Wedding Photographers - How do you deal with

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CraigF

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These things.

I shot a wedding yesterday and it seemed to be one thing after the other.

Turned up the house where all the guys were congregating to shoot some pictures and half of them weren't there and the other half weren't ready.

On to the brides house...Chaos, loads of people in the house and not enough room to shoot so pretty much Head / shoulders portraits there.

Groom and the rest of the guys were getting dropped off by the limo company 40 minutes before the bride so i had planned on doing a lot of stuff with them before the bride came.
Limo company screwed up and picked them up 40 minutes later than they should have.
Time between Groom and Bride arriving = 4 minutes...Some quick shots (nothing that i wanted to shoot though) and they were ushered into church.

Ok..I still have the after the Ceremony pictures to try and rescue some shots besides i have nearly 2 hours of shooting before the speeches.

After the ceremony i was shooting some candids of guests coming out of the church and i suddenly thought "hmm..something is not right here." I looked over and saw the Limo's waiting.

The Limos were supposed to have been booked for 1 hour to take Bride and Groom to Church. Go away and come back 2 hours after ceremony to take them to Reception Venue.

Turns out crossed lines and the Limos were there to take Bride and Groom to Reception Venue there and then.

I start to think this is rapidly becoming a Greek Tradgedy.
Ok..Reception Venue is geared for weddings so i will put the foot down, get there before everyone and scope it out.
Get to Reception Venue and speak to the girl arranging everything.
Seems they have a Gazebo set up for wedding pictures.
Ok...maybe just maybe this will work out ok.
Then she said i have 35 minutes to do the pictures as she wants them upstairs and seated as soon as possible. (This was in the bar area btw and not the dining area.)
I go around the corner to check out the Gazebo and get confronted by this 6 foot White Plastic Gazebo with Artificial Turf.
And to make matters worse the sun was blazing down straight in front of me.

I notice some grassy areas and decide to improvise.

Guests arrive they all come round corner top get pictures taken and the girl who was arranging everything at the reception venue appears with an almighty tray full of drinks. Cue Pandemonium while everyone grabs drinks.

Lined up Bride and Bridesmaids for pictures and think....Hmm..someone is missing..
Seems the Arranging Girl had just sent random people including a Bridesmaid up the stairs to the bar. :wacky:

I start taking pictures and 5 minutes later Arranging Girl appears and starts chasing everyone upstairs.
We dont actually move from the bar area to the dining area for about 35 minutes...Time i could have bloody well used.

What i really want to know is do the Wedding Togs on here contact the Limo companies, reception venue etc beforehand to make sure everyone is singing off the same song sheet?
 
Not always possible I guess but I went to the wedding rehersal and the reception venue when the couple discussed all the timings of everything. So I know what was hapening on the day from them. I was also able to have i slight input in to what went on.

I guess the normal way of doing things is to speak with the couple to see what they want then ensure they are aware of what you need to get what they want done. You put this all down in the booking form and contract so they know what they need to do and have in place. Then should any of that not happen due to what ever reason like the cars being late or early then the couple can't come back to you saying why didn't you get this and that shot
 
CraigF said:
These things.

I shot a wedding yesterday and it seemed to be one thing after the other.

Turned up the house where all the guys were congregating to shoot some pictures and half of them weren't there and the other half weren't ready.

Tell the ones shooting the pictures that thats your job, shoot the ones that are ready, threaten to shoot the ones that are not. any survivoirs - shoot them again

On to the brides house...Chaos, loads of people in the house and not enough room to shoot so pretty much Head / shoulders portraits there.

ask people to leave for a while, and leave either the MUA or hairdresser in the room, get the more natural room full of people stuff, when you let them back in. pay attention to junk all over the place (its ok to move stuff) be assertive

Groom and the rest of the guys were getting dropped off by the limo company 40 minutes before the bride so i had planned on doing a lot of stuff with them before the bride came.
Limo company screwed up and picked them up 40 minutes later than they should have.
Time between Groom and Bride arriving = 4 minutes...Some quick shots (nothing that i wanted to shoot though) and they were ushered into church.
Nothing you can do other than your best
Ok..I still have the after the Ceremony pictures to try and rescue some shots besides i have nearly 2 hours of shooting before the speeches.

After the ceremony i was shooting some candids of guests coming out of the church and i suddenly thought "hmm..something is not right here." I looked over and saw the Limo's waiting.

The Limos were supposed to have been booked for 1 hour to take Bride and Groom to Church. Go away and come back 2 hours after ceremony to take them to Reception Venue.
If this is your screw up, there is no forgivness for you - its al lthe P's - Prior planning and preparation prevents xxxxx. If the limo company screwerd up, carry on shooting and do your best. at all times it is your job to know exactly where the bride is, going to be, and what happens next

Turns out crossed lines and the Limos were there to take Bride and Groom to Reception Venue there and then.

I start to think this is rapidly becoming a Greek Tradgedy.
Ok..Reception Venue is geared for weddings so i will put the foot down, get there before everyone and scope it out.
Get to Reception Venue and speak to the girl arranging everything.
Seems they have a Gazebo set up for wedding pictures.

You should allready know about this, and have a plan
Ok...maybe just maybe this will work out ok.
Then she said i have 35 minutes to do the pictures as she wants them upstairs and seated as soon as possible. (This was in the bar area btw and not the dining area.)
I go around the corner to check out the Gazebo and get confronted by this 6 foot White Plastic Gazebo with Artificial Turf.
And to make matters worse the sun was blazing down straight in front of me.

I notice some grassy areas and decide to improvise.
This is really a lack of planning, and can be avoided

Guests arrive they all come round corner top get pictures taken and the girl who was arranging everything at the reception venue appears with an almighty tray full of drinks. Cue Pandemonium while everyone grabs drinks.

Lined up Bride and Bridesmaids for pictures and think....Hmm..someone is missing..
Seems the Arranging Girl had just sent random people including a Bridesmaid up the stairs to the bar. :wacky:
You need to be in control here 100%, not some doosy from the venue
I start taking pictures and 5 minutes later Arranging Girl appears and starts chasing everyone upstairs.
We dont actually move from the bar area to the dining area for about 35 minutes...Time i could have bloody well used.

What i really want to know is do the Wedding Togs on here contact the Limo companies, reception venue etc beforehand to make sure everyone is singing off the same song sheet?
We speak with the Bride, the wedding planner, the registrar/vicar and the venu before the wedding. If possible, I also visit before, and I arrive early. I have plans, routemaps, timings all sorted. We dont bother contacting all the vendors, however the quesions we put to the B&G cover this, and we do a run through of the days timings in the week before with the B&G. If something looks wrong we say. While you cant help the limo company screwing up, you can make surte you are fully prepared, and by proxy (via the B&G agreed all the timings. Often the conversation we have a week before hilights a whopping great big timing issue that needs dealing with
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This is were a second shooter come's in handy, that's my wife's job.:D, also in my contract I state >> We will try to cover every thing as planned unless thing's go wrong beyond our control and then we will do our best. Good luck for next time..
 
:LOL: Welcome Chris, to the world of 'what was planned rarely actually happens and when it does it won't be at the time they said it would' Your baptism of fire will have actually done you a world of good in many ways because now you can start planning how YOU will do it differently next time (y)
 
TTK said:
also in my contract I state >> We will try to cover every thing as planned unless thing's go wrong beyond our control and then we will do our best. Good luck for next time..
Click to expand...

I hope the last five words are not in your wedding contract :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
some of it cant be helped.
a fair bit of discussion with the B&G before hand, soerting what time you need helps with a lot of it.
we have , on occasion kept the caterers waiting while we got our shots, because THEY ballsed up the timing.
and yes, we tell them very clearly will will get the shots we require IF POSSIBLE.
sometimes theres nowt you can do, and you have to run with it.
there are two of us, which helps a lot.
i have been known to ask a few people to move into another room so i can get the shots the b&g have PAYED for us to take.
polite but firm.
if the limo firm had cocked up, i would be telling the b&g that the limo can wait ten mins.
ten mins wont hurt them, but it will make a hell of a difference to the album.
sounds like your wedding organiser needs an ass kicking.
ALWAYS check out the venues before hand, for alternative locations.
persuasion/herding is a big part of the job


**** does happen.
 
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