The past few years for me have been pretty exciting - especially lately, where I seem to get lucky in landing some really cool freelance opportunities. For those of you that don't know, I'm a photographer. I'm mostly just an enthusiast that has been shooting as a hobby for years, but this past weekend I was hired to do a wedding gig that was probably one of the biggest ones I've had yet to do. Needless to say I was nervous as hell but pretty excited. There's no real particular reason I'm making this thread other than to give you guys a little insight on the life of a wedding photographer.. of sorts.



This is the bride. She and the groom were really friendly and very helpful to accommodate the photography aspect of their wedding. However, there was one part about it that was a little bit stressful: the ceremony started at 7:30 PM, in October, outdoors. That makes my job a little bit harder with it being nearly black skies, but I was able to get the formals of the bride and the bridesmaids inside of the venue (they held it at a bed and breakfast that's a popular wedding sight in Houston).



This was a picture I took of a braidsmaid during the wedding rehersal the night before. Apparently there was a large amount of people that haven't seen each other for a few decades, so the pictures were flying from all directions. I believe she was taking a picture of some of her friends from elementary school that she reunited with at the wedding. Kinda cool.



The day of the ceremony is the day of the bride... any photographer will tell you that. I was hanging out with her all day going to her hair appointments and her luncheon with her family which she held at this cool little tea house in the suburbs. When we arrived there she was setting up - as were the hosts to prepare for the guests. The only thing at the time that really stood out to me was this glass of water the bride left on a table by the window while she was putting place mats out. I overexposed this picture to sort of streamline the subject/background contrast and to bring the lemon wedge out as the "pop" aspect of the photo. Oh, and the tea and crumpets were amazing. No, I'm not gay.



After that was the hair appointment. I took about 700 pictures during that time as there were tons of people and the hair and makeup took a lot of time to get done. When the bride had her hair finished, they began to put the tiara in her hair along with the veil. The hair dresser passed her a hand mirror so she could see the back of her head and the tiara, and I took a picture of the brides face in the mirror. Flash photography in a place like this is a little tricky when you're essentially in a mirror house. You can see a little bit of the flash illuminating the fingerprints on the mirror glass and on the top of her head, but luckily it didn't really take away from the photograph.



Fast foward >> After the ceremony all the chaos started (in a good way). I got a lot of photographs of people dancing, drinking, and the usual wedding charades like the bouquet toss and guarder throwing. This picture was taken inside the reception venue while the bride was talking to her mom. Another guest was a videographer and shined the camera light on the back of the bride illuminating her dress and veil. It's always good to have a videographer at a wedding as it presents some pretty creative opportunities for photographs.



Right after the toast and the cutting of the cake. That cake was good. That's the groom, by the way. He also graduated from my college.



This little guy was the ringer bearer. He was camera shy the whole night and I would often have to resort to silly mannerisms to get him to smile and come close to the camera. During the reception he was getting a little nervous and his dad picked him up and held him while I took a picture of him.



During the dances outside, I found this guy again trying to take a picture with the disposable of the bride and groom. I was really slow to get my camera since I had set flashes up to capture the dances, but luckily he thought the disposable was a camcorder and held it there without taking a picture for about five minutes. That gave me plenty of time to snag the shot and his mom was very happy.



The next day was a family barbecue on Lake Conroe. I grabbed some pictures of people eating and drinking, and decided to take my backup camera and go on the boat with them while they went tubing. i got a picture of the bride and groom on the tube right before they wiped out on a small wave.

And I suppose the most appropriate picture to finish this out...



That was such a fun weekend. I actually had a gig that flew me across the state taking pictures and getting paid very well for it. This is honestly making me rethink what I want to do in life right now. I do have about 2000 pictures to edit and mail out, but all the little annoying things are better than the most fun things I've had in other jobs.

A word of advice to anyone getting married (AHEM TITPHEONIX): Take consideration to your photographer. Don't hire an amateur. There are a lot of things you can save money on at the wedding and the photographer should not be one of them. Also, really accommodate the photographer as much as possible, whether it's a reasonable time for the ceremony and reception or at least time allocated solely for pictures. I promise it's worth it.

I love wedding photography - and love the fact that you have so many photos to share with the bride and groom.

I can't see the pictures that you took while I am at work (shhh - don't tell), but really want to see them when I get home. From what I have seen of your photography in the past, they will be amazing.

And yes - to reiterate what Bike said: Crawdad and I spent a lot of money (like, a lot!) on wedding photographs and a beautiful album, and we wouldn't change a thing. Wedding photography is worth every cent. You really get what you pay for.