Pictures: Before or After the Ceremony?

For us, I would rather do them before, only because it's an hour drive to our reception venue and I don't want our guests waiting any longer than they have to for us.

I say before the ceremony also. One reason is so your guests won't have to wait around for you. I went to a wedding where the bride and groom did the pictures after the ceremony and we ended up waiting a couple of hours. One of our mutual friend (who was obviously annoyed) that was also there told me: "when you get marry, do your pictures before the ceremony". Another mutual friend also there later on casually brought it up of how it is so much better to do it prior. Basically your guests will not complain to the bride and groom since it is consider rude but they will certainly complain behind your back.

I'm doing most before , then after ceremony the ones with groom. since he won't see me before

FH does not want to see me AT ALL before the ceremony, so we are not taking pictures together before the ceremony. He will take pictures with the GM and his mother and I will do the same with my girls and mother before the ceremony. After the ceremony (during the cocktail hour) we all will take pictures.

We're doing before because I want to get to the reception as soon as we can.

I'm in the same boat as BunnyLove, FH refuses to see me before the ceremony so our pictures will be after. But we each have an hour of pictures before the wedding with our groomsmen and more immediate families so we can be done with our pictures as soon as possible.

Maybe guests will complain about it, but honestly I can't see anyone on our guest list that would actually complain behind our backs.

Our goal/plan was before but we ended up only having time for our first look beforehand. So be flexible

Yeah we're going to do as many as we can before but we aren't doing first look or anything so any with me and him both have to be done after. We are going to make a very very short list of pics we want and insist the photographer keep it simple so we can get moving to the reception ASAP and not keep guests waiting too long.

We are hoping to do as much before as possible, not sure if we opt to do the first look or not but will still get whatever we can.

Before the ceremony is the most convenient but I did it after, only because I didn't want my hubby to see me before the wedding.

We did a first look so that we could get all of those pictures out of the way before the ceremony. We wanted to enjoy as much of our day with our guests as possible...though we did sneak off during the reception for 15 minutes or so to get some sunset shots in.

I should mention but can't remember exactly how long we waited...I think it was around 4 hours. I think if you need to make guests wait, try to keep it to a minimal like 1-2 hours top and have cocktails served during that time. We were waiting for 4 hours and had to entertain ourselves. I remember a couple of us sleeping in the car since we were so bored.

Oh man that's a great idea! Even though I don't feel right having FH see me before, we can at least ct some time out with him & his guys together or him & his parents. My girls & I together & my parents & I together. Then the bride and groom after the ceremony. Now that I think about it. It seems like more stess to be honest. Cause I have to make sure that everyone is there early, and that just adds one more thing I have to do before the wedding.

It just depends on your timeline. with the timing of our ceremony, it makes sense to our photos (or most of them, at least) before our ceremony. we are doing our first look, family photos and wedding party photos before the ceremony. and then bride and groom shots after the ceremony.

We are not doing a first look, so we will have a gap of about 3 hrs. It is pretty common in my family to have a gap. Not a big deal, most guests are local or know people who are. I may try to have the girl or guys pictures taken before, but it may or may not happen. Everyone I have talked to says "it is your day, we are there to celebrate with you guys" and seems fine with it.

We did bridal party, bridal, and immediate family before (and groom, groom's party, and his immediate family) before. After the ceremony we did wedding party, extended family, and couple. That STILL took almost our entire cocktail hour (which was a bummer). A first look would have saved us a lot of time to enjoy our cocktail hour but husband wanted to see me first when I walked down the aisle.

We are doing a 1st look that then goes into bridal party photos and then family photos of my FH's family and my family. We are not doing the larger family (my mom and dad's extended family) until during cocktail hour...we had talked about doing it before but I didn't want to crunch so much in earlier and I knew that people would be running late and I didn't want to be crazy about it. So instead we are having our 2nd photographer posed in a room ready to take big family photos after the receiving line ends during cocktail hour before the reception. I am also hoping to do some night shots of the bridal party during the reception...but if that doesn't happen at least me and the FH will be taking some outside in the dark.

We are doing the main family/bride and groom/wedding party all before the wedding. We still aren't sure if we are going to be able to decorate the night before or the day of, so I have our ceremony set for 6pm. Since it's going to be so late we didn't want people to wait around for another hour. We are having a quick ceremony and then maybe a few post-wedding pics with us and maybe grandparents, so they don't have to travel to another location prior to the wedding. (Which is what we are doing with the pre-ceremony pics). I guess it's really for you to decide just how "traditional" you want your wedding to be. If you want your groom to see you prior to the wedding. Personally, I wouldn't care if me and my FH got ready together. I feel it's more intimate that way.

We did the bulk before. We did a first look and lots of family pics before. I'm happy we did because we got to immediately join in the cocktail hour and I feel like I really got the most time with our guests then.

It turned out that we had an amazing rainbow (despite, no rain that day!) and so we did go back outside and got more pics, which was awesome, as well.

We did both. We did all of the pictures that didn't require me and DH to be together before the ceremony. Our church only allowed 30 'minutes after the wedding for pics. Afterwards, we did pics with family and each other.