Wedding Photography Tips For Amateur Photographers, Article 7 - Dealing With Divorced Parents

Photographers: Dealing With Divorced Parents at the Wedding

I had a beginning photographer direct me an e-mail with this question:

"I am photographing a wedding ceremony this calendar month and will be dealing with divorced parents/step-parents. There is animus between the divorced parents and the children involved. When doing the formal photographs how make you cover with this type of situation. The bride states she only desires a image of her and her mother. She makes not desire the female parent in the formal household pictures. Suggestions???"

Divorces are tragical and heart-rending. A wedding ceremony is a jubilation of two becoming one, and most wedding ceremonies with a history of household divorcement will be a spot more complicated than one without. Not only may the bride/groom have got got got got to cover with emotions and feelings that have perhaps been buried for years, but the divorcee's volition have challenging emotions to also address:

• perhaps the wedding ceremony ceremony ceremony will remind them of happier days
• perhaps seeing a former partner at the wedding will be hard for them.

If you are going to be photographing your first wedding and will have divorced parents in attendance, my first spot of advice is to be sensitive. Don't do a bad state of affairs worse!

Secondly: map out all the formal photographs and groups ahead of time.

This is the practical attack I take at a wedding ceremony that affects divorced parents:

• I'm there for the bride and groom. The parents have got got made their determinations and have to dwell with them. If there are difficult feelings and the bride/groom don't desire photographs with a certain relative, I'm not going to coerce them to.
• On the other hand, if the bride/groom ask for their parents (or the parents' new spouses) to the wedding, I'll usually stop up taking images of them because they are there.
• I seek to be as compromising as possible during the photos. As I alluded to earlier: I don't desire to be the 1 devising a bad state of affairs worse. I desire to be known as the individual who tried to do the best of any situation!
• It have been very common at the wedding ceremonies I've done which affect divorced parents for the divorced parents to be willing to be in a concerted photograph with the couple, one parent on each side of the couple. Without fail, the parents will then inquire for a separate photograph with the couple and I'll usually do it because it is quick/easy.
• It assists to cognize who the divorced parents are so that you don't accidentally inquire them to stand up together!

As to the specific state of affairs you mentioned when the bride doesn't desire the female parent in the formal household photograph - you'll have got to work to make certain that haps without causing a situation. I would be careful to not denote "OK, all the Bride's household come up up up now" because the female parent will likely come at that time. I would specifically name up those that are needed.

Depending upon how obvious you were being with the picture taking you could name up some, take the shot, then add the female parent in and take another shot. The bride could then take which photograph she wanted to have got printed later on.

In summary, the cardinal is to cognize exactly who should be in which photograph ahead of clip and set up the grouping photographs so you are adding people to the grouping and taking shots, and then perhaps subtracting people and taking shots.