my first wedding: horror story

[Meysha]

Oh Dear! That's awful. I think we've all had this happen to us in some magnitude or other and can understand your pain! :-(

Just be upfront with the bride and groom and offer another shoot for free - maybe a trash the dress shoot or something like that could be fun.
Don't let this put you off weddings if that's what you want to do.

And if anything - it's a learning experience. It will all turn out fine.

 

[Alex_B]

I think Jerry basically is right. But there is no use in accusing now. Of course the best place for memory cards is right on your body. But as I said, all that advice is too late now.

In any case, if just the card has disappeared, then you either lost it somewhere, or it got stolen. And since only the card got stolen, at the wedding, the person must know that it is the wedding pictures and probably stole it on purpose to either hurt you, the bride, or the groom. Yes, people are that cruel!

All you can do now, is help that other person post-processing the images that the best possible comes out. If they are too dark, this might help, you will need some noise reduction after brightening up, and some sharpening after that. But the result will be better than what the other person would probably present without postprocessing.

 

[Alex_B]

Clearly you've never been married! What about the expense of having to rent all the tuxes again, get all hair and make up done again, getting people in from who knows where, to come and pose for a couple pictures?

While I agree that a staged re-shooting is not realistic, I still wonder, you rent tuxes for weddings? And what you mean by "all the tuxes", do even the guests rent them? Please excuse my ignorance with weddings on your side of the ocean.

 

[TamiyaGuy]

Wow, I feel really sorry for you. I do agree with the likes of Jerry that you should have done something different, perhaps keep the memory card on you, but I would say that there isn't much point in ridiculing you now (not to say that Jerry did). Also, I can kind of see why you made these little mistakes; it was not only your first wedding shoot, but a relative's wedding. Family feelings affect everything that goes on around you, there's no doubting that.

Well, I really hope you find the memory card, although it seems like there's a slim chance now. Ugh, I have no idea if I want to do weddings if I go pro. On the one hand, it's a great experience, helps me improve, etc. But on the other hand... well, I think you know.

 

[Bifurcator]

While I agree that a staged re-shooting is not realistic, I still wonder, you rent tuxes for weddings? And what you mean by "all the tuxes", do even the guests rent them? Please excuse my ignorance with weddings on your side of the ocean.

Yes, exactly. And I only meant those three people anyway... The bride, groom, and the priest. If their priest is from their home town church there's a very high likelihood that he won't charge anything. Assuming they still have their costumes or are owned and not rented as is so often the case the total cost of a reshoot of the vows is not much more than the gasoline used to get there. I guess if you wanted to re-setup all the floral arrangements there would be a few hundred in flowers.

It might actually be a blessing. For the reshoot you can pose them slipping on the ring, standing in front of the priest, kissing the bride, etc.

Of course you probably can't recreate any of the guest shots... I was just talking about the most meaningful ones that people set on the hearth, hang, or set on their desks at the office.

 

[rubbertree]

While I agree that a staged re-shooting is not realistic, I still wonder, you rent tuxes for weddings? And what you mean by "all the tuxes", do even the guests rent them? Please excuse my ignorance with weddings on your side of the ocean.

Typically, formal weddings, over here anyway, consist of the bride and groom and anywhere from 1 to 8 and even more attendants for both the bride and groom. So the bride would have her maid of honour and then usually 2 more bridesmaids, the groom would have his best man and 2 more groomsmen. That is a typical, formal wedding. The groom and his men all rent tuxes or suits, usually they all wear the same thing and typically they are rented, nobody owns their own tux, usually.
Of course, who knows what this wedding was like. I was married in Vegas so nothing typical about that! Had the photographer lost the card for my wedding, no, we could not have flown back down to recreate the shots. We were counting on him to do his job, which he did.
If the photographer who suggests recreating the shot along with the expense is no big deal, perhaps he/she should be the one to foot the bill?
Of course there is no sense in berating someone after the fact but hopefully others who do wedding photography will read this and learn from it at the very least.

 

[fightheheathens]

People plan and spend a LOT on a weddings. As someone that has started to get into this field, the "cannot afford one" is just not a valid thing to say.

wow...i would like to welcome you to the rest of the world. you must be clueless to think that "everyone who gets married" can spend thousands on a wedding. That is just ignorant.
you really think two people who make 20,000 per year can spend 1,000 bucks on a photographer?

 

[shawnxstl]

GOOD NEWS!

The card was found today. I had the camera and i was doing some school assignment...When i went to take the lens cap off the camera, the card fell out. The card SOMEHOW got in between the lens and the lens cap. Im not sure how in the hell that happened, or how the lens cap even fit right. Talk about a luckkkkkky find.

Still clueless has to how it got there. the camera never left my hand that night until it went in the case.

 

[Bifurcator]

LOL!!!

 

[Sabin]

Congratulations man, that's got to be one of the best feelings you can experience. Had you already told the bride and groom, or are they never going to have to know about this?

 

[chrisburke]

this one should go in your "stupid photography moments" book

 

[shawnxstl]

yes it was a great feeling. i looked down at it when it fell out and i picked it up slowly and then looked at it for like a minute without moving and my friend steven was like dude what are you doing come on lets get this finished.

i just looked up at him with a huge grin on my face. best feeling ever. hahah.


Anyway, yeah. ive been trying to call my cousin all day to ask if he told them about it or not and then to tell him i found it. he never answered his phone so i just called the groom and asked if my cousin had told him what had happened. he said yeah. i said "first off i'd like to apologize for loosing it. second off, i found it." he was really excited and so was his new wife. i heard her in the background when he told her.

great day.

 

[JerryPH]

wow...i would like to welcome you to the rest of the world. you must be clueless to think that "everyone who gets married" can spend thousands on a wedding. That is just ignorant.
you really think two people who make 20,000 per year can spend 1,000 bucks on a photographer?

Wow, you know that the AVERAGE dollar amount nationally in the US is $10,000? Over $25,000 is the average amount in California?

Ignorance is calling someone ignorant without knowing facts. My facts come from national US surveys. You can check out the results yourself on the WPPI board. I am sure that if you get a little more industrous, you can likely find more figures supporting that elsehwere (like HERE, where they say the US AVERAGE is $30,000!!!).

Who's clueless now, bud?

As for my attitude, had you read a little further, you would have seen that I apologized (post #9). Doesn't that make you feel a but more stupid? Welcome to my ignore list, and have a nice day!

 

[JerryPH]

GOOD NEWS!

The card was found today.

Awsome! Go and make them happy after the big scare.

 

[Bifurcator]

They only make $20k a year? WTH... do they both only work part time at McDonalds or something??? Jezzz.. I save that much in 6 months and I have no job at all right now.