First time Disasters anybody ?

I'm just curious, as I was browsing through the threads, there are many from first time wedding shooters " please help!!!".
For what ever reason, be it friend of a friend , family, or "You've got a big one you must be good", the advice is nearly always the same, and that is they should hire a Pro.
Okay sound advice can't argue with that, however is there anybody who did not heed this advice and completely cocked it up, and if so just how bad a job of it did you make.

Okay i know it may take some guts to admit you screwed up, but please tell all.

Well, either nobody's had a first-time wedding disaster or they're just too embarassed to admit it...

I don't know if I'd call it a "disaster", but certainly my skills were not up to the level that I thought they were. I didn't get any complaints from the couple or the family, but looking back at the images, they pretty much were not up to what I had envisioned, for my first shoot. Grainy, and noisy, the hall was pretty low rent, and it rained outside, so the formals were in a gazebo in the rain. I got it done, and got my check, but none of those images are shown to the future clients...

Oh yeah, did I mention the pregnant bride and the police officer groom that bore a strong resemblance to "Uncle Fester". who wouldn't crack a smile to save his life?

The only thing that really wasn't right at my first wedding was using stage lighting in a theater for the formals. They had an odd red color cast that was difficult to fix even with RAW. Other than that it went great, as first weddings go, even though it rained all day.

I guess my only disaster came in my 3rd year of shooting (I'm knocking on wood right now; I have a wedding tomorrow!). I was photographing the bride coming down the stairs of a 2nd-story balcony, and I was going to turn around and shoot her coming up the aisle (when she finally got there; it was a 2 minute walk from the balcony to the front of the aisle), as I had done for the other members of the bridal party. Unbeknownst to me, someone had placed a table directly behind me, and set up a couple wine glasses, a candle and some bread. When I turned around to get the bride coming up the aisle I spilled the wine, all over the groom's pants! The candle also went out and the bread landed on the floor. Yikes....

Well.....my 1st Wedding was a nightmare.
1 Flower Girls were sick, both attacked by mosquitos and had welts all over their faces.
2 I think the bridesmaids disliked each other .
3 No one was ready.
4 Groom angry, Bride in tears.
5 Bride didnt come out of bedroom till 3.25pm.....Ceremony was 10 mins away at 3.30.
6 One of the bridesmaids went missing she didnt arrive in the wedding cars...she had driven herself .
7 Group and formal shots were supposed to be at the church..groom decides at last minute that they will be taken at the reception ( at their home)
8 On arrival at the house one of the groomsmen promptly gets changed into jeans and shirt. Bride and Groom not happy had to wait, mean while everyone is congregating around and talking to Bride and Groom...people everywhere.
9 Groomsman arrives dressed again ....this time a bridesmaid went missing.
10 Groom went to find her...she was breastfeeding her bub.
My list could honestly go up to 20 different incidents.. needless to say I did not get one shot of all the wedding party together. The Bride and Groom just gave up trying.

Did I mention the weather....4 seasons in one day.
I had prepared well for the wedding...but no amount of backup gear or organizational skills can prepare you for uncoperative people.
This was the 1st and last wedding I ever did without getting the Bride and Groom to sign a CONTRACT. It also contributed to what went into it.

I survived...and this only served to make my next wedding seem like a breeze.

My first wedding? I wish I had known that all of the forces were going to be working against me... I woulda just walked away from the opportunity.
-First of all, it was an all African American wedding (now this is nothing racial, belive me, but darker skin is harder to shoot)
-Bride in white.... groom in white, bridesmaids in bright lime green, and groomsmen in white as well....
-the ceremony took place outside with no shading at 2:00.... direct sunlight and about 95 degrees F
- As soon as the ceremony was over, the groom got sick and was throwing up everywhere.... so I hardly got any formals with him in it... not to mention everyone in the wedding party coming to his aid and forgetting about the photographer.
-Groom feels better and we head back to the house where the reception was held.... night came and everything was outside..... with only ONE backyard light going...
-shooting dark skin in dark light= HARD....especially for a first timer...

Needless to say, I thought I would never shoot a wedding again, but a day after the wedding, I thought of it as a challenge, and upped my game for the next one to come.... I still don't use any of those photos in my port, lol

And after all of this, the number of new photographers wanting to get into wedding photography continues to increase?

I was hired for my first wedding by my boyfriend's(now husband) ex girlfriend of 5 years. This girl absolutely hated me! She accused me of "stealing" him from her, and then a year later she was marrying some new guy.
I was getting started in photography, just practicing on friends and what not, and she saw my work and decided she wanted me to do her wedding....even though I had no experience whatsoever...and knowing I only had a point and shoot canon camera!!! I needed the experience, she was willing... so I figured why not!
My dad helped me with a contract so that it would be clear that the bride understood I was not a professional and I could not be held accountable if the photos were not up to her liking. (Remember, she hated me...so I figured she would accuse me of ruining her photos on purpose or some crap!)
Never in my life have more eyes been on me with such distain! The mood was negative the entire time because she told everyone that I was the one who stole the love of her life from her (...well, old love of her life since she had a new one). It's hard to get people to listen to you and be cooperative when they would rather spend their time whispering about you and glare at you from across the room.

After it was all over with, she and her family LOVED the photos...even though they weren't high quality for printing and what not. That one wedding, with the low print quality photos, helped me book 3 weddings the following year. So, as much as that day was an absolute nightmare for me, it's helped me in the long run.

Okay............ I've waited a few days or so and from what I can see......from the answers......althouth My main interests are birds ,nature ,macro and the like...............oh And my job is an engineer..............​i Think I'll give it all up and branch out into WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY, as it seams it aint that hard.

keeny wrote in post #8013812
...oh And my job is an engineer..............​i Think I'll give it all up and branch out into WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

Do you work for GM or something?

Photography wise, I've not had any troubles. I did squat down to get into my camera bag and ripped the crotch out of my pants. Luckily it was an hour or so before the start so I had time to fix them. I had worn them many times before with no problems but they chose to fail at the worst time. Murphy's law!

My first wedding, I shot with a 10D in the green box all day, couldn't figure out how to adjust anything, but the pictures turned out great. I was blessed. Since then, 5 years ago, I learned a few tricks and gotten better stuff. Makes life easier, and I shoot M now, all the way!

First wedding, I wish I had taken the time to learn the gear, I just prayed the whole time the CF card wouldn't explode. I shot film for a long time before.

I shot my first quincerera (sp) yesterday. My hubby and the father talked me into it.

Everyone was late.
One of the girls never showed.
The boys kept wandering off - I spent 20-30 "patiently" waiting for them to be re-corraled so we could take pictures in the 2pm no clouds in sight, 93 degree day.

The location was horrible. I had scoped it last week - all was alright - well apparently construction on the new wing started on Thursday - Nice bright colored, banged up, trash containers were set up all over the grounds.

The lovely rose bushes that would have been perfect for backgrounds had been dug up and moved.

The gazebo kept ripping the dresses, the boys were complaining it was hot.

The only tree accessible was a short very branchy tree - so some of the kids have branches sticking out of their heads LOL...

Then we moved inside. And it got worse! The lighting was terrible. My lens couldn't handle it very well - all my picts are underexposed. Actually I tried to blame it on my lens but I know it was operator error.

Then of course we had one boy faint - took another 20 minutes to get him from a yucky green color to a somewhat normal color!

I took over 400 pictures and I think I'm only really in love with 1 or 2. The rest will have to be saved in lightroom - or maybe the photo fairy will visit tonight and magically fix them.

BUT overall it was a fun experience, lots of lessons learned.

And I have a wedding on Saturday - at least it's outside in the shade.

After that - Watch the "sell forum" LOL

The groom nearly did a runner .......