If we lived in a perfect world, we would be asked to advise wedding venue builders...

And I would have so many suggestions!!

1. Please do not paint the bridal suite or any other room in the venue yellow. Or green. Or orange. Please. And stick some pretty mirrors in there, and maybe a nice place to hang a dress and stage some shoes.

2. Don't light the indoor venue with fluorescent lights! Put a little effort into making the venue beautifully lit, even for indoor night weddings.

3. It would rock my world if you built a small area with some shelves and an electrical outlet, tucked out of sight but near the action, so that I could plug in a charger and stash a water bottle and some extra equipment.

4. Leave about 5 feet of room behind the area where the bride, groom and officiant will stand, so that the background can truly be in the background. And so that I can sneak back there and snap some shots from a vantage point other than the middle of the aisle, as the bride and groom are facing away from me. And build the speakers into the wall or ceiling so that the big black boxes on speaker stands won't be visible in photos.

5. Either build the altar area wide enough to make room for 20 or more bride/groom attendants (with room for a photog to manuever around them), or make a rule that there can only be 3 per side. (I vote 3 per side!! Haha!!)

What do you wish for???

I'll disagree with #1.... rest, I could get on board with

I did a shoot in one venue that had mirrors on the ceiling. There were specular lights on every face. It was exceedingly frustrating. Mirrors on the walls aren't much better. There's too great a chance that you will pick up the reflection of somebody's flash. So I am not a fan of mirrors.

jenward74 wrote in post #17438816
2. Don't light the indoor venue with fluorescent lights! Put a little effort into making the venue beautifully lit, even for indoor night weddings.

3. It would rock my world if you built a small area with some shelves and an electrical outlet, tucked out of sight but near the action, so that I could plug in a charger and stash a water bottle and some extra equipment.

Slower shutter speed deals with fluro's, and because they're physically larger they're probably better than spotlights. I have one venue I go to regularly that has both fluros and various colored spotlights.

For three unsure a bit of preparation could alleviate the need. I have 6 camera batteries, 80 AA batteries, and a ThinkTank rolling bag where I keep everything I need including drinks, snacks, two camera, 4 lenses, 4 flashes, etc, etc.

joedlh wrote in post #17438937
I did a shoot in one venue that had mirrors on the ceiling. There were specular lights on every face. It was exceedingly frustrating. Mirrors on the walls aren't much better. There's too great a chance that you will pick up the reflection of somebody's flash. So I am not a fan of mirrors.

I completely understand the dislike of mirrors in that situation.

The last venue I shot had yellow walls and fluorescent lights in the bridal suite. I used the 50L without flash for some of the bridal prep, and flash with the F-stoppers flash disk for some. Still had a lot of work in ACR to correct white balance. oh, and no full length mirror for the bride to see herself in!