Tag Archive for: group photos

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Why Group Photos Are a Must for Your Wedding

  • Group of guests

Group Photos Are a Must for Your Wedding

With your wedding in a few weeks, you’re most likely mired in the hardest part of planning for your big day. There’s a lot of pressure to ensure that everything checks out and that you have the most wonderful experience possible. 

Whether it’s in the context of catering or last-minute invite additions, the list of concerns may seem nearly endless. There is so much that needs to be done before one of the most special days of your life. As you continue to weigh between outcomes and choices while planning your dream wedding.

There’s one particular dilemma that’s bound to come to mind sooner or later: Should you have planned group photos at your wedding? or should you go through the hassle of planning which group photos you need, and ones you dont?

Here’s a bit of an idea why group photos are a must for your wedding and why the effort should be made to get them right!

Embrace modernity or reject tradition?

Although you may not have paid it much mind at first, the photography aspect of your special day is one that you shouldn’t overlook. In fact, modern wedding photography has evolved far beyond what you usually expect it to be, so you need to make certain decisions early on.

In the past, getting pictures taken at the ceremony and reception was easy to plan as formal wedding shots were a sort of “one-size-fits-all” ordeal. However, wedding photography has evolved leaps and bounds over the years, and photographers are now pushing the creative boundaries of what can be achieved with just a few clicks.

One photo style that has taken weddings by storm is the ever-popular group photo approach which has evolved beyond merely documenting a group of people. At this point, getting more people in a picture is one of the most creative ways that you can document your special day and make unforgettable memories! 

Groomsmen together

So, why should you plan for group photos for your special day?


Group photos make room to mix and match with various styles. When it comes to wedding photography, many people focus on capturing a passionate portrait to hang on the wall. However, you can get so much more with group photos.

Although some professional photographers prefer to be up close and personal with their subjects, group photographs allow for the capture of a family group, or group of friends surrounded by the venue you angonised over choosing due to you liking it’s aesthetic.

While group photos are a must on your big day, the group photos you capture are to be honest often the most boring wedding photos taking on the day, however can be amongst the most cherished as they will capture a snap shot of you with your family on one of the most imporatnt days of your life.

The makeup of that same group may not be the same 10 years from now – which is just the way life goes, for better or worse. It may well be that this group photo may be the only time this particular group were to be captured in a photo together, smiling and happy. Photography is all about capturing memories, and this can be a big one.

group photo at Alru Farm wedding

Group photos are a great way to capture the atmosphere of a ceremony


This is where group photos come in as a great kind of shot during a wedding day. Whether it’s candid or planned, shots with you and your guests taken by a professional works wonders when it comes to documenting your special day. From your family members and parents to your friends and close acquaintances, they all show the unique atmosphere of your ceremony and transport you back to it every time you look at the photos!

While group photos aren’t the best at ‘living in the moment’ as modern natural wedding phtography is all about – group photos are a must simply for documenting who was at your big day and to capture everyone simply looking like they love each other!

While there are many ways that you can document your special day, nothing can do your wedding more justice than group photos. Once you plan more shots with your loved ones and guests, you won’t have to worry about missing the mark on immortalizing countless memories before, during, and after your ceremony! 

Sven Studios is a team of wedding photographers that you can rely on to have your priceless memories immortalised. Get in touch with us today!

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Planning a Wedding – What Your Photographer Needs to Know

Groom leading bride along cliff

Planning a Perfect Wedding – What Your Photographer Needs to Know

A wedding is an important event in a couple’s life. It is a day where a couple publicly shares their vows and enters into the lifelong contract of marriage. Moreover, it is a day wherein they proclaim their never-ending love and appreciation for each other. 

Since a wedding is one of the beautiful moments in a couple’s life, it must be cherished and documented properly. To make sure that you capture every important moment on your special day, talk to your photographer beforehand to set your big day up for success!

While it is best to let your photographer have artistic licence over what they are doing, as you chose them for a reason – it can’t hurt to communicate to them the images and setup you envisioned so that they will come in prepared to deliver you the best photos of one of the most important days of your life. 

Your photographer may have other ideas to better capture the moment, so it’s best to set a meeting with them to iron out the details. In this way, there is a clear goal for both of you! Photographers hate it when they don’t meet the expectations of their clients, so it’s best to set all the goals before the day of the wedding and figure out what your photographer needs to know.

Gallop bridge Wedding photo

What Your Photographer Needs to Know

Since there are a lot of things to communicate to your wedding photographer, it can get a bit overwhelming; in fact, you may even miss out on some of the most crucial details! That’s why we created this list of a couple of important things you need to talk about to ensure the success of the shots. 

  • Give them a list of names of family and friends 

One of the parts during a wedding ceremony is when you need to take family photos. It can be difficult to manage, especially when there are a lot of people whom you don’t know just milling around aimlessly! Beyond that, a lot of guests often want to enjoy the cocktail hours, so you need to be as quick as possible to ensure that it goes according to plan. 

Having a list will keep this part as smooth and efficient as possible. It will be easier on your part to just call the names instead of asking around who they are! To streamline this effort, help your photographer by writing it like this: bride’s parents with bride and groom, groom’s parents with bride and groom, etc. Don’t just list individual names.

Your photographer does not know who anyone in your group photos are, or how they relate to one another, it’s the one period of the day where they completely rely on your direction in order to produce what you expect, so I cannot understate the importance of this!

Bridal party group shot infront of Hobart Harbour

  • Give them a schedule of your wedding day

Having a copy of the timeline helps photographers keep track of the event as well. In this way, you both are on the same page on your wedding day and what your photographer needs to know! They will know what to expect and when to expect it—allowing them as much leeway to prepare for their shots as possible.

However, you both must understand that weddings don’t often go as planned! They usually run so late that some of the parts must be rushed. There are even times where 10 minutes were allotted to taking bridal photos; however, it ended up as 30 minutes because of all the retakes and requests! If you don’t give enough time or adjustment, you and your photographer may be stressed out due to the lack of time. 

Best way to avoid this is talk to an experienced wedding photographer and glean some insight from their experience form the hundreds of weddings they had covered beforehand.

Group shot

  • Give them a list of important shots you want 

You can always give your photographers a list of important shots that you want them to take. May it be the first dance, the cake cutting, or family photo, these need to be addressed to ensure that you get them at the end of the day! 

As I mentioned before, giving your photographer complete autonomy with their own artistic eye is the best way to let them create the best photographs for you – however photographers are not mind readers. if you have a certain set of shots you expect from your final set of images, make sure you communicate this with your photographer!

cutting the wedding cake at Mollydooker wines

A professional wedding photographer can capture the beautiful and important moments in your wedding. But, to ensure that both of your goals are met, you need to communicate to them what you expect during the wedding! May the list above give you a basic understanding of what your photographer needs to know to help ease the process along. 

If you’re looking for wedding photography services in Adelaide, SvenStudios is the one to call! Allow us to craft the precious memories of your wedding day in a fun and relaxed way that you’ll be proud to look at forevermore! Get in touch with us today to find out more about our services.

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Wedding Photography – Our Guide to Taking Family Photos

  • Guests table group shot

Our Guide to Taking Family Photos

Wedding photos primarily focus on the newly wedded couple, and rightly so. It’s their special day, after all! But no couple can stand on their own—they got to this joyful phase in their lives with the care, support, and love from their dear families.

Aside from your vows, first dance, bouquet toss, and other couple-centric wedding moments, your family photos will give you some of your most treasured lifelong memories. The best thing about professional wedding photography is that you are promised high-quality results that you can share as much as you want—you can send digital copies off to family members, print them as souvenirs; the options are endless!

With this in mind, heres a short guide to taking family photos on your big day!

The Ultimate Guide to Taking Family Photos at Weddings

Family Photos You Shouldn’t Miss

Before the ceremony – Make sure to prioritise family moments as you prepare for your wedding day. Candid photo sessions with parents and siblings can be fun and a little bit teary.

Mum looking on proudly

After the ceremony – You can take group family shots around the altar or another scenic space in the ceremony venue. It’s best to prepare these locations before your wedding day.

group photo at Ekhidna Winery

During the reception – A popular choice for wedding couples is to take group photos with each table at the reception. You can set up family portrait sessions at your reception venue, too!

boys group shot

Besides the general photo-taking guidelines, rounding up family members for photos can be a challenge on top of an already hectic wedding day. Read on for a simple guide to to taking family photos as easy as possible.

 

  1. Set Your Priorities

If you grew up closely with certain cousins, a family member who helped raise you, or someone who has been very special to you all these years, prioritise their presence in your photos. This is your day, and you should be able to share all of your memories with the people closest to you.

For many families, it’s usually a given that parents, grandparents, and siblings are the main members included in family portrait sessions. To make things more efficient, you should make a list of group shots  in advance.

group photo at Alru Farm wedding

  1. Send a List to Your Photographer

Professional photographers work better with a specific shot list—this helps them prioritise and watch out for specific moments during your wedding day. Once you have a list of your family photo priorities, send them on to your photographer. This will make the photo session go much more smoothly.

 This is incredibly important – your wedding photographer works best when they have artistic freedom – however they do not know who are in your family and who belongs in a group shot. Out of all the opportunities for photos on a wedding day, your wedding photorgapher relies 100% on your direction with this. As a bonus, if your photographer knows which family members are extra special to you, they will keep an eye out for candid photo opportunities during the reception and beyond.

Guest group shot

  1. Put it on Your Schedule

For maximum efficiency and little hassle, it’s best to set a specific time for family portraits. Many couples decide to take family photos at the end of the ceremony, before everyone moves on to the reception venue. However, this is a very narrow window of time, especially if you want to change before the reception or if you have other special plans.

Another option is to get the portraits done before the ceremony starts. This will give you ample time to get all the shots you want without infringing on the ceremony and reception schedule. Just make sure that all family members are told so they can arrive on time!

St Francis Winery Wedding

Your wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime milestone, and the feelings of love and belonging are not limited to your partner; these emotions include your family, too. Make sure to set aside time and locations for your wedding photographer to capture moments with your closest family members. These are lasting memories that will stay with you forever.

Hopefully this guide to taking family photos on your wedding day helps out slightly in your planning!

If you’re looking for wedding photography services Sven Studios is the best choice for you. We have a variety of customisable wedding photography packages that will deliver all the high-quality products you need. Contact our award-winning photographers about our services today! 

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Tips For Dealing With Wedding Day Family Drama

  • Group shot

 

Dealing With Wedding Day Family Drama

So, your wedding day is finally just around the corner, and you can’t help but be so excited for the new chapter you’re starting with the love of your life. Dealing with wedding day family drama though is weighing on the back of your mind as you know not everyone sees eye to eye with you.

Now that you’re well past the planning, hiring, and spending on vendors, there isn’t anything else to worry about and you’re probably spending far too much time wondering about about family drama during your ceremony or throughout the day.

Why family drama?

Let’s face it: no matter how much we’d like to believe that we came out fine regardless of how crazy life was growing up, the fact is that our families have their fair share of drama. Every family is different of course, with varying degrees of issues, but it’s important to think about dealing with wedding day family drama beforehand to that none of it ruins your day.

If you’ve searched the web for “best recommendations” and wedding day tips to put your mind at ease with your big celebration coming up, then you probably heard and read some family drama horror stories. In fact, watching a bit of reality TV may have opened your eyes to the fact that having a brawl, shouting match, or lots of tension break out during a special occasion can become reality. Although those TV shows are absolute trash…

I personally have covered weddings as a photographer where receptions have been shut down due to rowdy behaviour, or the bride and groom has enlisted the services of a security guard – so they certainly can happen.

group photo at Alru Farm wedding

Common wedding day family drama problems (and how to fix them)

Although we’d all like to think that our relatives love us so much that they won’t let pettiness drive them to ruin our special day, the fact of the matter is that there’s no such thing as too safe. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as immunity or full prevention for problems like these because you can’t really tell whether or not they’ll come up. This is why you’ll have to know how to effectively deal with wedding day family drama problems before they snowball into bigger ones that can ruin your day.

If you’re looking to ensure that the biggest moment of your life isn’t shadowed by wedding day family drama, here are some potential problems you can prepare for (and how you can solve them):

Drone group shot at Ekhidna WInes

You have an overbearing parent or sibling in attendance

One of the most common problems that soon-to-be-wed couples end up struggling with is an overbearing parent or sibling that can’t seem to keep themselves together. 

While your frantic family member may have the best intentions for you in mind, the fact that this is a day that’s also special for them may be causing them some excitement as they strive to make sure everything goes well. Fortunately, you can prevent your family members from pushing the boundaries on your wedding day and messing things up by setting them aside somewhere private and asking them to calm down.

A common way this rears it’s head as a photographer is the family friend who has a camera who loves to take photos, but don’t really realise that the official photographer is there for a reason.

All that needs to be done is before the wedding gently remind them that they are paying for the photographer to be there – draw on the fact that they want the guy with a camera there as a guest and not to worry about working too hard. This way it wont hurt their ego so much.

Guest group shot

You have family members that share a whole lot of family history 

Whether it’s in the context of divorced parents who aren’t on good terms or an uncle that hates another uncle over something they said once during Christmas, feuding family members essentially present an imminent threat. Considering that family beef can bear so much tension during your big day, it’s important that you diffuse a potential bomb before it blows up. 

When it comes to preventing family members from feuding and turning your reception or wedding into an untimely boxing match, the key to success lies in learning how to separate them. Separation mostly involves doing everything to keep people with beef far apart from each other—something that can manifest itself in the form of special seating arrangements, timed sections, and the like.

One example of effectively separating feuding family members to avoid drama is to tell your photographers about such situations so that they can take the necessary precautions to avoid accidentally grouping them together!

It’s one reason why making a list of family photo groups is so important – as your photographer will not know any family history and has to rely on your direction on the day to capture any desired family groups.

Group photo

Dealing with family drama is never an easy task, especially when it happens during your wedding. Through this guide’s help, you won’t have to worry about these certain scenarios of wedding day family drama having problems bulldoze through your day and end up cutting your special day short (which can surprisingly lead to more problems in your own marriage)! 

Sven Studios is a team of Australian wedding photographers that you can rely on to have your priceless memories immortalised. If you’re looking to not only manage your potential family drama and have some amazing pictures to boot, get in touch with us today!

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3 Common Wedding Photo Mistakes and How to Solve Them

  • Wedding dress reflected in mirror

 

Wedding Photo Mistakes

One of the highlights of wedding planning is getting an amazing, creative guru to document your day. You get to have creative shots with your significant other and a dedicated team of wedding photographers to take candid and planned photos of the two of you. However, if you want to have a picture-perfect wedding, you have to be wary of common wedding photo mistakes and know how to address them properly.

Feel free to use this article as the beginning of your journey into wedding photography to ensure you fill up your album only with great, memorable wedding photos. After which, please do get in touch as there’s nothing I’d rather talk about!

3 Common Wedding Photo Mistakes and How to Solve Them

Mistake #1: Having no plan for group photos

Since you are inviting your friends and family to your big day, you can expect that most of them want to take pictures with you as a newly married couple. Therefore, a few photo opportunities should be readily available, especially during the reception, since that’s where most of the fun begins. You can start by indicating when your photo op will be with each guest, and it’s highly recommended to do this in groups for easier picture taking and to commemorate shared memories. 

The best way to ensure you have a seamless experience for your wedding photo op is to go about it by table arrangement. Ideally, you want people who know each other well seated together. This way, your wedding photographer can just call the group by table assignment (e.g., by number), instruct them on the appropriate spacing or framing for your picture, and give the finished product to friends or family members that appreciate who they are with in their photos. 

When it comes to family photos directly after your ceremony, making a list of must have photos is essential. This does not mean a list of individuals – but rather a list of groups who are listed by name. Your photographer will not know who needs to go where, and who is friendly/unfriendly with one another. It’s one aspect of wedding photography the photographer will 100% be looking for you to guide the photos as they don’t want top step on any toes.

Boys group photo

Mistake #2: Giving you and your partner no chance to have pictures together 

During your wedding, you and your partner are the highlights of the day; people will greet you and support your union as you look forward to spending the rest of your lives together. If it were up to your guests, you would be spending all day with them and celebrating your union – which doesnt sound like a bad thing, but you also want some stunning glamour shots to hang on your wall of just the two of you. That’s why you should always make time on your dayto go to some lovely location and have some taken.

If you and your significant other want to get inspired for your photo op together, you can go for a relevant theme to your relationship. For instance, if you fell in love with one another because of your love for Halloween, then you can have a spooky-themed photoshoot, or perhaps you got engaged in a forest overlooking the city? Head there!.

Just ensure you coordinate with your hired photographer to set your creative direction. Most importantly, just have fun and be natural when having your pictures taken. One of the most common wedding photo mistakes is that often couples are strapped for time, even when they allocate some time for a glamourshoot like this – try to take your time with it and make the most of your time together as a couple – it’s one of the only times on your wedding day that you’ll be able to do this away from the hustle and bustle of family and friends!

Smokey greenhouse

Mistake #3: Relying on amateur photographers for your wedding 

You cannot expect high-quality photos from a ‘friend with a camera‘, so why would you hire them for your wedding? Doing this will not only result in poor quality images, but also poorly timed images that don’t represent your big day well. A wedding photographer has been to hundreds of weddings beforehand, and knows by experience what to expect and be in position the majority of the time.

It also makes your wedding seem not as special because you and your partner just went for the cheapest cameraperson you should find. Worse, it may even affect how your friends, family, and children perceive your wedding. Also you’re paying someone who otherwise would not be a part of your guest list to attend your wedding to take photos so that your actual guests can enjoy the day with you – it’s not really fair on your friends to i ask them to work on the day that you’re also expecting them to have a good time.

With a professional wedding photographer, you can be assured that your photos are well-produced and edited to a standard you’ll be happy with. Some even have photo booth hires and videography services, allowing you to interact with your guests and make memorable pictures together. This way, you can always refer to your pictures to reminisce how exciting and romantic that big day was as you retell it to your children, and maybe even your grandchildren! 

Wedding disposable camera

Wedding photos are vital to any celebration of love being united. As such, there’s no room for wedding photo mistakes. Fortunately, you now have a better idea of what you should avoid when it comes to wedding photo mistakes. Just ensure you and your partner have the right plans and resources ready for that picture-perfect moment. Work on your picture-taking arrangements today! 

Are you looking for the best wedding photographers in Adelaide to document your big day? Book our team at Sven Studios. We can offer you high-quality photos, videos, and other documentation solutions to capture every magical moment. Download our price list and get in contact to have a chat! We’d love to hear about your day!