How to tell our guests NOT to stick around after the ceremony to take photos..

Is the reception going to be held there as well? If not, the way to do it without even having to mention it to anyone, is just going somewhere with your photographer for a few off site photos at a scenic location and come back shortly after. For the most part everyone will have departed if anyone else is hanging around you can just let people know that there will be a time for them to get their pictures with you later.

I have in my contract that there will be no other people taking pictures during formals, because you get the subjects competing for what camera do I look at, and you end up with eyes focused in the wrong places.

Sometimes you have to be brutally honest with the guests!

No, the reception is at a different location. And yes, our photographer also has the same claus in her contract.

I think that's a nice way to put it future Mrs.Schmidt but you know you will get someone in growd that don't want to hear what you have to say and do what they want to do you if you will be having ushers their help will come in hand tring to clear the yard.I was thinking the same thing what I was going to do is the after the wedding cermony the wedding party will be going to another room in the church and have my wedding cord. & ushers clear out the saturary asap so that we can take pics in the church and then we will leave to go and take pics at the park hopefully that will work.

We typically ask the officiant to thank everyone for coming to the wedding and then request that he ask them to please head straight over to the reception and that the bride & groom will soon follow as soon as he is done announcing them. We typically don't have too many people linger especially if the officiant says their will be snacks and drinks available.

Two thoughts:

-- The wording you used on your website is very suitable and you could ask the officiant to say something along those lines at the end of your ceremony.

-- I do think your photographer (and all your other vendors) need to be willing to sometimes work with, and work around, your family and friends. Part of the job of any wedding entertainer, wedding photographer, wedding caterer, etc. is to try and keep everyone happy, including those dear friends and family members, even when they are making our jobs a little harder! It's a two-way street -- you do what you can to enable the professional you hired to do his/her job, and the professional also retains some degree of flexibility and interpersonal skills to deal with situations like the one you describe.

-Steve/GOOD NOTE

My photographer said the same thing. He says he prefers not to have people shooting over his shoulder because it takes away our attention.

I think I'll just have my officiant a the begining of the ceremony thank everyone for coming and what not, and to please refrain from taking pictures after the ceremony, I guess I could also inlist a couple of people to help clear out the ceremony after..

Yea, I mean too you could have the Best man or MOH say something to quests, I know for this one wedding I attended thats what they did (had the best man come out and told quests to kindly refrain from taking pictures at this time and that they could take pics at the reception)

Thanks reddiva22! I will let my MOH know, and when my FH picks a bestman..lol..I will let him know also!

After the wedding recessional, I walk up to the first row and dismiss the bride's parents, then groom's parents. (I have them and the wedding party go to an out of site spot). I then announce to the congregation something like "On behalf of our couple and their parents, we ask that you please partake of the refreshments and appetizers waiting in the main room inside while formal photos are taken". I scurry them out of the area as quick as possible, and the wedding party and parents return to get pics.

I do this frequently and it always works.

I am taking pictues at least 2 hours before and then taking some after but the after will have food and drink to keep them busy..and lots to look at since it is at FH ranch.

While I agree with Steve of GoodNote that we need to be gracious to the guests, I have in the past been in situations where the guests are downright rude, belligerent and generally in the way. The best way to head this off is to have the officiant say something like Rev. Carleen says. It really does slow the formal picture taking process, not to mention messing up our flashes, if you have to continually remind the subjects to look at the professional photographer's camera. Time is money for the bride and groom--they generally want to go to at least part of the cocktail hour. If we still have problems, we will gently ask the people interrupting and being distracting to cease and desist. If they do not, I ask the bride and groom to intervene. I do not want to seem mean, but we only have a limited amount of time to capture quite a few important shots, so it needs to be right the first time.

I think the best thing you can do is find someplace you can go to be out of sight of the guests for a few minutes at least. As long as they can see you they will stick around. At the end of the ceremony have the officiant tell people to move on to the reception where drinks and appetizers are waiting for them (a nicer way of saying "get lost"). You can also put in your programs that you are not having a receiving line after the ceremony, and then your statement that for folks wanting photos with the bride and groom you will have a decorated area at the reception. We forgot to say no receiving line in our program and some people waited around, some just wanted to see us get into the vintage car we had rented though. We also did say in our programs "please no flash photography during the ceremony" to help make our photographer's job easier. No matter what you do you may have some stragglers, you can't control that, but you and your photographer can deal with them nicely.