I absolutely love photographing the wedding party. When planning your wedding timeline, you want to set aside about 20-30 minutes for those pictures. The key to success here is … groomsmen! Yes, gentlemen, you. You see, groomsmen are shy & elusive creatures with the tendency to disappear once it’s their turn to pose for formals. For good reason – years of being in wedding parties have taught them that formals are a decidedly un-fun way to spend cocktail hour. So we’re going to make it quick & painless.
When doing formals after the wedding ceremony, I like to start with the entire wedding party. Here, our groomsmen are distracted by the beautiful bridesmaids and soon lose their shy.

If you’ve been following my “formal wedding portraits” series, you have already read about Duke, the wedding dog, in last week’s post on dogs in Vermont weddings and how patiently Duke posed for all the wedding photos.

Wedding tip: Before you assume your position, just drop everything you’re holding (glasses, bottles, cans, purses, cameras etc.) and place it right behind your wedding photographer so it won’t be in the pictures.

Groomsmen & groomsmaid. Super cute – this was taken prior to the wedding ceremony at the Alerin Barn in St. Johnsbury, VT.

And, of course, if you guys have a hobby or anything that just screams “YOU”, by all means, do it. Here are the groom & groomsman putting on their best wrestling moves.

And just like that … the guys are done taking photos and free to join cocktail hour. However, you want to check in with the bride & groom to make sure you’re on time and in place for the grand entrance.
With the groomsmen now being out of the picture, it’s time to photograph the bridesmaids. If you have props like these super cute parasols, bring them along.

One of my all time favorites, bridesmaids in a field in Vermont:

I hope you enjoyed these beautiful photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. Happy Friday & happy wedding planning!
Kat – Kingdom Wedding Photography by Kat
Your Vermont wedding photographer
In case you missed the previous posts on formal wedding photos, here they are:
“How to take a group photo of all the weddings guests” and “how to photograph extended family formals at a wedding”.
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