Tom Reese said:" > The wedding photography thread got me thinking about my experiences... > > I wanted to shoot some portraits of a bride and groom and couldn't find the > groom. He was outside behind the building smoking dope with the best man. By > the end of the reception he was stoned out of his mind and trying to give me > a handful of cash from the wedding gifts that the B&G received (of course I > turned him down...several times)."
Are you crazy man, like, you should've like, taken the dosh dude... oh, and like, peace, man, OKAAAY!? <vbg> At least he would've been nice and relaxed for his night, pity though as he would've had red eyes in all of his shots! I have seen it tooooo many times in grooms and it is just so obvious! " Another time, I showed up at the brides house at 12:00 noon per my appointment for the pre-wedding portraits of > bride with mom, dad, etc. The bride answered the door in jeans and a t-shirt and asked me to wait while they all ate lunch. " I had one who had made the appointment for me to arrive at 1.30pm after doing the grooms preparation shots, so I got there at 1.35pm (yeah, I was 5 mins late due to said groom deciding at the last second to use his drag car in the shots and having to go and pick it up). When I arrived she was beetroot red and screamed at me when I walked in the door. "Omg, where the hell have you been, we've been ready since ONE O'CLOCK!!!!" I was like "ummm, I'm sorry that I am a little late but the groom wanted to add the car to his shots and they had to go and get it". She yells "WELL, ISN'T IT COMMON COURTESY TO RING SOMEONE WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE?!!?" I was immediately, devastakingly (sic) nervous and proceeded to shake my way through every shot, all the while hoping against hope that I didn't stuff any up or Bridezilla would have me for breakfast! So, we got through the preparation shots, and the ceremony, after which I took the bride and groom back into the church to do some creative stuff with the stain glass windows behind the alter. Whilst I was setting up the shot with my tripod etc. She was chatting away with the groom and bitched about how I was 3/4 of an hour late. To which he and I BOTH responded in unison (sic, too lazy to check it!), "you mean 5 minutes late?" and she said "no, 3/4 of an hour late, she was supposed to be there at 1pm". I showed her my diary where I had originally written 1pm and then crossed it out and changed it to 1.30pm when she had *phone me and aske me to do it*!! The groom confirmed it and the bride apologised and spent the rest of the afternoon embarrassed that she had verbally attacked me and blaming herself "if the photos are a mess cause i upset the photographer for no reason". Anyways, some of the shots are on my site, under the "Roses Are Red" link, and she was more than happy with the result. Thank gawd! BTW, the wedding wasn't until 4pm and we had finished shooting by 2pm and so had to sit there twiddling our thumbs for almost 2 full hours! I always recommend that I don't come until around half an hour before the wedding, unless I am covering the hair/makeup/getting dressed thing, cause it really doesn't take that long to take shots of the bridesmaids/bride/mum, dad etc "> I quit doing them eventually. I couldn't take wearing the jacket in the hot weather (summer weddings suck IMO), the neckties, the drunks and all the other aggravation. I wish I could just shoot the B& G portraits and forget about all the other stuff..." Har! Did I ever tell you about the time the couple was having a nuptual (sic, yeah, again, i know i'm lazy!) mass, where they have communion etc and it goes for like 2 hours, on the hottest day we had had in 5 years? It was 48 degrees inside the darn church and people were dropping like flies. Literally, fainting all over the place, including my assistant, who happened to do so just as they were about to exchange the rings...! It was so hot, the guys in the wedding party didn't even wear their jackets, just their vests and shirts, and they even had to send out for an esky of bottled iced water to hand out to the guests during the ceremony. ....I learned my lesson and don't take an assistant with me anymore... tan.
