First Wedding (Amateur)

Does your local camera shop give you the option of renting equipment? The local shop in my city rents lenses and cameras too, I think. Maybe you could rent a lens for your camera. Just a thought.

honestly, your setup is completely fine, assuming you have communicated with the B&G about your experience and expectations. there's no reason why you need all the fancy gats and gadgets for any shoot, and going in with a 50mm is the perfect focal length (imo). On a 60d, it might be a bit tight, but i'm sure you can make it work.

if i were you, just get a wider lens (rent or buy), maybe 35mm or 24mm f1.4/2.8 and you'll be fine.

Trent Gillespie wrote in post #16222065
Thanks for the compliment. If you can work it, do a walk through of the ceremony and reception site during the time of day you'll be shooting. This will give you a good idea where shadows will be falling and where you might find shade. Also, formulate a timeline with the bride of who, when and where you want to take pictures of. Everyone WILL be looking at you of what to do next... If you can rattle off phrases like "Bridal party follow me," and "I need the bride's mother, grandma/grandpa in 10 minutes" with confidence, the more respect you'll get and the smoother everything will flow.

The reason we're being so critical is that weddings are like no other beast out there. Yes, you need the correct equipment first, but secondly, and most importantly, you need to be able to work with groups of people, tight timelines and unexpected circumstances. You will be amazed at what unfolds on the day of a wedding.

Since my girlfriend is in the wedding I am going to the rehearsal and I will be taking pics there. And lucky for me I know most of the wedding party so it shouldn't be too hard directing them. I want to have some practice there as well as see how the place will be set up. I'm going to rent a wider lens too and put it on my T1I and carry the 50mm on my 60d.

windhorst3187 wrote in post #16226856
Since my girlfriend is in the wedding I am going to the rehearsal and I will be taking pics there. And lucky for me I know most of the wedding party so it shouldn't be too hard directing them. I want to have some practice there as well as see how the place will be set up. I'm going to rent a wider lens too and put it on my T1I and carry the 50mm on my 60d.

Sounds good. Knowing the wedding party can go either one of two ways... They'll either listen to everything you say, or they'll have very little respect for what you want to do. I would let them know you have a job to do, and if you happen to be a little up tight, there are no hard feelings.

if you can subscribed to icesociety.com, the website of Jerry Ghionis, he has lots of actual BTS video of covering a wedding that covers all. Preparation of the bride and groom, ceremony, formals and reception. Even videos of engagement photoshoot.

He's being video recorded doing actual wedding. I just had my first wedding and it helps me a lot. I spend about a month watching all his videos.

All other things are already given to you above.

if you can rent at least a 17-50 f2.8(sigma or tamron), it's a lot better than your kit lens. That and your 50mm.

i would suggest to rent a 70-200 f2.8 if you have a full frame but for a small indoor venue, it won't work.

hope it helps.

vinmunoz wrote in post #16230505
if you can subscribed to icesociety.com, the website of Jerry Ghionis, he has lots of actual BTS video of covering a wedding that covers all. Preparation of the bride and groom, ceremony, formals and reception. Even videos of engagement photoshoot.

He's being video recorded doing actual wedding. I just had my first wedding and it helps me a lot. I spend about a month watching all his videos.

All other things are already given to you above.

if you can rent at least a 17-50 f2.8(sigma or tamron), it's a lot better than your kit lens. That and your 50mm.

i would suggest to rent a 70-200 f2.8 if you have a full frame but for a small indoor venue, it won't work.

hope it helps.

Vinz,
Did you use the free option or one of the paid options on that site?

Your getting some good advice here. I was also going to suggest that you rent a couple of lenses. Canon 17-55f/2.8 and the 70-200 f/2.8. Every wedding I shoot I say it will be my last. I have one tomorrow and I'm sure sometime during it I will be thinking never again. One big advice I can give that hasn't been mentioned yet is put a bottle of Ibuprofen in your camera bag. I have only shot around 15 weddings but have yet had one to where I didn't need pain pills for either back, legs, head or feet hurting. Typical wedding will include kids not behaving for pictures, somebody in the wedding party not liking having their picture taken, other people trying to take pictures at both wedding and reception and getting in the way and did I mention your back hurting lol. Good luck with everything and let us know how it went.

some also gives us the looks like we don't know what we're doing. some of the guest will have gears better than ours sometimes.

vinmunoz wrote in post #16230801
some also gives us the looks like we don't know what we're doing. some of the guest will have gears better than ours sometimes.

True. But if you show confidence, you'll have the attention of your bride and groom. Just tonight, I had a guest show up with a 5DIII and a 24-105mm... which is a great kit. However, come reception time, he was trying to sneak second shots in from my vantage point... but he couldn't lock AF fast enough to hit anything. After asking the bride and groom to hold their cake kiss... and then to re-kiss, he kindly put his camera down for a bit. What wonders an AF assist beam can do in dimly lit reception halls.

Worst nightmare ever.......I went to rehearsal and took several pics and the place was too small for my 50mm 1.4 I got some decent pics from way back but the lighting was spotty all over the place. I finally dialed my settings in on my camera and started getting decent pics with my speedlite. This is Friday night and the wedding is on Sunday. Well about ten minutes before we left to go to rehearsal my dog bit my son's hand. He's never been aggressive towards anything/anyone, but my son, like any 2 year old boy, tortures the hell out of my dog. It was just a quick snap and he got my son's hand but my dog was scared to death afterwards because he knew he messed up and he looked like he felt bad. My girlfriend and I cleaned the bite and put neosporin on it and wrapped it up while we went to rehearsal. It wasn't bothering my son at all. After rehearsal his hand still looked the same so we kept up with replacing his bandages. The next day (Saturday, wedding is Sunday) I notice his hand started to swell up and turn red. Then in the evening his hand produced a red wavy line up his arm indicating that it was infected and it was spreading. So we took him to the ER and after several hours of waiting they told us that we would have to stay the night and possibly the next night because of the infection. This is at midnight Saturday/Sunday. I ended up not making the wedding but found a decent photographer to used my equipment for the wedding. My girlfriend, who was a bride's maid was also in charge of doing all the bride's maids' hair. It broke her heart to leave our son with me at the hospital, but she went and did all of their hair and makeup and then came back to the hospital. We both missed the wedding and we were a major part of it.

Life happens when you're making plans! Sorry for the news article about my weekend lol.

i'm sorry about your son. hope he's ok and the infections will go away.

One thing about the wedding. you must have a backup photographer(not a second shooter) to replace you in case of emergency on the wedding day. or if your camera go nuts on the wedding day.

but most importantly, i really hope your son is ok. i'm also a father.

My son's fine, it was a bit overboard, but the back up photographer did a decent job. I'm in charge of editing all of the pics so all in all it turned out okay. I wish I could have experienced it to have that under my belt.