dinner, and he accompanied us. 

Puja20

We also just walked the tables with our photographer and got the pics done that way. I liked being able to walk around and mingle while I was taking the pictures instead of having to sit up on a stage the whole night.

katie978

We're going to do the same thing ... walk around.  We were talking to a half Muslim Indian couple the other day who said they had to sit with smiles plastered for about 5 hours while all 500 people got pictures with them.  Hope you don't have to, WDC!Anybody else considering face strengthening exercises to get ready for the big day?? 

dshroff

As pps mentioned we took the majority of our posed group pictures during the ceremony.  We took pics w/ immediate family before the ceremony.  After the ceremony ended we took pics with extended family from both sides.  We had them gather in groups and then called each group separately.  Most of our other guests had dispersed to cocktail hour by then, and so we weren't forced to take pics with ALL our guests.During the reception if you sneak out to take pics with the groom's family, instead of having it announced by the DJ it might work better if you can put someone (or two) in charge of gathering the family at a particular time during the reception.  This is less likely to draw the attention of a curious guest.  One piece of advice I do have, is that though I found taking pics tedious, and I didn't want to get caught up taking pics with everyone.  In hindsight I wish I had organized group pics with some pivotal people (i.e. close family friends I've grown up with, and a few of our groups of firneds).  And though I'm sure throughout the wedding our photographer's were able to capture us with these people without us noticing, it would just be nice to be assured these pictures exist.  So taking 15 mins from your reception to take pics with some people important to you or FI might not be such an awful idea?HTH!

meghaks

I second what dshroff just said -- I was weary about spending that time as well but I have heard it enough times from previous brides that they regretted not having pictures with so and so on their wedding day and I thought it would be worth spending the extra time to make sure we got those. More than family, we do have quite a few really close family friends who I would like to make sure get pictures with us and I thought this might be the only way to do it.