First paid wedding.

OMG... this was.....................interesting!! After getting a last minute call asking if I could do a wedding, I played email and phone tag with the wedding planner, but when I left the house on Saturday to drive to the hall, all I had was the address. Nothing else. Not even the names of the bride and groom. So, I was going in totally blind. Wheeee..... Ed Shapiro gave me such a lovely pep talk that I was still nervous, but not petrified like I was before reading it.

So... here are just some of the elements I encountered:

1. The guests came in jeans and tank tops.
2. The drummer hit on me.
3. Some other dude hit on me.
4. I was overdressed in my black button down blouse and black slacks.
5. The band/singers were a garage-type band.
6. This was the cake:

(http://i46.tinypic.com/35iu0b9.jpg if it doesn't display)
7. A guy asked me if I wanted to see his "mangina". Yeah. Sounds exactly like a female body part... I said, "oh, look... they're going to do a toast..."
8. I had to remind the wedding planner what the next steps were because she was all over the place trying to keep the guests in line, poor thing.
9. I was asked for my business cards by lots of guests.
10. The wedding planner kept thanking me profusely AND paid me more than I had asked.

and....

11. The bride hugged me before I left.

But, in the end, I loved every minute of it. The weaving, the darting around, the high energy, "don't know what to expect next" parts.

And, the couple is in love, which is all that matters.

Lots of challenges in this wedding. The wedding was in a VFW hall, which meant every surface inside was covered with signs and cords and war artifacts and other stuff not normally seen in the background of a wedding. Outside, just one bush. Full sun. Bride only wanted to spend 10min at the most for formals. So, here's a composite of some of the photos. I took 737 in 3 hours and culled it down to 207. (Sorry for the jpg quality, I have a slow satellite connection and can't upload big files). The expression of the groom on the bottom was when he saw her for the first time.

yeah I agree with John....

Wow, nice. I might use this as reference when I go to photograph my friend's wedding this July. ^.^

That cake is looking delicious...

I made that heart design out of random glass beads they had scattered around. As soon as I made it, that little girl came up to examine it.

Thanks, Susie. I in no way think weddings will get easier! I've heard too many horror stories to believe that.