I dread them.  Those double-header weekends.  Wedding shoot on Saturday, wedding shoot on Sunday, over one hundred miles apart.

Each wedding had its rehearsal the evening before the wedding, meaning we could not attend the second wedding's rehearsal.  Instead, we scheduled a walk-through with the couple for Thursday evening.

There were only a few bridesmaids and groomsmen and this wedding would be held outdoors, so I wasn't too concerned about not having a full rehearsal, since there would be plenty of room for setting up cameras and little chance of having a camera blocked by the wedding party.

I did have concerns about the weather though.  The wind was predicted to be 17 to 25mph and there was a 30 percent chance of rain.  The castle-like mansion had a beautiful third-floor balcony (or whatever you call a balcony when it's attached to a mansion), where I would setup a camera for an overall view.

The photographer was a professional, but also a relative of the groom, meaning I would have to mind my manners.  The DJ, who would be providing sound for the ceremony as well as the reception, had emailed us about connecting to his sound board, saying he didn't have a clue how to do that.  Not a problem, since I have learned not to rely on board-taps anyway.  We would mic the loudspeakers.

We met the couple (I'll call them "couple 'B'") at the mansion on Thursday evening.  They were friendly, very intelligent and articulate.  Within about twenty minutes, we'd gone over everything we needed to cover.  The mansion was open to the public and seemed fairly busy, so I was a little surprised with the attention and helpfulness of the staff.  They'd be sure the key was available to unlock the gate to the upper balcony and they allowed my camera crane (with some admonishment concerning the chandeliers) and offerred every assistance.

The next night, we met with couple 'A' at the hotel where both the ceremony and reception would be held.  The ceremony would be on the fourteenth floor and the reception on the second floor on the opposite end of the building.  The closest parking was about a quarter mile away in a multi-floored facillity and would cost eight dollars.

Couple 'A' had a wedding coordinator.  I'm always surprised at the number of fairly large weddings (500+) that don't use a coordinator.  It's generally been my experience that a wedding coordinator can take a big burden off of the bride and her mother and will make things run smoothly.  But not this time.

This coordinator, though around thirty years old, seemed very inexperienced, ill-informed and nervous.  She hadn't deemed it necessary to rehearse in the same room the ceremony would be in.  We were in a squarish small room with windows on only one wall and a foot-high ten-foot platform on that wall.  Jean and I had taken a peak at the ceremony room and it was larger, longer and had windows on two walls.  The person in charge of the room told us the ceremony would have the platform along the wide wall, though it was on the left-side narrow wall currently.

When I asked the coordinator which wall she would have the platform set on for the ceremony, it was obvious that she hadn't given it a thought.  The rehearsal room was setup with three aisles - one on each side and a center aisle.  But the actual ceremony room was currently filled with tables for a party for medical students, so there was no clue to how things would be facing, how many aisles, etc.  Finally, the coordinator said she would have the platform on the left-side narrow wall for the ceremony.

Three times, they ran through the rehearsal, having bridesmaids and groomsmen all come down the center aisle.  I discussed options for shooting the processional with the bride, explaining that since there was no way for us to be behind the stage, and since people would stand for the bridal entrance, the only good shot of the processional would be shooting from one knee at the side of the first row of chairs, and that I would move away as the bride and her father approached their final positions.  That was fine with the bride.

Although they were having a unity candle, there was no rehearsing having the mothers light the candles or the couple lighting the center candle.  Also, there was no mention of having a relative read scripture as had been noted on our info form.

I took the couple and coordinator aside to discuss these issues, whereby the coordinator interrupted - "You don't have mothers light the unity candle.  I've never seen that done!"  Jean and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows.  The groom interjected, "That's a nice touch, I like it.", whereby the coordinator agreed to allow it.

Next, I asked about their use of the house sound system and how they would mic the person reading scripture and the singer.  The coordinator gave a blank look.  She obviously hadn't thought about using the sound system.  Finally she said that she thought with only two hundred people, they should be able to hear the reader just fine since the large room had "great acoustics".  It was clear that she didn't have a clue as to what constituted good acoustics, nor how far the normal voice would carry in a large room full of people.

OK, I figured - the house sound isn't my problem and the singer would probably carry OK.  But I pressed on about where the reader and singer would stand, so I could place a mic stand.  The coordinator had had enough and blurted out, "I've been doing this for years and the 'professional' wedding videographers know how to get the sound right off their cameras' microphones!"

I also had had enough. In a quiet but firm voice, I told her that I wasn't surprised that an incompetent, inexperienced coordinator would have only worked with incompetent, inexperienced videographers, but that if she would shut up and try to cooperate, she might learn something. (Diplomacy at work!)  At that point (everyone was gathered around) the minister "suggested" that we have that conversation later and for now that we continue the rehearsal. 

At the last minute, and as some people were leaving the rehearsal and others preparing to go to a restaurant with the couple, the coordinator decided they would not have a platform for the ceremony and that the groomsmen would come down the right-side aisle (wherever and whenever there would be one).

This changed everything for us because it was a large wedding party and without having the couple up on the platform, they would likely be blocked by bridesmaids and groomsmen.  Also, Jean would not be able to setup until after the groomsmen were in place.

It was the coordinator's parting shot and a good one that would threaten to rock, if not sink the videographers' "ship", so I took the groom aside and explained that we either needed the platform or would need the groomsmen and bridesmaids to be sure and leave an open space in the center that was at least ten feet wide in all.  (Eight might have worked, but I was afraid the wedding party may not bring a tape measure!)  Also, I explained to him that if they were placed in front of bright, open windows that it would look like they were in the witness protection program.  (We would manually expose, of course, but glare would still do much to obscure facial detail).

It's a six-hour plan, and we were scheduled to shoot from four-thirty to ten-thirty, with the ceremony being at six-thirty.  We actually arrived at three o'clock because there wasn't much else to do and the logistics of getting all our gear from the parking garage to the hotel's fourteenth floor seemed daunting.

Like every other wedding, our gear for this one included an FX1 and two VX2100s with two wireless systems each with lavs and one including a hand held mic; wide angle lens; tele photo lens; uv and polarizing filters; rain covers for cameras; on-camera light; shotgun mic; shoulder mount; extra batteries; Beachtek for each camera and more.  And this is just for my wheeled camera bag.

Jean's camera bag included one VX2100 with two wireless sets, one with handheld mic; wide and tele lenses; filters; rain cover; on-cam light; batteries and Beachtek.

Then there is the audio case with digital recorder, two handheld Shures, XLR cables and adapters of all types, mic mounts for stands in both wireless and xlr handheld sizes, extra memory cards for the DR, etc.

Then there is the big bag for the Pro-Am camera crane and another bag for mic stands (4) and tripods for static cameras (3).  We haven't found a bag suitable for these plus our two Manfrotto tripods.

Let's see, what am I forgetting?  Oh yeah, there's a little backpack bag with the fifty-watt Bescor light and battery; a wheeled case with about fifty pounds of weights in assorted sizes for the camera crane; a large camera case for the Panasonic C7 camera and that's about it, or at least that's all I can think of at the moment.

We have one of those Lowes fifty-dollar garden wagons and somehow I managed to fit everything onto it (using bungee cords) except for one wheeled case which Jean pulled behind as she steadied the wagon's load from the rear while I pulled "mightily" from the second floor of the parking garage, into an elevator, down to the area between hotels, across to our hotel, into the lobby, into an elevator (the wagon barely fit) and up to the second floor where we assembled the crane in preparation for the reception.

I had the twelve-foot crane arm half raised when it occurred to me to look upward for chandelieres.  Whew!  Good thing I looked.  I moved the rig several feet to one side to avoid a costly accident.  Then we stashed the gear we wouldn't be needing for the ceremony (like the case with extra weights) behind the jib and headed toward the fourteenth floor pulling the still heavy wagon.

I was delighted to see a backdrop and pulled drapes, blocking the windows behind where the ceremony would be held.  The right aisle was barely two feet wide and a small table with the house sound system sat in the middle of that aisle.  I checked with hotel staff and they said the table must remain. By this time, Jean was with the bride shooting preps, so I used my Motorola to contact her.  The groom needed to be told to inform the groomsmen about the change and they would now have to come down the center aisle.  Jean took care of it and also informed the coordinator.

I got all my static cameras setup - one from the rear, one on the quartet and one on the parents.  Then I setup my audio, using XLR Shures, mic stands and my Marantz 660 digital recorder to capture the quartet and the singer and reader.  With Jean's help (and our Motorolas), I found the singer and explained where her mic would be and how to avoid splosives, etc.

I was ready to shoot.  But statistics show that at this point of a web page, you're tired of reading, so we'll continue this article next week!

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.