The wedding on Saturday went very well. My entire staff showed up on time (as usual) and everything went without any issues. I had Bill go solo for the first time in his career with me. He photographed the groom preparation portion and his pictures look really, really good. The formal pictures that I purchased the backdrop support system turned out nicely. I've only had time to peruse through the pictures quickly. Emotions were running high as you can see from the photograph to the right.
Having 3 photographers at a wedding has its challenges. But it also has its rewards. This wedding had several things about it that were different from any of the other weddings I've done in the past. As I mentioned in my last blog, the formal pictures were done before the ceremony in a conference room. The second thing that was done differently was the ceremony itself. All the guests where escorted to their tables where they were going to be seated to eat dinner. On the dance floor where chairs for the bride and grooms immediate family. So the ceremony and reception were done at the same location. Once the ceremony was over, the chairs on the dance floor were returned to their tables. The bride's parents did a fantastic job with decorations. Because of this, I had one of my photographers go and take some pictures of the wedding/reception room before any of the guests arrived. I love how the pictures turned out with the Fisheye lens.
We all had a lot of fun doing this. It was a very long day. Fifteen hours long. But in the end it was worth every bit of our time.
Sunday was another long day. After spending 15 hours the day before shooting the wedding, we had to get up early and drive 2 hours to Columbia, MD for a Bridal Show. The show ran from 1:30 til 4:30 and of course I got there when the doors opened up for vendors. Well, we were there way too early. It takes us less than an hour to setup our booth and we got there 4 hours early. I could have used the extra sleep!
The day went well. There was a bunch of interest in our photography. Several things are setting us apart from our competition. The first being our prices. Even though we aren't the lowest priced photographer out there, we are very, very reasonable for the quality of work we perform. The second is that we always show up with 2 photographers. One to follow the bride from the start of her day all the way to the end of the day. And a second photographer to do the same for the groom. But the 3rd thing that really separates us from other photographers is that our price is for the entire day. We set no time limits for our services on the day of the event.
Once the show was over and we packed everything up, we thought, "whew, this day is finally almost over". But it wasn't. There was a major accident on the Beltway and it took us an extra 2 hours to get home. Dinner wound up being Burger King instead of the BBQ chicken I was going to make. But all and all, it was a very good weekend.
