By this stage in your day everyone gets to relax and enjoy what you have planned for them. There’s lots of catching up and laughter during this part of the day. Drinks are consumed and people are having fun. Everyone has a different idea on what they’d like for this part of the day and it’s all wonderful. We’ve seen magicians, caricaturists, face painters, entertainers, singers, garden games, bouncy castles, petting zoos and sack races! Everyone’s day is brilliant and unique to the couple. We could photograph at the same venue every week (which we don’t tend to do as we get requests for all over Suffolk, Norfolk and further afield) and despite the days on paper sounding similar the actual days are always very different.
During the reception time, we usually still take a few of the more traditional formal line ups if you’d like them and we’re happy to do this. We will have discussed and agreed with you before your day which photos are important to you here. In general, we would advise you to keep these to a maximum of 10-15 groups if you can, which will take about 20-45 minutes (depending on the co-operation of the guests involved). We allow 2-3 minutes per group photo. We would encourage you to choose someone from each side of the family (or a bestman/bridesmaid/friend) to help gather people for these groups as they’ll know who they are looking for and it will make these group shots faster for you so you can get back to enjoying your reception mingling. If you really don’t want to have any formals taken, then of course you don’t have to have them.
Usually we don’t see line-ups greeting your guests anymore as they take so much time and pretty much everyone will say the same sort of thing to you. We wouldn’t advise having one but, if you really want one then please bear in mind that they usually take a lot longer than you would think (allow a minute per guest and for a 60 person wedding you’re looking at an hour!)
I will also take the two of you away for some couple photos during this reception time (don’t worry, we won’t be gone for long – I usually allow 10-15mins for this).
