My 1st wedding as assistant

[bigfredtn]

I have to admit that shooting weddings are hard work. I asked my friend if I could tag along. Little did I know that it would be all work.

Here is our schedule
1:00pm arrive at location and set up
2:00pm shoot some of the wedding pictures before had. Family shots, groomsmen, bridesmaids. (None with the bride) Do this until 3:00pm
3:30pm wedding starts
4:15pm Wedding over
4:30pm more pictures
5:45pm Finish taking pictures at the church
6:30pm Began taking pictures at the reception
9:00pm we finish up at the reception.
9:40pm Arrive home.
9:50pm In my bed asleep.


All in all I had a good time. It was a learning experience. For someone who is thinking about doing this for a living, it is a real job. Hell I was nervous about taking pictures, and my pictures did not count.

[tim]

Weddings are definitely hard work, I work harder at every wedding than I have at any other job in my life. In my 8 hours coverage I usually get about 5 minutes to sit down to have a quick meal, and even then i'm often up and down.

[verty]

Does anyone get a headache because they are unable to eat during the day of a wedding shoot??

how do you overcome this?

by having a massive breakfast?

[SuzyView]

I get a headache just trying to remember all the things I'm supposed to be doing. :(

[Curtis N]

3:30pm wedding starts
4:15pm Wedding overMan, that's a loooong wedding!

[SuzyView]

Man, that's a loooong wedding!

That's so true. A zillion years ago I was one of 4 bridesmaids for my best friend. I was 6 months pregnant and looked like a stuffed pig, but anyway, I stray. I stood there in 95 degrees inside an old church without air conditioning. I almost fainted. The ceremony lasted quite awhile and I had to stand the whole time. I wish I was the photographer then. At least I could have knelt down. :rolleyes:

[arthurgoh]

Some asian weddings take the whole day

Typical Chinese wedding:
5-6 am Bride begins make-up (photogs doing PJ style cover these)
7-8 am Groom fights his way into brides house, tea ceremony and bride's family portraits
9-10 am religious ceremony
12 pm lunch reception (usually for those who aren't invited to dinner)
2-4pm Groom's house, tea ceremony and groom's family portraits
4-5pm Dinner prep (make-up) and photog rushing to do slideshow for dinner
6-11pm Dinner Banquet

but the photogs charge a whole lot more...

[SuzyView]

The typical Chinese wedding is so involved. The bride has to wear the white gown for a short time, but the red dresses are overwhelmingly beautiful. Then there's the jewelry. I've seen brides that look like Mr. T. :)

[arthurgoh]

you can say that the traditional chinese go for the *bling*

social status and 'face' are important concepts for the conventional asians, so as a rule the weddings are big and flashy

[Gujustud]

45min = long wedding? Hardly! Indian weddings are crazy long. Specially if you count the coverage on other days such as mendhi night, maiya night, pithi, etc.

[tim]

Here Catholic ceremonies (sorry if I spelt that wrong) are 40 minutes, but typical NZ ceremonies are 10-20 minutes usually. I had one as short as 5 minutes.

Does anyone get a headache because they are unable to eat during the day of a wedding shoot??

how do you overcome this?

by having a massive breakfast?

The only way you'll stop me eating is by tearing off my arms. I keep protein/snack bars in my main camera bag, and if I know I need to I keep something more substantial in the car. Usually I get offered food when the bride and bridesmaids have lunch, and I usually accept. I drive an automatic car specifically so I can eat with my left hand while I steer with my right. I take 5 minutes to eat dinner when the customers do, ideally I eat at the same time as the bridal party so i'm ready when they're done. Usually dinners are long enough that I can eat last and still finish before the bridal party finish.

Also, wear comfortable shoes, you'll really appreciate this after 8-10 hours on your feet. The most expensive shoes I own are the ones I wear to weddings, they have some fancy soles but look formal.

[Hellashot]

[QUOTE=bigfredtn;2335509]I have to admit that shooting weddings are hard work. I asked my friend if I could tag along. Little did I know that it would be all work.

Here is our schedule
1:00pm arrive at location and set up
2:00pm shoot some of the wedding pictures before had. Family shots, groomsmen, bridesmaids. (None with the bride) Do this until 3:00pm
3:30pm wedding starts
4:15pm Wedding over
4:30pm more pictures
5:45pm Finish taking pictures at the church
6:30pm Began taking pictures at the reception
9:00pm we finish up at the reception.
9:40pm Arrive home.
9:50pm In my bed asleep.
QUOTE]

Looks like a short day. The photographer for one of my niece's wedding this summer (medium format film) started at the hotel where they were staying getting ready at about 10:30-11am and he left the reception at 11pm. He "may" have had an hour break in the late aternoon.

[JMHPhotography]

Does anyone get a headache because they are unable to eat during the day of a wedding shoot??

how do you overcome this?

by having a massive breakfast?

I tell my clients that I will not be taking any photos during dinner as a courtesy to the guests. They understand and respect that, and the guest appreciate being allowed to eat without worrying about being photographed while shoving food in their face.

Usually, we are allowed to eat while the guests are eating and more often than not, my assistant and myself are invited to sit among the guests and eat dinner with everyone else. This is a result of establishing a relationship with my clients before the event and I'm told that it's nice because they feel like I'm part of the event.

[JMHPhotography]

45min = long wedding? Hardly! Indian weddings are crazy long. Specially if you count the coverage on other days such as mendhi night, maiya night, pithi, etc.

The mendhi is the part where the decorations are painted on the hands of the bride right? I mean I know there is more to it than that, but I'm just wondering about the painting part.

[NBEast]

Also, wear comfortable shoes, you'll really appreciate this after 8-10 hours on your feet. The most expensive shoes I own are the ones I wear to weddings, they have some fancy soles but look formal.
My most comfortable shoes have rubber soles and squeek like crazy on hard floors. Now that would be embarrasing!

[inthedeck]

^^ You got it forkball. The Mehndi is where the bride (and other members of the family) receive a treatment of henna (a temp. natural tattoo) on their arms/feet. The bride is covered on both arms, and feet. The other members may choose where they get mehndi (henna) applied. Here's a picture of my wife's hands, during the mehndi party...

And to the OP...I am glad that you had a change to do what you did...as tough as it sounds. I am sure it was an enjoyable, yet tiring experience. Not many that can say they even had that chance. Good luck, should that be the path you decide to take.

[bigfredtn]

Here is one of the pictures that I took.

[Wazza]

Would have to post a little larger to see the detail more.

They seem nicely lined up though, too bad about the brown grass.

As for long weddings, my first ever with a camera, I was assisting Tim, and start to finish was a 12 hour day for us. :o

[tim]

As for long weddings, my first ever with a camera, I was assisting Tim, and start to finish was a 12 hour day for us. :o

I thought it was more like 14... that was my longest wedding ever, and now I set a time limit rather than say "all day coverage".

[goforphoto]

My favorite weddings(not) it when the pastor has somewhere else to be and wam bam ceremony is over in 5 minutes . you bearly have enough time to go from takeing shot of bride and father walking down the isle to shots of bride and groom making return trip.

[bigfredtn]

Here are a couple more pictures from the wedding.

[strmrdr]

not too bad at all...
in the group shot the last guy on the photographers right got lost behind the other guy.
The spacing of the 2nd guy from the end on the left could have been improved.
A little smaller in number f-stop to fade the building into the background and it would be an awesome picture.

In the b&g shot.. a few hot spots that could be fixed in PP, better centering of the people in the shot and backing or zooming out a tad would have made a good shot better.
Im not a fan of someone growing out the side of the frame is my biggest problem with it.

[bigfredtn]

Most of my shots were off centered. I gave the main photographer all the space that he needed. I was sneaking shots after he would shoot. One problem that I had was the guy who was videotaping the wedding. He sat up in the same spot as the main photographer, and was taping and taking snapshots with his camera. And on his video camera, he had a light on top of the camera that was on during my pictures. The main photographer made him wait until he shot, before letting the video guy shoot. And this led to me and the video guy shooting at the same time. I did not think that it was a big deal until I started looking at a few pictures.

But overall I had a good time and a wonderful learning experience.

[woffles]

My second wedding, first by myself started at about 9:30 AM and ended around 10PM. Long day and my feet hurt! I need better shoes.