My first wedding shoot ever... weirdest wedding ever... check out my story

[turbodude]

Ok first off, this is my first wedding as a first shooter. the bride and groom loved all the shots. I however, normally being my own toughest critique, am not too proud of them.

The wedding was very unorthodox. Wedding started at 8pm... Ceremony and Reception happened at virtually the same time. Held in a Meeting room of the Santa Fe Hotel and casino. Bride got ready in a hotel room, a very very small one at that. Was not allowed to take bridal party or groom party outside for formals.

i arrive at 6:30, i was told by bride and groom the room was going to be ready so i can get some detail shots and shots of teh dress shoes etc... I get there, another party is still in the meeting room. So i call the groom he meets me leads me up to the brides "dressing" room. Shes not there, he said she will be there in 30 min. In which i kinda freaked, I asked him if that was gonna be enough time for her to get ready, he said yeah she is getting her hair and make up down at some salon. I said cool. 700 rolls around bride still not there, meanwhile im waiting in this room. She gets to teh room at 715 without dress or shoes. I freaked again, asked her where teh dress was, she said with the bell hop. He doesnt arrive till 730 she is running around freaking out, I manage to shoot some detail shots in 5 min. She gets ready and is late... she arrives at 830. so already everything is 30 min late. They only have the room till 11.

Anyway fast forward to the ceremony, since its in a meeting room setup for dinner, the room is very very low lit. I had to shoot at iso3200 underexposed by one stop at 1/50 @1.8, it was crazy low. So anyway ceremony is over in 20 min. The toast commences. They turn up the lights... I was like WTF why not turn up the lights for the actual ceremony, bride and groom super pissed at the event coordinator. Then everyone grabs food at the buffet.

Garter toss and Bouquet toss commences during din din, no one really watching. DJ plays Everyone was kung fu fighting.

Then the first dance, again no one really paying attention because they are at the buffet line and eating.

Then something called the dollar dance happens, a hispanic tradition they say, where people donate a dollar to dance with either the bride or groom. Mom and dad get upset cuz no one is going up there. There were about 50 people total at the wedding... 15 people went up to dance.

Cake cutting, again no one paying attention

Then dancing on the dance floor.... DJ plays ****ing raggaeton! No one dances. bride and groom have to hustle folks on the dance floor. DJ plays YMCa some people dance, then hotel management yelling at the bride and groom explaining that they will shut down the party because they have heard complaints from the bartender that there is underage drinking... Drama ensues as the bride and groom start accusing family members... Party gets closed at 11pm...

all in all weirdest wedding and most low budget wedding i have ever been too...

Here are some pics
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[turbodude]

9
only filled up one page...
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YMCA
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/2960378919_50b8f25609_o.jpg

MOD EDIT:
Too many photos displayed - please read -=IMAGE POSTING RULES=- (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=194511)

[tim]

The photos are pretty good considering all that!

[moeronn]

The photos are pretty good considering all that!Agreed. If you didn't tell us the story, I wouldn't have thought anything went wrong.

[turbodude]

thanks, it was a bit rough. :)

[booboo]

DUDE it is called "MONEY DANCE"!!! a tradition that is hitting the US lately... well for a while now...

[turbodude]

they called it the dollar dance, havent heard of it before

[samurairx7]

you weren't kidding about the few people on the dance floor, but i think you did a good job and at least the bride and groom like it....

[AdrianeCale]

Yeah, Dollar Dances are pretty popular these days. I've even seen them auction off the first full dance, then everyone just lines up by who they want to dance with after that song is over. It's a good way for the couple to make some extra spending money for their honeymoon... but I've also seen couples only make $2! I always say, "Don't invite cheap people!"

I heard somewhere in Asia they have credit card machines set up in the reception hall for people to make donations for the couple... or was it at the ceremony site? I forget, but I still think that's pretty cool.

[spcalan]

Nice photos though!

[LVPhotos]

I hate to tell you but this sounds like about 50% of the wedding in Vegas, whether at Bellagio or at Santa Fe... and it doesn't matter how much pre-planning is done (we typically spend a minimum of 2 hours directly with the bride in pre-planning). This type of situation (minus the fight about closing the bar) has become "normal" for a lot of weddings in Vegas, whether locals or destination weddings.

So, I suggest ya get used to it! :)

Santa Fe is fun to shoot at ;) We shoot a ton there and also at Texas Station, our office is about 1/2 way between the 2.

The Dollar Dance, or Money Dance (east coast/west coast terms) has been around a LONG time, and actually the popularity is greatly DE-creasing... probably only around 25% of receptions do it anymore, mostly Hispanic, Hawaiian, and Phillipino events.

I liked the photos overall, though!

[turbodude]

thanks, it was pretty bad. i guess im just used to huge outdoor weddings at Lake Las Vegas and what not

[LVPhotos]

LOL even LLV has problems. We did a huge one 2 weeks ago at Loews and the GUESTS were late getting there... the bride (who hired us) refused to let our videographer into the bridal room (she was dressed, he just wanted to get a little pre-wedding footage)... she said "I'm too emotional, I don't want to be on video crying".

I can't tell the story about the reception (which was a blast) because the groom is fairly well-known (a celebrity in some circles).

[turbodude]

thats crazy, i guess thats why i dont do alot of weddings. mainly just filler work.

[RandyMN]

Sounds somewhat like my worst wedding nightmare except that mine had seven sqaud cars pulling in as I was pulling out from a fight that broke out in the parking lot between the groom, the groomsmen and the grooms mothers boyfriend.

The bride and groom arrived two hours after photo's start time, which was a half hour after wedding start time. They then sat for another hour without changing as a means of stating that no one was going to rush them on their wedding day.

Then, they now wanted photo's afterwards in which the reception was just down the hall and the guests were mad at me for keeping them from eating!

Now I try to be more selective, write up detailed contracts and stopped catering to the low ballers as far a pricing.

[turbodude]

yeah. i understand that. My pricing is the same pricing i do for celebrity events. 250/hr for processed hi res images on a disk. Im still working on package pricing.

my friend does it 2500 for 8/hours plus free e-session, low res disk of images, with 4x6 proofs in a leather box. everything else is additional.

thinking of starting that.

[collierportraits]

Turbo, that's called a wedding. Oh, sure, you'll get quite a few where everyone is on time and it's all a production, but there wasn't much you listed there that was really strange, including the money dance. I first saw that at an extremely well to do Italian wedding. They literally spent multiple thousands on photography, probably close to 15 years ago. Wedding was awesome and that's the first time I saw it so it's not a really new thing.

I began to expect everyone to be really late, then when everyone was on time, I don't hardly know what to do with myself even though mainly I'm shooting high budget affairs now... They're more on time, but chaos is still in abundance. Weddings = chaos. Fact of life. And, frankly I LOVE IT! Isn't it fun! Seriously, I love the energy and passion of weddings! Weird, I know. ;)

[Wedding Photography]

Thanks for sharing your weird but interesting experience! I agree that the photos are pretty good considering all that!

[Kissa]

The photos definitely hide all the drama

great job :)

[potn_momma2]

haha what a mess... enjoyed the pics, really liked the first

p.s. you have a wicked website!

[turbodude]

haha what a mess... enjoyed the pics, really liked the first

p.s. you have a wicked website!


thanks!! :)

[duntov]

You'd think the DJ would of done a better job of making the reception flow smoothly. A DJ can make or break a reception yet people don't really take them too seriously. there are good ones out there and there are horrible ones.

[butcha27]

It sounds like you've endured a lot of the things that make wedding photography a lot harder than it seems.

However, even if the wedding was low budget, judging by your shots, you have created some lovely memories for them that will make it look anything but low budget.

[amature450d]

hi !

love your pics!!!

do you have any helpful tips or settings to use for the perfect wedding pics?
my first wedding shoot for a friend... bit nervous!

i have a canon 450d & 350d.
i have done advertisement shoots and promo shoots before. but this is a totally different ball game so all advice would be appreciated!

thanks
nic :D

[René Damkot]

hi !

love your pics!!!

do you have any helpful tips or settings to use for the perfect wedding pics?
Created your own thread: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=10562846#post10562846

[Missykay]

I don't understand why it was a nightmare. The bride was an hour late and the ceremony was low light. It sounds like every wedding I've ever shot ;)

[zagiace]

I had a stranger one then that...
A few weeks ago I arrived early to scout and the bride was ready. Then i met the guys and they were sober and on time.
I get to the ceremony and it was beautifully lit. the reception was filled with happy dancing people.

Ok, that was a fib. But seriously, almost every event I have has something in common with your story. I have had a bride show up 2 hours after the ceremony was suppose to start. No call, they had no idea where she was. I was thinking to myself, "call it, this ones a goner!" But, she showed. I was surprised they waited.
One of the toughest parts of being a wedding photog. you have a lot of stuff you have to adapt to.

[images by Paul]

It's why, as a wedding photographer, you need to have the experience and ability to accommodate the unexpected. I think we all have stories of weddings that didn't go off as planned and like Missykay said, virtually every bride is late.
Our job is to make the end results not show the problems of the day. I had a wedding a few years ago where the bride agreed with the facility to pay them on the day of the wedding. When she could only come up with a portion of the money, they gave her a total of one hour in the room. In that hour, I spoke to the DJ and we got toast, first dance, cake, flowers and garter toss, parent dances, a group shot of the entire reception and one dance for the group. Her album looks like a full blown wedding and not the disaster it was.
Adapting is a necessity of any wedding photographer.

[bdavisx]

Agreed. If you didn't tell us the story, I wouldn't have thought anything went wrong.

Well, that's part of our job right (making everything look like it was perfect, even when it wasn't)?

Bill.