Can we talk photos lists?!

Photog here! Let me be very clear, I don't personally get offended by these lists, but several do. And I mean this post with no malice whatsoever. If your "shot list" is only family formal lists, disregard the rest of this. Family formal photos are the best thing to have prepared! My recommendation for that is:

(Married couple in EVERY PHOTO) - Bride parents | Groom parents - Bride immediate family | groom immediate family - Bride extended family (aunt's uncles cousins Grand parents) | groom extended family - bride grandparents | groom grandparents is fine too - friends - done -almost any others will likely not get printed and the couple probably doesn't care about (and I'm talking things like "just the aunts" or things like that)

Bride or groom with individual parents is fine, but I don't recommend "bride only + bride family" or any variation of that where both the bride and groom aren't in the photo- imagine going over to Thanksgiving dinner and the photo they printed and framed is the one without you in it. Sucky, right?

If you have on your list things like "close up of the Ring. The dress by itself. Groom's cufflinks. Putting on the dress." i.e. Things that every wedding photographer will absolutely get, I would advise re-thinking it, and cutting anything like I listed before. Any photographers contract should indicate that while you can send Pinterest pages or a long list of "must haves", the photog is not beholden to any of them. Sometimes "me putting on my dead grandmother's earrings" isn't possible because they were put on in the bathroom with the door closed. And some may not happen (like groomsmen all cheersing with whiskey in the hotel), but photographers know to photograph every detail at the wedding because you paid for it, you will likely not mind seeing it in the photos.

That said, there have been 2 instances where I would not have gotten a true if shot unless asked.

1 (most common) - photo of everyone at the wedding (typically after the ceremony). When this is done, unless everyone scoots in really close it can look really bad

/r/weddingplanning Thread