AS most of you know I am a wedding DJ and Videographer. Having been in the wedding business for the past 16 years I have just about done and seen it all. I started out as a photographer (I still dabble from time to time) and became a wedding officiant in 2009 as wedding insurance for my brides so that no matter what your day will go on as planned (They even all me the Rockin' Rev!).
On July 4th 2014 at my mother's house in the mountains of NC I myself got married. From the onset of the planning process I assured my bride to be that "I got this Honey....This is what I do!" I thought that having the experience I have would make this a no brainer. I have coordinated weddings before. I know what we want, and I have trained dozens and dozens of proteges over the years so I had the brilliant idea to save the money and teach my friends and family how do perform tasks like set up, video, photography and so forth.
Boy was I WRONG!!!!
For the most part everything went well. THe ceremony was a half an hour late but that was because certain key guests had transportation issues. My uncle (when I was growing up) was well know in South Florida as a great Wedding Photographer and he agreed to shoot my wedding for me. I was super excited until 20 minutes before my wedding was to start and I handed him my shiny new Nikon. He turned it over in his hands several times and then told me he has never shot digital before and was film "Back in the old days" No worries I gave him a quick crash course in how the camera works confident that he could take the stellar pictures I remember seeing hung in his home all those years ago.
Again WRONG!
He was a film photographer and although his pictures looked great (I will have to make some minor adjustments in post) he only took a few dozen shots of the entire ceremony!!! I usually take over 2500 pictures at an event, and he took 39? Okay not tragic but it is not even the worst of it.
I set the video camera on a tripod and gave my brother Wedding Video 101. He assured me that he could shoot it no problems. Both me and my bride had lavalier mics and it all ran through my state of the art sound system that I use to DJ weddings professionally so I decided to use a shotgun mic and pick up not only us but the crowd ambiance as well. Awesome right?
Ummmmmmmm No!
He shot the entire ceremony as I had instructed except for one minor detail....He forgot to turn on the shotgun mic so we have NO AUDIO!! At a Wedding that I am shooting for a client i use muliple audio sources and 2 cameras but I just wanted it recorded for posterity and I figured good enough is good enough. YIKES!
Needless to say I have learned a valuable lesson. Never have friends or family do something as important as a wedding. We cannot redo it. It is done and a memory. I erroneously thought that given my experience I could act as wedding coordinator, Videography Director, Photography Director, DJ and oh yeah....the groom!
AS I said Boy was I WRONG!
SMH
Thanks for sharing this experience. Soon I am also getting married at one of Chicago wedding venues and was planning to have my friend as a wedding planner for the day but now will look for a professional vendor for the day.
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