Has anyone (non-professional) been brave enough to do a wedding? How did it go? Any advice?
Here is the story (in brief
. I hope) of one of those weekend warriors which gets a lot of criticism from some quarters.
10 years ago I had my first 35mm SLR camera (Nikon F100). I loved it and got hooked on photography. Whilst still learning about exposure, and developing film at a leisure course at the local college, my enthusiasm was noticed by one of my employees at my non-related photography business. She said her daughter was getting married for the third time and wasnt bothered about having any photographs. However, Mum thought it would be nice to have some photos
only a dozen or so, as an extra wedding present. So she asked me. I refused as I told her I wasnt confident enough to take on the task, but she said just do it for the experience, if the pics are crap, no harm done as they werent going to have a tog anyway. She said I would get fed and watered, payment for costs of film and developing, and happy for my wife and I to be a guest at the reception and all drinks on their tab. In fact she more-or-less begged me to do it. In the end I did it. The results werent great, but werent too bad either. Or, at least I produced a respectable amount of pics that they were pleased with.
Some years later, I had learned a lot more about photography. I had joined a local camera club, and won, or at least got a 2nd or 3rd placement in the competitions. I had also moved to digital and had a copy of PS6. Most of my PS training came from the Discs from Digital Photo Magazine, although I paid for a days tuition for a 121 course with a guy in Colchester, which was very useful.
As, by now I was a proud owner of a Canon 20D. I hadnt thought anymore about wedding toggery until one evening when I goggled something about the 20D.One result came up with an American wedding togger by the name of Gino Lucadamo and his web site
http://www.storybyphoto.com/. I loved his site and style at the time and decided I must shoot some more weddings.
I bought books on wedding toggery. Including some e-books, one from Garry Edwards if I remember rightly, plus expensive videos, one from Gino himself. I quickly found out the argument that too many wannabes were becoming Wedding Photographers and not helping the industry of the professional Wedding Photographer.
So, to get my foot in the door I advertised myself in the local classified department of the local rag, where there were ads of 2nd hand wedding gowns, 2nd hand bridesmaid dresses, 2nd hand cake stands etc etc. I soon got a few jobs with some low budget weddings
..These people were not considering a wedding photographer until they saw my ad. And with the type of budget these people had wouldnt be able to hire a pro even if they wanted one. So, I IMHO, couldnt be accused of damaging the industry. The venues werent great, but this did give me some experience and at least a portfolio of wedding pics, rather than using my camera-club images as an example of my work. I was than offered to shoot as a 2nd shooter for a local pro, which was good, as the higher budget wedding pics improved my portfolio. I then joined the SWPP. No, I didnt use the logo on my site to make me look better! But this was my first intro in to a forum. And the SWPP forum is a lot less busy than this, but boy did I learn a lot from that place! And, there are so many nice people there aswell. TP is equally as useful, but being so much bigger takes longer to get to know people.
Anyhow, I eventually became a £500 shoot and burn Weekend Warrior. No problem with that as a second business, but I started getting requests for upgrades to albums, canvasses and framed prints etc. Great you may say? But I just dont have the time for it. My primary business turns over around £500,000 and doesnt leave me anytime for this.
Its a bit sad really, cos my passion is with photography, but my prime directive is to keep a roof over my kids heads.
Despite the potential success of my wedding photography, Ive had a few knocks too. I had a bride with a midweek wedding with just 29 guests, I said I would give her 90 mins coverage with 50 edited images on a disc for £250.00.
Without going into all the details, she made a fuss and got around 200plus edited pics. At the same time I failed my LSWPP for the 2nd time (although only just 
and wasnt happy with myself with what I provided as a 2nd shooter to one of the guys I 2nd shoot for.
Wedding photography can sometimes be easy, but most of the time is more difficult than some think. Depends on the clients perspective
..If they are spending a lot they are going to expect a lot, but make sure if they are spending a little less than the norm make sure they know what they get for their money and be honest with your capabilities
