Every wedding photographer asks for a family shot list. Almost no couple writes one. It is the single largest cause of a missing photograph in an otherwise complete album.
What it actually is
A list of the group photographs you want, with names against each group. Not "bride's family" — the actual names, so somebody can call them.
Twenty minutes of work. It survives contact with a chaotic wedding day in a way that "we'll sort it out on the day" does not.
A starting structure
- Couple with each full family
- Couple with each set of parents
- Couple with each set of grandparents
- Couple with siblings, and siblings' families
- Each side's extended group
- Anyone who has travelled a long way
- Anyone who is elderly or unwell — do these first
Give it a real slot
Thirty minutes in the schedule, named as such. Weddings that treat portraits as something to fit between events get portraits that look exactly like that — rushed, in poor light, with half the group missing.
Nominate a caller
One person from each side who knows everybody by name and is not in most of the photographs. A photographer shouting for "the bride's mother's sister" into a hall of three hundred people loses fifteen minutes that were budgeted for something else.
The order that works
Largest group first, then peel people away. Elderly relatives early so they can sit down. Small children early for the same reason. It means nobody stands around for thirty minutes waiting for their turn.
What we do with it
We work through it and tick it off as we go, so at the end of the slot we can tell you what is still outstanding rather than discovering it six weeks later.