How do you handle opportunistic family and guest at weddings?

[ellyneill]

Hello all, just curious how any of you handle this predicament;

You're about to start shooting your wedding formals, whether it be at the church or reception or elsewhere and as soon as you start to set up your flanked by family and friends who want in on the pictures with their own devices.

How do you handle this awkward situation?

I recently did a wedding where it became quite the issue and ended up frustrating the bride and groom because the small children in their wedding party where so locked on to all the hoopla behind and to the sides of me that even when I reposed them for the third time they still looked away when I took the shot. At one point someone even stepped in front of me and said that he would "only be a sec." But it was when a family member actually rearranged the wedding party that I had had enough.

I finally asked to speak with the bride and groom for a minute and asked them if it would be OK if I posed them for one shot for everyone to take and then asked everyone not in the party to leave the location. This worked, but unfortunately backfired later in the night as it seemed everyone was put off by my request even though the bride and groom completely agreed that the shooting frenzy was not working to their benefit.

In the end the bride and groom got all of the shots that they wanted and I was satisfied with my work but I wonder if it was really all worth the possible bad reviews. I just didn't know what to do otherwise.

I've never had this issue before but I guess I should have expected it to happen sometime.
Do any of you have a clause in your contracts or talk with the clients before hand about this? How do you all deal with this dilemma?

[OsmosisStudios]

1) Have it in your contract that, during posed formals, you are the only person allowed to take pictures
2) Hold formal shots away from the rest of the guests, be it at a different location or time. I've seen the couple stay at a church for formals well after everyone has left, and i've also seen the couple arrive at the reception early for formals. The most common, though, is formals away from either one at a picturesque location.

You did the right thing, but I would have had the bride and groom tell the family/guests instead of yourself. That way it's the couple asking them to do something, and not the photographer.