Need help for Wedding lens selection

So just recently I did my first wedding as an assistant photographer. I brought my 17-40, 50 1.4, and my 135. The first thing that stuck out to me was how much of a pain in the a$$ it was to constantly keep changing lenses depending on the situation. I basically wanted to invest some money soon on a few lenses. Now what I have to keep in mind is that I love to do portrait work, indoors and outdoors, and I love my primes! I was originally going to purchase the 70-200 and the 24-70. Problem is I wanted to spend that money on a 35L and 85L setup. If I want to make life easier if I'm going to be doing both portraiture and weddings in the future, I guess I would have to split this down the middle.

What do you guys think of using the 70-200, 35L and 17-40 for weddings? I would basically narrow it down to two lenses for the day, and pull out the 17-40 for specific shots. Do you think the 35L is a good replacement for the 24-70?

Also, I'm looking into buying the canon 50mm macro lens for some ring shots and stuff like that. I don't know if anyone here has had experience with that lens?

You can't go wrong with 24-70....get a second body maybe? one with 24-70 and the other with your primes

kin2son wrote in post #13406328
You can't go wrong with 24-70....get a second body maybe? one with 24-70 and the other with your primes

One thing I forgot to mention is I will be getting a 5D2 soon so I can use my 5Dc as the second body. I understand that it doesn't get much better than the 24-70 for these situations but my thing is that I also want to invest in something I will use a lot for my portraiture work as well. Like I mentioned before, I love to use primes exclusively for portraits. Who knows, maybe in the future I will end up with a 24-70 anyway. I just need to know if the 35L will be able to cover for the 24-70 well enough at weddings.

The way I see it is that in that range, 24mm - 70mm, I should have the opportunity to move my feet back and forth to cover the same area with the 35L and still get the same shots. For the shots where I needed to stay away or at a specific spot during the ceremony, the 135L wasn't doing it for me. When you must stay in a single spot to not disturb the ceremony, a prime is very limited. That's where I draw the conclusion that the 70-200 is a must have. Plus I have seen that it also makes for a great portrait lens so that's a plus.

DigiNon wrote in post #13406351
The way I see it is that in that range, 24mm - 70mm, I should have the opportunity to move my feet back and forth to cover the same area with the 35L and still get the same shots. For the shots where I needed to stay away or at a specific spot during the ceremony, the 135L wasn't doing it for me. When you must stay in a single spot to not disturb the ceremony, a prime is very limited. That's where I draw the conclusion that the 70-200 is a must have. Plus I have seen that it also makes for a great portrait lens so that's a plus.

I am not too sure about replacing 24-70 with 35L....it might not be as easy as you think.

Can't argue with you about the 70-200....it's a great and very versatile lens on the wedding day

Yeah, one thing I have learned using primes is that they require a lot more work to use them. It makes you move around a lot more and recompose most of the time. It's all worth it when you look at the pics later on though

DigiNon wrote in post #13406391
Yeah, one thing I have learned using primes is that they require a lot more work to use them. It makes you move around a lot more and recompose most of the time. It's all worth it when you look at the pics later on though

totally agree, i am a prime lover myself. Problem is, when you are doing a paid gig, your client probably can't tell whether you used a zoom or prime, and you probably don't have much time (if any) or space to compose your shot as you would have liked.

If 2nd shooting, I would recommend a 70-200 or a 85L. You need a longer lens so you aren't in the way, and so you can get great grab shots

kin2son wrote in post #13406406
totally agree, i am a prime lover myself. Problem is, when you are doing a paid gig, your client probably can't tell whether you used a zoom or prime, and you probably don't have much time (if any) or space to compose your shot as you would have liked.

Yup, I had several moments like this where I had to change lenses super fast so the guests didn't have to wait too long for a pic. But this was mainly when I had the 135L on the camera and I needed just a bit wider shot. I'm sure the 70-200 would have solved that problem.

smorter wrote in post #13406750
If 2nd shooting, I would recommend a 70-200 or a 85L. You need a longer lens so you aren't in the way, and so you can get great grab shots

So do you think that as the assistant photog, I should be ok with the 35L and 70-200?

Thanks for the replies so far guys. It's a tough decision for me because i want to spend the money right (for my needs) the first time since it's a big investment for me.