I won't shoot weddings

I'm interested in hearing others experiences regarding your questions, combatentropy.
Though I offer a shortened artistic edit of the ceremony, most of mine end up as follows:

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Getting ready. Usually a few minutes long.

Ceremony in real-time, multiple angles.

Reception highlights. Length varies depending on how many hours were covered and how much interesting material there was.

Highlight ending video. Mixture of the best stuff. Usually 2-5 minutes. I often use alternate angles so they get to see it a little differently.

Best wishes (if applicable)

On the bigger ones, I also add an animated intro video and motion menu. And photo montage video.
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So it's not uncommon to have a wedding project end up over an hour long. The chapter markers let them skip around to favorite parts.
For me, the reception is the worst to edit, though easiest/less stressful to shoot. It's a pain syncing together so many clips from multiple cameras and the audio feed.
 
I always do ceremony and speeches in real time. Those are the big variables that dictate total length.

prep, photos, reception intro, dancing is pretty much all highlights. Every now and then there'll be some random moment that they want in real time.

Shortest was 40 mins total, longest was over 3 hours. I've had speeches run like an hour and a half (barf)
 
For the record, those $20k weddings I was talking about sometimes have flower budgets that are $100k. I heard a story once from a wedding photographer about a time he made $250k at a wedding. He makes elaborate photo books of the weddings he shoots, leather-bound and full of glossy prints and whatnot. He charges a little over $5000 for each book. At the $250k wedding, the family originally only ordered one of the photo books, as usual. But once the family received their book, the father of the bride called up the photographer and ordered 50 more. He wanted to give them to all his friends.

I live in Austin, TX but do most of my wedding work in Houston, which supposedly has the most expensive average cost of wedding in the USA. Houston has the two necessary ingredients: 1) lots of (old) money, and 2) a culture of elaborate weddings.

It's an odd business.
 
My wife and I went back North to get married in the redwoods... we rented out a group camp area in a national park for about $300. We asked people not to get gifts, but to bring food and drinks instead, so we made it a potluck. I showed up early to decorate, but the nature was enough and I just swept a little. At one point I handed a friend my camera to snap a couple of things. Given the opportunity, now that I'm not completely broke, I might have hung up some lights and made it more of a chance for friends to talk after a long while. Invited more people. But for the most part, that seems like the perfect wedding to me. So yeah, $20k seems a bit excessive. Especially now that I'm meeting people who start their lives together with debt. We spent some cash on a road trip instead... some people put off their honeymoon so they can afford a more impressive weddings. Can't say I understand the market.
 
There's definitely been weddings I've done where you can tell the Bride and Groom aren't into the expenses and showmanship. It's often the parents.
 
DBP said:
There's definitely been weddings I've done where you can tell the Bride and Groom aren't into the expenses and showmanship. It's often the parents.
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Yup. Groom often doesn't know there was supposed to be videography until I walk with a camera.
 
Interesting thread. I don't shoot weddings, but I admire those who do and do it well. Like most of us, I get asked by friends, family and people who barely know me and I always pass. "Its is not my skill set" is what I usually say. There are dozens of excellent wedding videos done by excellent wedding photogs out there and some that come to mind were a regular feature on the Cinevate site back in the day of lens adapters etc. To paraphrase Mr. Moore, these video productions are THE most important documentation for the couple and their families. I personally would rather wrap up the olive green blender or sous vide cooker and drink with them than shoot, let alone edit. Nothing worse than hearing aunt Martha with the iPhone got better ring shots than you did. Ewww scary.But I have to say I get pissed off when some members here look down their noses at the wedding shooters but even more pissed off when people think anyone can do it. They can't. It takes skill, experience and one hell of a lot of diplomacy. I watched a couple shoot my friends daughter's wedding a while ago and have to say those two people where everywhere, carried their own gear, always had a smile on their faces and even made old aunt Martha feel like she was a star. The finished product was excellent when edited and each guest got a "thank you" usb stick with a copy on it. (since erased shhhhhhh)
For the record I don't do Bris, Bar Mitzvah or Sweet Sixteens, but I have shot a funeral or two.
 
I shot a wedding for a cousin once and never again. The best part of being at a family wedding is taking part in the festivities.
 
I've been a photographer and videography for over 100 weddings and I much prefer photography. No worries about sound recording, shaky footage, multicam setups or switching between tripod-slider-gimbal on the fly. Not to forget about a much harder edit.
 
I honestly wish I spent more time upping my photography game. For weddings at least, it seems like a much more pleasant experience than video, assuming your skills are sufficient. Not worry about audio sounds delightful.
 
Scott F said:
The quote that always made me laugh from old school member Paul Hudson:



Actually, hell....if you're bored, here's the whole thread and you can see how I REALLY feel about the subject.
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Oh man, just read your post and it made me sad, considering wedding season is starting next weekend :(

I must say, I'm over it too. It's just too hard to say no to the guaranteed money. Doubt I'll last more than a few more seasons, though.
 
Oh man, just read your post and it made me sad
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Sad? LOL, that opening post was my poor attempt at comedy. (But I was at my wit's end that year....I was booked solid working jobs for a guy who has a lucrative business.)

IMO, the wedding shoots are a young man's game...don't forget I'm 44 now. it's physical work and long days. If you're truly burnt, you'll probably cycle out of it as you mentioned. Best of luck!
 
alaskacameradude said:
I'll shoot them......but I'm not going to compete on price. So I do 2 or 3 a year. I get a TON of inquiries though, and some of
them are pretty illuminating. The last one I got, started off as usual, asking for my price. The bride, then went on to tell me what
photographer I would be working with if I was hired......and I checked out the photographer's website as I had never heard of this
wedding photographer, and since I live in a small town, I thought I knew all of them. Turns out, this wedding photographer's packages
were from 10 grand to about 50 grand, but hey, his portfolio looked good! But the reason I had not heard of him, was he lived 800 miles
away so the bride had to fly him in, and get him a hotel and so on. Anyways, when I gave her my quote (which was less than the
photographer's cheapest package she said
"Oh, that's quite a bit more than I was expecting. I have a budget of about $500. Would it make any difference if I told you
we just wanted a simple video?"
Good times. I advised her with that budget to just have a friend with an iPhone do it.
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Good story. I just hang up on people when they jump stupid.
 
There's some great wedding work being done. Brandon Rice does some really nice stuff. I just don't have the temperament for it. If it doesn't sound fun to me, I don't do it.
 
A little off topic but I was thinking about it, and I feel that I'm the type who makes decisions about things like this much quicker than many folks. Whereas many people (some of you), will say "I did x for a number of years and then just couldn't take it any more," for ol' Bass here it's more like "I did one/two days of x and thought it was awful so never again."
 
Josh Bass said:
A little off topic but I was thinking about it, and I feel that I'm the type who makes decisions about things like this much quicker than many folks. Whereas many people (some of you), will say "I did x for a number of years and then just couldn't take it any more," for ol' Bass here it's more like "I did one/two days of x and thought it was awful so never again."
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I'm with ya, sir! I worked for a guy for about 12 minutes and realized it wasn't going to work.
 
Well I've probably been the most outspoken in terms of anti-weddingography rhetoric, but last weekend I went against my own good sense and worked on a two-camera wedding shoot. Not since 2011 had I done a wedding, but I'm not in a position right now to turn away work, and the pay was good on this one.

Well, I have to stand by my philosophies...for the folks that are doing this on a regular basis, God bless you. (or however you want me to salute you) This is a GRIND of a day. I was going pretty much straight from 2pm til midnight. (plus travel, of course) I really forgot about how much of a "one take" situation weddings are after shooting so much controlled content.

Someone out there will tell me otherwise (I'm sure), but I was shooting with an FS700 and this is not the right camera for the job. Very heavy combined with the sticks I was using. Wonderful camera when sitting static for 8 hours of talking heads, but for wedding run & gun...not so much. I think the DSLRS & similar are the way to go. (again, I'll leave that decision to the pros)

In terms of the actual "big day", NOTHING has changed. It's those darn toasts and speeches. People just love to talk when they have an audience! It truly sucks the life out of me. (The golden adage: Begin, be brief, be seated.) And the music......the music, the music, the music! It's always the same songs!!! Maddening.

So in closing, yes, I will reluctantly shoot weddings if called upon (I used to be pretty good at this!), but wow...I'm happy to be sitting in an editing chair on this Monday morning. NOT shooting a wedding.
 
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