When it’s time to photograph your family, I’ve found that it’s super important to work from a well-organized list. Creating a list before the wedding will help ensure that we’ll make the most efficient use of our time.

When you’re planning your schedule in relation to your family portraits, I suggest that you budget a minimum of three minutes per photograph. Although I can certainly photograph most groups in a minute or less, you’re going to want to budget for delays that are likely to occur.
Once you’ve created a draft of your list, please send along via e-mail. I’ll take a look and if necessary offer suggestions related to the order of photographs or perhaps mention my observations in relation to any duplication in your groupings.

After we’ve finished, I suggest that you contact each person and make sure that they know where and when they are supposed to meet for the family photos. I’d recommend that you stress the importance of being there on time as folks will often disappear when it’s time for formal portraits.

Formal Portraits (Post Ceremony)

Here’s a list of common formal portraits that I’m often asked to photograph after the ceremony–typically near the ceremony location. Please feel free to add other groupings unique to your family, but please note that your own list should have far fewer groupings than those presented here. When you’re preparing your list, please name the group (as seen below) and then list the members in the group. For example: "Bride and Groom with Bride’s Parents and Siblings (Jane, Bill, Sally, John, John Jr.) " That information will assist me in helping you organize the order of the list. It will also help us on the wedding day as my assistant will be able to call on members by name rather than by their relationship to you and your fiancé.

• Bride and Groom with Officiant
• Bride and Groom with Flower Girl(s) and Ring Bearer(s)
• Bride and Groom with Sons / Daughters
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Parents
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Parents and Siblings
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Grandparents
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Parents and Grandparents
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Parents, Grandparents, and Siblings
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s Family
• Bride and Groom with Groom’s Parents
• Bride and Groom with Groom’s Parents and Siblings
• Bride and Groom with Groom’s Grandparents
• Bride and Groom with Groom’s Parents and Grandparents
• Bride and Groom with Groom’s Parents, Grandparents, and Siblings
• Bride and Groom with Groom’s Family
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s and Groom’s Parents
• Bride and Groom with Bride’s and Groom’s Parents and Grandparents
• Bride and Groom with Entire Family
• Bride and Groom with Special Friends and Family

Creative Portraits (Pre or Post Ceremony)

The Creative Session is the timeframe you’ve set aside for your fashion forward photographs (similar to your engagement session). The Creative session typically includes the bride and groom and bridesmaids and groomsmen only–family members or other members of the wedding party are not present. I usually spend half of our time with the wedding party and the other half with the bride and groom only.

In terms of the time you should set aside for the Creative Session, most couples budget an hour and a half (1.5 hours). For larger wedding parties or in cases where you feel my fashion-forward portraits are super important, I recommend that you set aside two hours.

Unless you let me know otherwise, in addition to madhotsexy™ creative portraits, I’ll also capture some “typical” photos–time permitting. If you have any thoughts about these photos, please let me know your specific preferences prior to the Creative Session.

Typical

• Bride Only
• Groom Only
• Bride and Groom
• Bride and Groom with Bridesmaids and Groomsmen
• Bride with Bridesmaids
• Bride with Each Bridesmaid
• Groom with Groomsmen
• Groom with Each Groomsman

Optional

• Bride and Groom with Maid of Honor and Best Man
• Bride with Groomsmen
• Groom with Bridesmaids
• Bridal Party Couples
• Headshots of Groomsmen
• Headshots of Bridesmaids

If you’d like to use this information on your own web site, please place the following statement and link (URL) wherever you use this text: "This information was provided by Los Angeles wedding photographer Rob Greer (http://www.robgreerweddings.com)." Thanks a bunch!

Last weekend I photographed a brief engagement with Amanda and Jeff at the The Gamble House by Greene & Greene in Pasadena, California. As their wedding photographer, I was surprised at their initiative in gaining access to this location (along with getting the appropriate permissions) but the location made perfect sense given their love of American Arts and Crafts style architecture.

I felt that including the combination of poinsettias and the signature
door to the Gable House established the location and time of year quite nicely.

I found the textures and patterns of the shingles to be quite amazing.
And Amanda and Jeff really liked kissing each other at every opportunity.

They also had a penchant for spontaneously strolling down the driveway.

As a Pasadena wedding photographer, I sometimes offer suggestions that elicit funny
expressions or actions … but this was all them. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

As my jumping photos have now become world famous (at least in my own mind),
few wedding photography clients can resist a jump shot during their engagement session.

When a client selects me as their wedding photographer, the process typically starts with the bride finding me through a search engine, a wedding directory, or through a referral. For this couple, it was the other way around! Back in November 2008 I was approached by CBS. They wanted to film an episode of CSI: Miami in my studio. And that filming eventually lead me to Lindsay. You see, Lindsay has a blog called iamnotastalker.com. On that blog she shares adventure stories about film and TV locations in and around Los Angeles (including Pasadena). Anyway, after my CSI episode aired, my studio was featured on one of her blog posts. A few months later, I was surfing the Internet and came across her blog again. This time I noticed she was looking at wedding venues. After reading about her search, I sent her an e-mail offering my services as a wedding photographer–and the rest is history!

For this engagement session Lindsay and Bret met me in Old Town Pasadena. We were hoping to take advantage of the billboard in front of the old movie theater (we were going to Photoshop in some save the date message) but that didn’t work out because of holiday decorations in the square. So we moved on to other locations around Old Town Pasadena. Finally, near the end of our time together, we took a quick drive over to Pasadena City Hall to finish off the morning. Here are a few of my favorite engagement photos from our session.

This is the second time I’ve used animation
sequences on my blog. I think I’m kind of liking it!

Lindsay and Bret were super fun. They REALLY got into their jumping at Pasadena City Hall.

The traditional (obligatory) portrait.

They were benched.

Smoochy smoochy!

Alleyways in Pasadena are fun!

Look at Bret! He’s so big and strong!

I’d make another bench joke here, but the first one was so lame …

Hey! Watch those hands!