<p>In the albeit few wedding that I have been to, it was normal for the bride and groom to have photos taken with the bride’s family and then another with the groom’s; that is with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. My niece recently got married and I was extremely disappointed that her wedding photos were only of the bridal party and the parents of the groom and bride. Close family who flew transatlantic to be there were not included. Is this the new normal?</p>
<p>^ I wouldn’t want (and didn’t have) any pics with cousins, uncles and aunts.</p>
<p>It’s been my experience that wedding pictures usually include the bride, groom, parents, siblings, grandparents on both sides and wedding party. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen aunts, uncles and cousins included. I would think less formal pictures with extended family and friends would take place at the reception.</p>
<p>It s often up to the photographer, as I imagine the bride has other things to think about.
From my wedding I have photos of my sister who was maid of honor, of my mother with friend and one with my grandfather who walked me down the aisle. ( and with my H;) )
But I don’t have any of everyone together, or of me with my mother or my sister. ( my brother was in the military and out of the country)</p>
<p>Often there may be more candid shots from the rehearsal dinner ( although I didn’t have one of those, we didn’t have a rehearsal)</p>
<p>Did you tell your niece you would like to have your picture taken with her?</p>
<p>I just attended a family wedding (DH’s side) and the wedding photos did not include aunts, uncles, or cousins. </p>
<p>However, if someone was willing to fly across the ocean to attend the wedding - I don’t think a photo with the bridal couple and/or whole family is too much to ask.</p>
<p>Justforthis, I would also have expected to have been included. As a matter of fact, we recently visited my niece and she got out the picture of “our side of the family” that was taken of all of us at her wedding. </p>
<p>We’ll be going to the wedding of another niece in a few weeks. The bride is wearing an unusual color and I’ve been choosing our clothes carefully so they don’t clash with the bride “in the pictures.” Hmmm…now I wonder if we’ll be included in the pictures.</p>
<p>Of course, I think this wedding will be informal enough that I would feel comfortable asking for a picture if it wasn’t offered.</p>
<p>I have been to a lot of weddings over the past 35 years. I have never seen wedding photos include extended family. The darn pictures eat up too much of the reception as it is…some photographers can kill all the fun at a reception by holding things up at the start.</p>
<p>I did not think for a moment that I (the aunt) would not be included (nor my father - the grandfather). We were always close. It was only just before going into dinner that I asked my sister when are the photos going to be taken…and she said, they’re done. To say that I am hurt would be an understatement. At my wedding (admittedly another generation) we had photos with the bride’s side of the family and then the groom’s side. Hence my question.</p>
<p>Do people ever look at wedding pictures anyway?</p>
<p>(Excluding the first couple weeks after the event.)</p>
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<p>Looks like I’ve found my job at the wedding! (Are there any other chores that the bossiest aunt needs to handle?)</p>
<p>I know that my parents (grandparents of the bride) would be quite disappointed if we didn’t end up with a wedding picture which included the entire family.</p>
<p>I really think it depends on the family. On my mom’s side there are her two brothers and only 5 total kids so the cousins include all family in the photos. Same with my dad’s side of the family where there are 4 “sons” (dad’s generation), 11 grandkids (my generation). All three cousin weddings I’ve gone to in the last 3 years have included all the family. My experience with bigger families is that they go with close immediate family only. When I recently went to my boyfriend’s cousin’s wedding, they didn’t do this because there are so many aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc and it numbered well into the dozens. At that point it’s too easy to hurt someone by leaving them out so they do immediate family only.</p>
<p>We have one giant group picture of all of us at the wedding as stopped along the walk from the ceremony to the reception (two different places on the Caltech campus). I also asked the photographer to take pictures of every table at the reception so there is a picture of all my aunts and uncles, but we aren’t in it. There isn’t a picture of us with the extended family and yes those who were there all had to travel to get there. </p>
<p>That said, especially in these days of infinite digital pictures being available, I’d think you could ask if you could pose with the bride and groom during the reception. None of my grandparents were still around for my wedding, so that wasn’t an issue.</p>
<p>LOL at Batlo’s post - so true, someone just needs to be a little bit bossy! The photographer shouldn’t mind since you are likely to order those photos from him directly.</p>
<p>We’ve been to a number of weddings including relatives. Pictures were of the bride/groom/ and their parents…not the extended family. With so many folk coming to weddings with cameras or smartphones with cameras these days…couldn’t the extended family ask the bride/groom to pose with them?</p>
<p>We were at a wedding recently for a good friend. Five friends asked the bride/groom to pose with us and WE took pics with our cameras.</p>
<p>Even IF a picture had been taken of the extended family, there is no guarantee that the bride/groom would purchase that picture as part of their package. Remember they are paying by the picture.</p>
<p>I’m told by my friends that they actually enjoyed the candids of the family more than a posed picture.</p>
<p>Oh and speaking as a photography assistant who has done many weddings, we don’t decide who to take pictures of (by “we” I’m speaking only for myself and the wedding photographers I work with… not photographers in general). There are so many blended families and awkward family situations that we ask the couple ahead of time who they want to take pictures with. We wouldn’t suggest at the time who the couple should be taking pictures with. We would obviously never say no to a picture, we just won’t suggest it at the time of the actual pictures.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be “disappointed” not to be included or that someone else I thought should be wasn’t. It’s about the wishes of the bride and groom and their parents. There’ve been a few threads where a poster felt his or her ideas or preferences mattered enough to be upset. I don’t see it that way. At my own wedding, a relative was upset that I didn’t plan to do the garter thing. After all, she said, her older girl had and all the weddings she had ever been to had included that.</p>
<p><< At my own wedding, a relative was upset that I didn’t plan to do the garter thing. After all, she said, her older girl had and all the weddings she had ever been to had included that.>></p>
<p>LOL! Didn’t throw a bouquet. Didn’t do the garter. Somehow - everyone survived!</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think you can get closer than being the only aunt…no uncles or other aunts on mother’s side and none there on father’s side. Only one grand parent alive…the one there at the wedding…but that aside…until this moment we were an incredibly close, small extended family. I don’t worry that they would not have purchased it…I would have, as would my father and cousins - we’re only talking 2 cousins who flew half way round the world for the wedding…I know…I have to get over it.</p>
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OMG, this will be my sister at my DD’s wedding. I’ll have to have a chat with her when the time comes. At our cousin’s wedding, she was running around gathering family members and then instructing the photographer how she wanted things done. WTH? I kid you not when I say that she hunted down the photographer at a friend’s son’s wedding to have him take a family picture of her, her DH and their three sons (not with the bride or groom … she just wanted a picture of her family). Yes, I know she’s rude. :(</p>
<p>I’ve decided that weddings engender more resentment and anger than they are worth.
No matter how hard you try…someone leaves the event disgruntled.
Note to self: encourage D and fiance to elope.</p>
<p>The wedding and reception are not about the aunts and uncles. If you want a picture of the extended family, and it doesn’t seem to be happening during the official photo time, then for goodness sake, find someone who will take a picture of you all, gather the troops, and take some photos. Probably a lot more fun than two rows of bored people staring at the camera. </p>
<p>Just returned home from a week long trip to an all inclusive resort for a family wedding. Everyone is sharing photos on photobucket, and by far the favorites are all the accidental photobombs! Unplanned and hilarious.</p>