You do whatever you can to minimize bulk.

"YOU made me look FAT!"  man if I had a buck for every time I heard that I'd
be drinking a better brand of whatever I'm drinking.

Its my experience that the nicer the figure the more they think the photo
makes them look fat.  BIG people know they are big and are in fact easier to
please cause all the things you do to make normal seem thinner pays off even
more so, rather, ah, proportionally with big fat people.

turn everybody sideways, 45' and facing towards the bride and groom.  Its
very easy to overlap that way, the body of the people on either side of the
big one can block major portions them.  have the ladies keep their elbows
out, (usually by holding their flowers a bit high on the hip pointer) this
not only puts hollows by the waist lines, flexing the elbows and pulling the
arms away from the bodies doesn't let them squish flat and look fat,
especially important with bare arm dresses (rarely a problem with the guys,
dunno why that is??? but even then you don't want hands dangling straight
down, have them put the visible hand in their pocket, that puts a bend in
the elbow enough to break a verticle line and it keeps them doing the 'fig
leaf."

often times there are little people, no I mean kids, you know the ring boy
and flower girls, they are usually posed in front, pose one right next to
mom or auntie Dolly Madison, they can stand and vignette a big portion of
the person behind them without being too obvious.

In smaller groups, 3 4 or 5 say, I'll have them lean towards me and chin up
a bit, that tightens the waddles, older folks appreciate this, though it can
be uncomfortable for someone with back problems to hold that pose.

Pose them near something, a podium, a flower spray, the arch, a pew,
something that can crop into their waist and especially their butt.  This is
very important for middle aged folks, like the parents and the main areas
that get people thinking that YOU made them look FAT.   I used to shoot with
a vignette in my lenshade, now i do this with photoshop, but I do a four
corner fade to black with 3 layers of ND filter in concentric circles and
make sure the corners with the butts are faded to black.   Most of the time
you can shoot closer up, but when you have a couple and you need hands you
can keep the hands visible in a compositional position and fade the corners
where their butts are ballooning, there you have face, face, hands and
rings.

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