Group photos - all guests

I haven't ever experienced this, but timing-wise, I feel like right after the ceremony would be your best bet to get everyone in the photo. I think it depends on your guests. If they care about photos or take direction well, then go for it. My family is a little to all over the place to get them to cooperate like that.

We did one on the dance floor immediately after dinner, and segued it right into dancing. Our photographer got set up on a ladder to take three shots, then the DJ started the dance party as soon as he got off the ladder. It was a great way to get everyone out there and moving, without that "I don't want to be the first on the dance floor" awkward pause.

ETA: I think the three photographs took about 5 minutes, tops. It literally was a huge group photo, with no real organization, or "you stand there, and you turn this way" - it was just all of us being silly and having fun. And yes, the shots came out awesome; they're some of our favorites to look at!

My husband really wanted one so we did it. Having to deal with our indoor backup plan since it rained.

We spoke to our photographer that we really wanted one so right after the ceremony, we headed to the bar area and my photographer took them while the staff were clearing the ceremony room and flipping it so we could do formal portraits in there.

Haven't received the photos yet but I am glad we did it. Took less than 10 min altogether. You just need to have good professionals who knows how to rope guests and groups and direct them.

Then we proceeded to the ceremony room and then had our DJ call groups of people to go back into the room for formal portraits while cocktail hour began. We had 86 people and we then managed to get those done in 15 minutes. We were ahead of schedule! Our DJ gathered the next group while the first one was taking pics so it went by soooo fast!

It was successful because we announced it right after the ceremony about the picture taking and was very clear in the instructions.

Honestly I love this idea!

It seems like that would take up a bunch of time

I was a guest at a wedding that did this. Everything that could go wrong with that wedding... Did. So when we got to the reception, the food hadn't arrived yet so the photographer thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of everyone who attended the wedding, bridal party included, in a heart shape. I really hope that picture turned out well because it took almost TWO HOURS to take the picture. My coworker and I finally left after the picture because the reception venue still wasn't ready. If you do a group photo like that, don't do a heart shape. It took forever!

Our DJ took an aerial shot of the guests on the floor after dinner. I don't remember exactly when he did it, but he didn't tell me ahead of time that he planned to do it. I remember being irritated that he interrupted/delayed the dancing to have everyone look up and pose for this photo. He was otherwise a really awesome DJ, and admittedly I liked the way the photo turned out. But it interrupted the dancing (albeit for less than two minutes), and I wish that hadn't happened.

I want one and spoke to my photographer about it, he said the best time would probably be right after dinner and right before all of the dancing started. He said he would just get up on a chair and get a group shot.

I think I'm sold. We can do it after dinner, to get the dancing started. He has some lenses he wants to play with and promised it would be no more that 10-15 min. I love the idea. I just didn't want it to be like herding cats. I think doing it at that point, there won't be any (ok many) drunk ass people wandering off and not listening. Our DJ can help announce it so it's not a surprise to anyone and I can add it to our timeline sign. I really think I would LOVE the photo itself.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone. I always appreciate the advice!

Be careful of after dinner as some people may have gone to washroom etc.

My venue has asked that we do one as well. In fact, I think they'll take pics, in addition to our photographer. It will be behind the club and is a way to get everyone off the terrace so they can flip it to the cocktail hour space. I'm actually looking forward to doing it.

I want to do this so badly..but I'm not sure how to make it work. There is no staircase/balcony etc at my venue..and we have a guest list of 200. I don't want to ask my phorohtaper to climb trees or anything. So I'm hopeful, but not sure it will work.

I was at a wedding where they did one. It took about 15-20 minutes to coordinate and was really abrupt and awkward. You also couldn't see everyone in the picture at the end. Unless you're willing to really think hard about the logistics and the best way to smoothly do it, I'd avoid it.

Edit: Wedding was about 150 guests.

We did a huge group photo but we did it on the dance floor

I love this idea!!! Thank you for posting I want to do this now!

The first time I ever experienced this was at a wedding I went to last weekend. The recessional happened, then they asked us all to stay put, had the BP come back, and took it from above. It was a bit awkward but whatever. 5 minutes later guests had drinks in their hands and had moved on.

@Richard- thank you for the pointers! We will definitely have a firm plan in place prior to the wedding day. There is a huge staircase that your suggestion would work nicely for.

I'm pretty excited about it now and FH was all about it when I told him what you guys suggested.

I was at a wedding where they took one and it was fine. I really liked it because they took it on the dance floor right after dinner to get everyone up. The 3 pictures took 5 minutes or less (about 100 guests) then they went straight into dancing. Loved it!

We did it at the end of our ceremony. We had a DW and it was announced at the welcome dinner that after the ceremony everyone should stand and face the photographer who was at the back of the aisle. Ended up being one of our favorite pictures.