My first wedding

[Dynesh]

Well, I finally got the first one in the books(free wedding)  And even though I had prepared myself for a tough time, It turned out to surprise me a little.  

The wedding was held at a beautiful house here in my area, and most weddings here are held outdoorshere. Two weeekends ago it was 71 degrees here, perfect weather for a wedding.   This past weekend, for the wedding, it was 40 degrees at best, with wind of about 20 mph, gust up to 35.  Not good weather for a wedding.  The owners of the house have a tent like material that goes around their back area(usually this is where the dj sets up and the dance floor is).  I really hope after this wedding they invest in a better setup.  This tent  had places for air to get in all over the place, it was being moved by the wind, the front entrance was entirely uncovered. To sum it up, it was cold.  They did have a few heaters around, but it just made a little dent.

So that was problem number 1, but I can handle cold.  Plenty of other problems cropped up.  The tent was white, on a bright sunny day, so it was hard for me to get really good exposure without blowing the tent out behind the couple.  I could not get really good shots of the couple with either camera set up because it was so cramped inside where they were getting married.

My mistakes--
First off, I spent way too much time with the groom and didn't leave myself enough time to get out and make sure my cameras were set up properly. I had to rush around and get mine and my wife's going, and get the groom and minister mic'd.  
2)  I didn't anticipate how high I would need my camera to be to get the bride coming down the aisle, so I did not get a good shot of that at all.
 3) Something happened with the Iriver and mic I had on the groom, and there is static in lots of places(luckily I had a wireless on the minister and it was good, and the groom and bride didn't say much during the wedding anyway)
4) They changed where the groom would be getting ready on me from a well let room to a poorly lit room, and I spent the first 10 minutes cursing silently that I could not get any good shots, even going as far as hooking my sony light up and turning it on, before I realized my ND filter was on from some outside shots I had been getting.  Looked much better when I turned that off.
 
Other than all that , I think I should still get a good video out of this.  Sorry for the long post, just wanted to put it down while it was still fresh and give myself something to do while I'm capture all the clips.

[osbornes5]

Hey! Congrats Buddy! It's a good feeling is it not? My biggest problem was editing on the first one because I was learning as I went (though the wedding shoot did have its problems as well) In the end, when you get that great testimonial, it will all be worth it! Welcome to the club so to speak. After you get it done and perhaps even before you deliver it, consider sending a copy to Hank for a critical review. Its always good to have a second opinion and ideas of where you could tweak it to make it better.

[HankCastello]

What a great story, Wes!  

Problems in the planning of the wedding, nearly always translate into challenges, if not outright problems in covering the wedding.  I wouldn't be surprised if the flapping of the tent in the wind doesn't translate into some audio issues.

Hopefully, the officiant made it a quick ceremony!  

A lot of first-time wedding shooters fail to take into account the fact that the guests usually stand for the bridal entrance.  What earlier looked like a clear view, ends up being totally blocked.  And shivering in a forty-degree breeze doesn't help the thinking process any.

I've seen new wedding videographers try to hide the groom's mic behind the boutoniere, which causes a static-like noise whenever the groom moves or breathes and the mic rubs against the flower.   I don't think an  iRiver should pick up static if its connections are good, because it isn't using radio waves, so I'm betting the mic was rubbing against something.

Now, you'll use the magic of "post" to turn this into a great wedding video that the couple will cherish.  Best of luck, and thank's for a great, unvarnished account!

[Dynesh]

I think my wife actually figured out what might have been causing the static, but I'll have to do some tests to see.

I've said before my biggest weakness going into this is audio.  I bought this mics for the Irivers from Giant Squid Audio, and they come with no wind screens on them, and I just used them as is.  I meant to buy some to go on them, but never did.  The wind was coming through, but I thought it might just make a wind noise, but it may be the cause of this static sound.  Or, maybe the cable was loose, I don't know.  

Anyways, I'm on to the editing now, and I have the highlights video pretty much done, even though I might change it up a little later as I really go through my footage and see what I have.  But this is the part I love.  Once I get editing, its hard to pull myself away!

[HankCastello]

Bingo!  Wind noise will sound just like static - LOUD static.   I didn't realize the tent was letting the wind blow right on through.

Wes, even if your mics had foam windscreens, it probably wouldn't have helped much.  You need fur to handle wind.  Check out our advertiser - "The WindCutter" (banner on right).  They started making lavalier fur muffs at our request, several years ago.  These muffs are inexpensive and they work great!

[Dynesh]

Ok, thanks Hank. I'll be looking into that for sure.

Yeah, this tent was basically two pieces that buttoned in the middle all around where the ceremony was held.  But the buttons were pretty far apart,  meaning there were plenty of gaps.  Plus the main door to the outside was uncovered all together(although it did sort of wrap around so it wasn't straight to the outside, kind of like a public restroom with no door, just a wrap around hall)