The Photos You Should Be Including in Your Photo Requests for Your Wedding Photographer
4/20/26
Each photographer has a different approach to gathering photo requests from their wedding clients. For me, I send my clients a questionnaire that includes text boxes like “family list” and “photo requests”. You might also see titles like “shot list” “mood board” “must haves” etc.
The key to navigating these text boxes and organizing your photo requests is to keep it specific, and keep it simple. These are the photos I recommend including:
A thorough family formals list
Family formals can notoriously be a dreaded part of a wedding day. Make it as easy as possible with a thorough family formals list! You know your family best, so be sure to include titles and names of everyone you would like a photo with. You can also include any specific combinations you’d like to take. Using this information your photographer can create a list that features common combinations as well as combinations unique to your family. Working together to create a cohesive family photo list allows your photographer to move through the list efficiently and make sure no one is missed.
Here’s an example of a family list with standard / popular combos:
Bride with Mom and Dad (Jill and Bob)
Bride with Mom (Jill)
Bride with Dad (Bob)
Bride with Mom, Dad, and Brother (Jill, Bob, Mike)
Bride and Groom with Mom, Dad, and Brother (Jill, Bob, Mike)
Bride and Groom with both sides of their immediate family
Bride and Groom with Groom’s Parents (Susan and Joe)
Groom with Mom and Dad (Susan and Joe)
Groom with Mom (Susan)
Groom with Dad (Joe)
Photographer’s create family formals lists all of the time, so if you aren’t quite sure which combinations you’d like, you can create a more general list of family members and work with your photographer to create your combos.
Here’s an example of what a more general list looks like:
Brides Side: Mom (Jill), Dad (Bob), Brother (Mike)
Grooms Side: Mom (Susan), Dad (Joe)
Other things to note: Sensitive family dynamics, people who should not be photographed together, and family members who require special accommodations when selecting photo locations.
Go-to poses or sentimental photos you want to recreate on your wedding day
Throughout your relationship you might have a go to pose you strike in every photo: you should absolutely do the same on your wedding day! This goes for sentimental photos as well. Some examples are recreating your favorite photo from your relationship, a photo you took at another big milestone event (like prom if you’re high school sweethearts!), or a photo your parents or grandparents took on their wedding day.
Locations you love around your venue
Lindsay and Luke fell in love with these palm trees leading out to the beach right behind their venue, ICONA Diamond Beach. A photo here was a must!
Some venues have those particular spots that just make you fall in love. If this is the case for you, absolutely mention this to your wedding photographer prior to your wedding day! They will be staking out spots for the best conditions and lighting, but knowing of your preferences can play a big role in guiding those selections.
A Detail List
If your photographer is taking detail photos, it can be helpful to provide them with a list noting anything particularly important. Organizing everything in a box for them ahead of time is very helpful, but they’ll use their discretion when laying out your details to include what is looking best. If you have any sentimental details you want to be sure they aren’t missed! Noting things like a family heirloom, stationary you designed yourself, the floral arrangements your sister made, etc. can be helpful in ensuring they’re photographed.
Now, what not to include:
Standard wedding day events
As I’ve mentioned before, you want to make your photo request list simple and specific. Therefore, you don’t have to list out every wedding event throughout the day. Events like “putting on dress” “walking down the aisle” “first kiss” are all standard to a wedding day, and are things your photographer should be capturing anyway. Listing these along with your more specific requests can make the lists long and may result in things being overlooked. Keep the events you list limited to events you consider unique to your wedding day.
Lengthy pose lists and Pinterest boards
As a wedding photographer, I love a good Pinterest board! It is such a fun tool for visually executing the vibe of your wedding day. I always love looking through a wedding couples vision they’ve worked so hard to create. That being said, while it’s a great point of reference, your wedding day is going to be unique. You are hiring your photographer for their expertise on your wedding day. Constantly checking a board throughout the day to make sure you are capturing every pose requested can be a huge interruption to work flow. That is why I note to my clients that I will happily take a look, but do not guarantee the recreation of photos or poses. As stated above, I would recommend keeping your pose requests concise and limited to those that are really sentimental or important to you.
