Today's Wedding - crazy & short !!!

DiddyDave

DiddyDave

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We had a Wedding on today for Adele's (Dellipher's) best mate - a cheap n cheerful affair


Adele collects me at 12.00 pm

Brief was simple enough, arrive at Town Hall for 12.40 to shoot Groom and Groomsmen arriving on motorbikes (different); followed by Bride & Bridesmaids in mystery car; service at 1.30 pm; groups on Town Hall steps; off to local Priory for immediate Wedding party shoot until 3pm (i.e. 20mins tops) - DONE


Here's what happened... oh, and to set the scene the Bride is also 7 months pregnant and large with it, is tired on arrival and it's bloody HOT

12.30 - arrive at Town Hall - Groom already there, only 1 now arriving on a bike

12.40 - solitary Groomsman biker arrives, stops at barrier, drops bike, falls on floor and gets himself covered in dust & muck. Bits of bike fall off, biker bleeding, gets blood on Groom's white waistcoat :eek:

After brushing him down and NOT being allowed to photography any of that pending immediate divorce!!! We take a series of fun 'lad' shots with jackets firmly fastened to hide the blood (it must be 80 degrees and they are dripping sweat)

1.00 - (and 10 mins early) Bride arrives in pink '57 Cadillac - Groom not only sees her, but as she gets out they start posing for shots together for their few guests (a bit weird methinks :thinking:)

1.15 - B&G go into Reg Office for preliminaries to their 1.30 Wedding. Bride is suffering from heat, and a new drinks water tank is called for - the ceremony starts late

1.45 - (yep the Registrar tried to get back on time by rushing the ceremony into just 10 mins!!!) we are out for the newlywed shots

Straight into the NEXT Wedding Party waiting on the stairs :eek:

We literally push past them and format the first group shot, asking some of the next party to shift

We now have 10 mins for a series of interior shots and 'romantic' ones at that. Bride is so hot and bothered she'd rather cut his nadgers off than look sexily or lovingly at him, so we venture outside for larger groups shots on the Town Hall steps

2.00 - there is now our Wedding Party outside Town Hall, one having their Ceremony done inside, one on the stairs waiting and TWO outside waiting for their slots getting in the way :(

Groups shots in full Sun with dozens of intermingling Wedding people proves interesting :bang:

2.15 - we head off for their preferred shoot location (the one they've allocated 20 mins for)

Adele & I arrive first - IT'S F-ING SHUT !!!!!!! Apparently they are filming some 'Mystery Plays' there for a month [I've never known the Priory to be shut for anything in the last 20 years or so, and there was no mention of this 4 weeks ago when I called in last]

Wedding Party arrive - Bride looks like blubbing - so I suggest a race across town to a park. They seem unimpressed but follow anyway

On arrival they are amazed at how close & pretty this section of park is - and we shoot for the full 15 mins before the Bride has had enough; during which time we shoot about 20 varied groups shots... FAST

We wave goodbye at 2.50

3.15 - Adele drops me of again, job done

3.45 - after a shower, I hit my first Stella - there's plenty more of those to come ;)


Now to write my next piece... "So you think Wedding Photography is easy? :LOL:

DD
 
Rather you than me.. sounds hectic!
 
Dave,

Apart from my consummate incompetence with a camera, your wonderful account would put me off doing weddings for life - I hope you have enough Stella to dull the pain :D

B.
 
OMG, that doesn't sound like a fun way to spend a saturday. :shake:
And I thought I was struggling with my family portrait shoot with 7 people in my not overly large studio and the aircon on the blink.
I'm sure a few Stellas will help though
 
A lesser (read weekend warrior) would have folded ......

Well done

Best I have is the groom trying to do a runner 10 minutes before the ceremony and the ushers running after him and dragging him back ......

Mine seems a piece of cake to yours - oh and where are the pictures ?

And really I don't believe you didn't get any of the biker arriving
 
Sounds mad! I did one today, Family who let me know on weds that they are getting married today a quiet one at a register office. So as I know they dont have much cash I asked if they had anyone taking photos, which I knew would be no . So I offered my services for free and as I have just bought a SB-900 afew weeks ago I wanted to try it out and get used to it. Never used flash before! I think I did good But I did struggle abit as the after buffet was back at someones house and it was rather dark, I think Ive got afew good shots but got a long way to go to master flash photography.
 
Dominic5749 said:
Sounds mad! I did one today, Family who let me know on weds that they are getting married today a quiet one at a register office. So as I know they dont have much cash I asked if they had anyone taking photos, which I knew would be no . So I offered my services for free and as I have just bought a SB-900 afew weeks ago I wanted to try it out and get used to it. Never used flash before! I think I did good But I did struggle abit as the after buffet was back at someones house and it was rather dark, I think Ive got afew good shots but got a long way to go to master flash photography.
Click to expand...

Jeez - brave man indeed (y)

DD
 
spxxxx said:
And really I don't believe you didn't get any of the biker arriving
Click to expand...


Well we heard a loud BANG from around the corner just out of sight

I joked that the biker had dropped it - a couple of mins later he arrived in a cloud of dust with broken bits to hand and we were told that on NO UNCERTAIN TERMS the Bride MUST NOT KNOW about it

So NO there are NO photos - however funny it may seem :(

DD
 
PHEW!


Just out of interest how many pics did you take....and how many expected keepers.....
 
jolsterj said:
PHEW!


Just out of interest how many pics did you take....and how many expected keepers.....
Click to expand...


I took 470 on camera #1 and 70 on camera #2 - of which I'd expect 200 ish as Keepers (due to replication for blinking etc.). Adele will have at least another 100 to blend in, so 250-300 to show the client

Smaller shoots always mean less 'quality' shots for the client to view - but as their expectations are less (deliberately so) then their expectations will have at least been met if not exceeded

Oh - and Adele is a guest as a family friend - so more later shots may still be added (y)

DD
 
Cool I have started a new thread on the ''how many do you take / keepers''

just to keep this thread all yours:nuts:
 
2 saturdays ago now, I had a wedding on. Actually, we had 2 weddings on. Matt and Steve were covering one, and I the other.

I'd been pretty ill with asthma all the week leading up to the wedding. At 4.30AM on Saturday morning I had an asthma attack. I had to call the ambulance out (I was home alone - very scary!). So the paramedics came, put me on oxygen, took my blood etc etc - wanted me to go to hospital.

"I have a wedding in 3 hours" says I.
"You need to be in hospital mate - you're not good!"...
"What would it take for me to persuade you otherwise?" says a brave me
"Your heart rate to be below 100bpm and your breathing to have eased".
So 40 mins later - I satisfied this criteria. Went and did the wedding, at 2.00PM I rushed to Pinderfields, checked over, back to the studio - quick process - back to the night do with the projector and quick edited pics.....went down a storm :D

Needless to say, I had a few days off after that and got some R&R. All in the day of a wedding tog....geees!!
 
spxxxx said:
And really I don't believe you didn't get any of the biker arriving
Click to expand...


Me either, Matt Sayle would have caught that with a panning shot catching the blood vessels bursting as he hit the deck.:D

7 months pregnant in Florida style heat can't have been much fun, no wonder she was cheesed off , sounds like you had a challenging day
 
Oh well done. it sounds like a very hectic day. Hope the bride and groom chilled later.

So do you get a bigger 'buzz' from doing a wedding like that as opposed to a big organised event in a fab location?
 
You wedding people, turn up and work for 2 hours and 20 mins then go home again and think you have had a hard day :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Its the sort of thing that would make a good comedy sketch though, and it could be an amusing way ti spend some time watching wedding photographers playing herd the bride and groom + dodge the other weddings while trying to work out which guests belong to who!!
 
Wow now that was a mad day ...... while you was running round like a crazed tog in a heatwave, I was sat at a frinds BBQ throwing everyone in the kiddies paddling pool .... great fun

Definatley prefer my way of spending a saturday afternoon.
 
Sounds easy mate ;)

I was at a football presentation evening last night with 250 players all needing individual photos and team photos and then about 15 % had another award which meant another individual photo. That would be OK if the players were grown ups but no this was 250 6-16 yr olds and there seemed to be quite a few of the players treating the hall as a playground and running about - must have come alone as I didn't see many parents getting them under control. After 4hrs of herding the players on and off the set I left Oldham QE Hall at 11:30 to find the m-way junction shut so I had to drive in to the middle of Manchester and down the A6 back to stockport this means that rather than a short blast round the M60 at 70 (officer ;)) I was stopped at nearly every set of lights on the way through a 30 zone got home at about 12:30 I then had to unpack the car and put a holding page on the website before going to bed about 2:00.

Would be OK if I hadn't been helping a mate at a Wedding today (actually the same guy who helped me at the Football Presentation Eve) so it was up at 6:30 to shower dress in a suit and tie (on a hot and muggy day) to get to the reception venue for 9:00 so we could get some room shots (save some time later), then off to the Grooms where I was covering him getting ready. That went fine but the bride beat the other tog to the reception as the father of the bride directed the car. Good job I was there already :) Ceremony went well but took some organising as we had a 1/2 hour window to get into the reception venue as the venue had 2 weddings on that day and both arriving within 30 mins of each other and we were first. Needless to say we missed the window and both groups arrived at about the same time. Not only that both my Sat Navs decided to get stroppy on the way from the church to the reception and I despite having done a dry run last weekend I took the worlds biggest detour and got there after the B&G :bang: fortunately my mate was in a different car and returned my favour from earlier in the day an caught the arrival.

To cut a long story short I've just got home with aching feet, wrists and legs, having lost 2 stone through sweat. All I want to do is open a can of cold cider but as I've stopped drinking at home I can't.

Still despite all this I've had a great time and I'd do it all again next weekend if I could.

I'm going to put my feet up and check out the order that I've got today from one of my other events this month :D
 
You know, at times I think - that would be good fun - I'll just put in a bit of practice and become a pro togger - you only work occasional hours, and all you have to do is sit behind a lens pushing the shutter release...

On second thoughts, maybe I'll stick to my day job. This has two advantages:
1) Far less work
2) I'm good at my day job!

:LOL:

Good work guys - glad someone's putting in the effort! :clap:
 
I couldn't help laughing Dave, people think it's so easy doing weddings.
My Friday wedding wasn't as bad as that but pretty odd, we came out of the church to find the path blocked by a man on a horse (who didn't want to move), then the wedding car broke down (nothing setious only the gearbox I was told) Then I discovered my assistant cant reverse to save her life, and she blocked the road for about 10 minutes, she also forgot to bring her camera gear, but I'd anticipated that one and bought a spare kit for her lol.
 
:LOL:


I feel your pain mate .

Sound like yours went as well if not worse than the one I had the other week......


Only difference your couple had you and mine had me:LOL:


md(y)


speak soon buddy:wave:
 
And I thought it was going to end with:

1500 - bride starts panting in the heat, has a few tummy pains

1515 - in full labour. ripped up my shirts for towels, got the hot water out, put the camera down and assisted in bringing a new life into the world.

1530 - Managed not to get the lens dirty, so full photo shoot of a new family ensues, before ambulance arrives to take them to hospital (wonder if I can charge double for the extra work......)

1600 - crack the first stella, whilst wondering if suggesting "Diddy" as a name for the little girl would be a good thing, good job it wasn't a boy....
 
swanseamale47 said:
I couldn't help laughing Dave, people think it's so easy doing weddings.
My Friday wedding wasn't as bad as that but pretty odd, we came out of the church to find the path blocked by a man on a horse (who didn't want to move), then the wedding car broke down (nothing setious only the gearbox I was told) Then I discovered my assistant cant reverse to save her life, and she blocked the road for about 10 minutes, she also forgot to bring her camera gear, but I'd anticipated that one and bought a spare kit for her lol.
Click to expand...

Surely you're referring to your 'Ex assistant' there mate :LOL:

DD
 
lawrie29 said:
And I thought it was going to end with:

1500 - bride starts panting in the heat, has a few tummy pains

1515 - in full labour. ripped up my shirts for towels, got the hot water out, put the camera down and assisted in bringing a new life into the world.

1530 - Managed not to get the lens dirty, so full photo shoot of a new family ensues, before ambulance arrives to take them to hospital (wonder if I can charge double for the extra work......)

1600 - crack the first stella, whilst wondering if suggesting "Diddy" as a name for the little girl would be a good thing, good job it wasn't a boy....
Click to expand...



I was with you as possible alternative until that bit mate - I'm a photographer you know :D

DD
 
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