Did you lose time for photos with guests lingering around post ceremony?

Can you "hide" or take photos a little bit away for about 10 minutes? That should give them time to clear out, because they won't see you.

Also, guests who interrupt what will clearly be posed photos can be shooed away by the photographer (and, honestly, that's oblivious of them), or perhaps directed to the reception site by your DOC/venue coordinator?

You could also ask your officiant to let people know they should head to the reception site after the ceremony, while you do photos. If they are giving a welcome/housekeeping type announcement before the ceremony officially starts, it would fit in there.

We were brought by our DOC to a small space just to the side of our ceremony location and then the venue staff guided all our guests to our cocktail hour space. When we moved back to the ceremony space for more pictures less than 5 minutes later, all but about 3 guests had already made their way to cocktail hour.

I agree with the previous comments about hiding for a few minutes after your ceremony exit and have your officiant tell everyone to head straight to the reception (and also have them announce who needs to stick around for photos if you're having uncles/aunts/cousins included). Your guests will definitely take the hint to clear out if they can't see you! My cousin did these things for his wedding a few years ago and it worked great!

Definitely hide! Our ceremony, cocktail hour, snd reception were all in the same venue (but different spaces). We made the mistake of not hiding and ended up with an impromptu receiving line! By the time we realized what had happened, it was too late and we had to individually say hello to every guest because it would have been rude to leave when a bunch of people had already been standing in line to congratulate us. We had wanted to just get a few more pictures and then enjoy our cocktail hour, but the receiving line ate away at our time and we ended up catching like the last 15 minutes only.

Our venue is the garden area of an athletic club and the deck right next to it. Ceremony and reception are in the garden and cocktail hour is up on the deck while we finish up photos and venue staff move tables into the garden. The venue coordinator has already stated that he will be shooing guests up to the deck as soon as the ceremony ends. Our officiant will also be making an announcement to have the families stay back for pictures while the rest of the guests are requested to head up to the deck.

If you have somewhere you're hiding out while getting ready/putting final touches on at your venue you can head back there to hideout for a few minutes.

I always had couples head back to the bridal suite (plus it gives you just a couple of minutes to absorb the 'we're married' moment). If that's not an option, after the you/the wedding party have gone back up the aisle have your officiant announce how guests will be dismissed (by ushers/other appointed officials?) and that you need so and so to stay in the immediate area for photos, otherwise the couple will meet with everyone else at the reception. For anyone still obtuse enough to stick around your photographer/DOC can help keep you from getting entangled.

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Thank you. I think we will definitely need to hide out in the bridal room for a little bit.

I don’t want to sound rude but that’s exactly what I want to avoid since we will be going around saying thank you during the reception and I really don’t want to lose out the short time we already have (especially since we’re spending like $6,000 on photos and video!)

View Quoted Comment Oh, I 100% agree. We planned on doing table visits at the reveption. We wanted to enjoy our cocktail hour (we had a first look and everything, but there were just a few more shots we didn't have time for before the ceremony), and then we ended up spending forever greeting every guest at the recieving line. But you also can't leave halfway through since there's a bunch of people waiting in line, and I didn't want to be rude. So yes, I 100% recommend hiding out somewhere out of sight for about 10-15 minutes to let everyone file into the cocktail hour.