woodfrog Loc: Tennessee

Two good reasons to never shoot weddings: The bride and the bride's momma.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

I sympathize with you. Shooting a wedding is very stressful as it is. The lighting is tough enough INDOORS. But harsh lighting can be tougher if you have no way of controlling it. I've shot only 4 weddings. But each time I went to the site beforehand and checked out the situation. In fact, I always insisted on going to the rehearsal.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

My cat LOVES all my shots. LOL

gsmith051 Loc: Fairfield Glade, TN

Shooting weddings is tough and takes a lot of skill. I hired two sets of professional photographers for a beach wedding and another for the mountains. In both cases the teams worked the site several days before the wedding and worked with the wedding party on a regular basis. A lot of work to get outstanding results. It sounds from what you wrote you only showed up on wedding day without any pre-investigation. Good luck to you.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I always get a kick out of the question - "Does this dress make me look fat?"

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Any wonder I do photography as a hobby.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

We cannot make chicken soup out of chicken poop!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I co-mange the "Wedding Photograhy" section here on UHH! Oh, there's such a section! There is very little traffic there, especially lately, what with the pandemic. Even under normal circumstances, it ain't all that popular around here. If, however, I changed the title to "I Hate Weddings" it might be inundated with new posts every day.

"Weddig Photography for Fun and Profit"??? Yes, it can be fun, challenging, creative and extremely profitable and rewarding IF YOU KNOW WAHT YOU ARE DOING! That comes with education, experience, research, practice, and honing your people skills, which is a talent in itself. Good business management helps as well!

Although, nowadays. 75% of my professional work is in commercial photography and portraiture, we still offer wedding and event photography. At 77-years old, I still shoot- I do work with at least two assistants. Wedding photography and portraiture were my entry-level to the business. I was fortunate enough to start in New York City, as a teenager, where I served as an assistant to an experienced photographer. The city has a very diverse and interesting mixture of many cultures, ethnicities, religious communities and socioeconomic groups. There is enough population where there can be weddings just about every day- not only on the weekends and in the month of June. For me, it was total emersion in weddings both as an assistant and eventually as a shooter.

I went to school for this job too! Well, there's no college or university course in weddingg photography but besides the "school of hard knocks" fortunately, there were many serious courses offered at the Winnona School- the educational arm of the Professional Photograhers of America, where one can study portraiture, photojournalism, and yes, wedding photogrhay. You get with all the programmes and combine the skills you learn

Times change as to fashions, tastes, trends, and what folks expect. Certain traditions still apply but a savvy wedding photograher has to keep abreast of the trends, market and shoot accordingly and not get stuck in the olden days.

Wedding photography is not for every photograher. I know many seasoned professionals in other fields and specializations that would litterly have a nervous breakdown at a wedding assignment. It is certainly not for the lazy shooter or those faint of heart or impatient.

One of my commercial cohorts used to continuously rib me about my insistence on remaining in the wedding business- he kinda looks down upon the job! So, I offered to pay him to assist me on a big ethnic wedding that went from 11 A.M. to 3 A.M. the following morning. At the end of the job, I thought I might need to call an ambulance to bring him home. Well- I did drive him home and as he left the car, he muttered "you do this all the time"?! Took him two days to fully recover! I made it my business to show him the cheque I received for the final payment- including a hefty additional order- he doesn't make fun of me anymore!

gwilliams6

I always scout out my wedding venues in advance at the same time as the ceremony so I can check out the lighting if outside and meet with the family during rehearsal or other time, to go over the day's schedule so they know what I expect from them and what they should expect from me.

Still always something will change or go south, that is to be expected. I just roll with it. Oh, and I tell folks I will make great shots but they will look like themselves, lol. Once for a dear friend whose daughter's wedding I was hired and paid very well to shoot, I went through each photo and whitened the yellow teeth of the bride and groom. Nothing was said and everyone just loved the shots and their lovely smiles. .

That wasn't this happy jumping couple. I scouted out this golf course in advance as they were having their wedding ceremony and reception there. That way I wasted no time between ceremony and reception driving them in a reserved golf cart exactly to where I wanted to make this shot, with my co-shooter taking our portable lighting gear in another reserved golf cart , all worked out in advance. Pre-Planning can save so much stress during hectic shoots. And the bride came prepared ,and changed quickly out of her fancy wedding shoes into her blue sneakers for this shot .
Cheers

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steveo52 Loc: Rhode Island and Ocala Florida

Yea that always gets a laugh out of me. Imagine the photographer couldn't take the weight off her for the wedding, she probably doesn't ever look in the mirror!

gwilliams6

I can concur, many of my East Indian and Asian wedding clients have all-day all-night ceremonies, receptions into the morning. The longest wedding shoot I did was for a real mob guy in Philly. He insisted I stay and shoot through their champagne breakfast the next morning. I of course didn't argue with him and was paid well.

Here three shots, two from an Indian-American wedding, and one from my mob client. Just dont share these outside our group ok.

Cheers

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jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

My photography screw-ups have usually involved forgetting something after arriving at the shooting location. More than once it involved not having any card in the camera or bag. Since I'm just an amateur, no big deal other than being pissed at myself for a while.

gwilliams6

That is how we all learn, Cheers

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

I photographed a wedding and the father of the bride was, shall we say, "connected." At the reception a guy about 6'4" (I'm 5'6") put his hand on my camera and asked me what I was doing - stupid question. Very intimidating. I had to wait for the brides father to come over and tell him was okay, that I was the photographer - pretty obvious!

Another wedding, when there bride and groom cut the cake and fed each other, he pushed it into her so it got all over her mouth and then she did the same to him. She was so upset with him that she wouldn't talk to him or allow me to take any photos of her, especially with him, for over 45 minutes. Then, it was with some begging on my part.

Quixdraw Loc: x

The last Wedding I shot was my Son's. I got paid in pleasure. There was an expensive team of professionals who did a good job. I stayed out of their way, shot available light and got photos they didn't. My only criticism of them was that their delivery schedule was rather extended. The Kids got my photos in a week, the Pros photos eventually.
My most valuable recommendation from film days long ago when I was shooting weddings, beyond bringing enough equipment so you can make things work whatever fails, is to talk to the B&G, and if necessary, Parents in advance. Get a rough idea of likes and dislikes, structure of the ceremony and events, agreed on set shots. After that, go with the flow. Improvise, adapt and overcome. The only Wedding I enjoyed shooting was the last.