Well I got banned from one site for this ….
It seems popular to have a heart shape with all the guests or the b and g initials made up of guests....so you divide the number of guests by 2 and arrange the half balls in a heart shape about 3 ft apart. You then ask the guest to stand between the balls conga style and put on foot on the ball ( to hide it) 100 guests in a heart shape in less than 5 min ....
Hope you like that ...helps if the daughter has access to a tennis club !!
I might be a bit crazy but not totally stupid.
How many use a megaphone to organise the guests ???

Well I got banned from one site for this ….
It seems popular to have a heart shape with all the guests or the b and g initials made up of guests....so you divide the number of guests by 2 and arrange the half balls in a heart shape about 3 ft apart. You then ask the guest to stand between the balls conga style and put on foot on the ball ( to hide it) 100 guests in a heart shape in less than 5 min ....
Hope you like that ...helps if the daughter has access to a tennis club !!
I might be a bit crazy but not totally stupid.
How many use a megaphone to organise the guests ???

Ok- I'll play! A few remarks:

I don't worry about TTL or any special automated exposure method. The light surrounding the room provide an even exposure right across the entire room- they are the main lights. They can be a flat, 35 to 45 degree light, a side light or a kicker depending on my camera position. The camera light is the fill light. I can adjust the ratio by simply varying the output. I set the aperture for the main light exposure. If I want to admit more ambient light, I just slow down the shutter. I use my big old unsophisticated commercial lights for large venues- Speedotrons and a few big 1200 w/s Bowens units. I get f/11 right across the room. I synch everything with Pocket Wizards.

Different strokes for different folks my friend.

I've been at the wedding photography game for about 33 years, and learned the trade through a mentor, who also learned through a mentor. I learned when everything was manual, and personally find that to be much easier than using all the auto this and that. I don't put down those who do, but as you say "I have no concept of why you find Auto ISO and ttl, 'perfect' every time"

Yes, I shoot Nikon, moved from Canon to Nikon about 12 years ago (ish), but am fairly comfortable using either system, I only switched because my mentor passed away, and I inherited a lot of state of the art (at the time) Nikon equipment. It's not the brand, or model of the camera, it's how you use it.

Again, just my opinion. We're all free to have our own, and share our experiences and thoughts and feelings on a variety of subjects. If we all felt exactly the same, this would be a boring world.

Managing light and getting exposure is all about whichever technique you are comfortable with. Many ways to achieve the same result although I have not found any of them to be "perfect every time". Perhaps taking the time to use a light meter placed in front of your subject would be perfect every time. Thus the reason we use quicker methods when the environment is dynamic and changing. Ambient light changing, distance to subject, subject moving, etc... Using TTL can work for those experienced with it. I have seen demos. Accuracy depends on many things none more important than your metering mode. The camera is metering on what you show it (through the lens) and matrix seems to do a better job of getting in the ballpark. Spot metering is dangerous using TTL as if you jostle the lens away from your subject onto a bright light and you have a mess. If TTL is consistently to dark or too light for your taste then use the exposure compensation dial. Sort of same as changing the power in manual mode. I do like auto ISO in manual mode. This is a favorite with landscape and wildlife photographers. I have tried TTL and auto ISO as Pistinbroke suggested with so so results. The challenges are fun and I am still trying to find my niche. Someday.

Whitt, I'm going to "attack" this from a different perspective. From your experience with sports photography, and the other good points on lighting, (I agree, get at least one flash off camera on a stand, you can get pretty creative with it) I'll assume you'll be fine with lighting and operating the camera.

What I want to touch on is what will make your photos worthwhile, instead of just a bunch of random photos of a bunch of people.

I go over this with any apprentice or second shooter. One or 2 wide angle shots of the entire reception is all that is needed. Any more than that will just be thrown in the trash or never printed or put in an album/. What you need to do is first, before everyone arrives, get detail shots of the tables, decorations, the cake, etc. During the meal, go to each and every table, and have the people all move to one side of the table and pose for you. Nobody wants a wide angle photo of several guests looking away, or shoving food in their mouths. A great table shot with all the people looking at you smiling, is something that will be treasured. Walk around and get as many shots as you can of people laughing, or whispering in someone's ear, anything that shows how much fun people are having. The best part of this is that you all but guarantee that you will get a shot of 99% of every guest at the wedding reception. If you wander around the edge of the room, just trying to snipe a photo here and there, you will end up with a bunch of unflattering shots of people, and only because of luck and numbers, may end up with a possibly good shot for the album.

Talk to the event planner if there is one (usually not these days), or the DJ (in the event of no planner, the DJ will set the pace for the evening as far as what happens when. (at least a good one will.)

Obviously, know when to be where by what the planner or DJ tells you, and be prepared for all the events. The cutting of the cake, don't just walk up behind the crowd and try to grab your shots. Let the couple know that you will need to be front row center, and don't start without you there. Once there, you take charge, you tell them when to cut the cake when you have the correct position (it is only done once, you can't just hang out and "hope" you get the shot) Let them know that you will count down for them to cut the cake, and I normally will do several of this part, so you get the knife at the top of the cake, and the looks on their faces as the knife hits bottom (they always tend to instinctively look at each other and smile after the knife goes down) get the "sports action" shots of them feeding each other the cake, and hopefully not smashing it in each other's faces, but be prepared for it.

Do the same with the bouquet toss and garter toss. TAKE CHARGE, let them know that you need to be in position, and you will tell them when it's ready to go. If you can catch sports action, you can get good shots of the bouquet and garter ready to be tossed, in mid air, and people trying to catch(or in the case of the garter, men running away from) the toss.

On the "special" (first, or other) dances, get a full body shot of each dance, and a close up of the faces of each person's face doing the dance, mother of the groom, father of the groom, and the bride and groom. These often show great emotion. No need to take 10 shots of each dance unless something really stands out. It just means more culling later.

For games, like the "shoe game" or whatever. Just a few shots that show what is happening, and then if you can get some reaction shots of the guests laughing, or a close up of the bride or groom as long as they look like their having fun, is all you need.

On the speeches, please, as someone who does a LOT of these and a lot of culling, one shot of each person giving the speech, one shot that shows the expressions of the couple looking at who's giving the speech, hopefully laughing or wiping a tear is plenty for each speech. I've had to cull/edit weddings with tons of shots of each and every person giving speeches, and 50 angles of the head table. It just takes hours to go through all that. Handing the couple a disk of images like that is also overwhelming. They only want the ones worth printing, or putting in a book, not 50 expressions on the same person's face, people yawning, or people shoving food in their faces.

On the dance floor. Get the couple dancing with each other, and with other people. One or 2 shots of kids dancing, kids are always dancing is enough. Grab a wide shot or two of the whole dance floor, and a few of people that are having a particular amount of fun. Again, from experience working with inexperienced photographers, don't just concentrate on the pretty girls. Us old fat guys on the dance floor can provide some memorable photos as well. HAHA.

The main thing to take away is, you need to take control, and don't be afraid to say "excuse me" and step in front of someone to get the shot. If you are "hired" to be the photographer, you can't be timid. Don't be rude, but they want you to get the shots.

Finally, you notice I keep saying album. I would suggest that if they are just getting disks of images from the photographers from the ceremony and formals, why don't you put together a nice wedding album for them with all the photos, and present it to them as a wedding gift? My kids and grandkids look at my parent's wedding photos, and my wedding photos (both before today's nice albums, just photos put in slip in sheets) The albums are something that can sit on a coffee table for 50 years, and people will still enjoy getting them out and looking at them. If they are on a disk, in a drawer somewhere, nobody will enjoy them. An album is the best gift of all.

Just my 8 cents. (a lot more than the 2 cents, I had planned on typing)

bk