Mellow Wedding Assisting for Dan Pettus

So far, this was the most laid back wedding I have ever been to. It was not a traditional wedding. The bride and groom did not hide from each other, in fact, they got ready in the same room, which was easy for us since we didn’t have to coordinate times when we could take turns shooting outside. I also didn’t have to run all over the place with equipment, so we were able to take care of all the candids and the pictures of them getting ready in a 30 minutes. After we shot every possible angle, we hung around for a little bit. Then, as soon as we heard that the cake and the tables were set up, I ran and took care of shooting that. I did my usual fish-eye lens and then my 12-24mm wide angle.

After finishing up in the party room, the ceremony started. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that all the groomsmen were wearing Vans skate shoes and white socks with their tuxedos. That was a big clue that they really were laid back and just wanted to be comfortable! The cool thing was that they were all matching with their clip-on ties and their fake one-sided vests.

We shot the bride and groom walking down the aisle together with their family following behind them. The ceremony went on for about 20 minutes and it felt like it would never end. The only reason I felt that way was because usually I would be shooting the cake and the party room, but I had already done that. So, I had to make myself look busy. I grabbed one of the cameras and started shooting away. After the ceremony ended , it was time to shoot the family and friends with the bride and groom. Because we were a little bit ahead of schedule, we were able to spend more time with this part. Instead of focusing more on family and friends portraits, we shot everything required, and spent more time on the bride and groom portraits. Dan, the other photographer, and I took them to a dozen different places on the grounds and shot every spot that looked perfect. Then sent them off to the reception.

With this crowd, anyone was allowed to give a speech after the family spoke. That went on while people were eating, which meant we didn’t get to eat. (If your reading this blog to gather good ideas for shooting a wedding here is a good one EAT before you get to any wedding just in case this happens!)

We had to shoot anyone that spoke so that we didn’t miss anything. After the speeches were over and everyone was mostly done, the bride and groom had their first dance, then the DJ announced it was time for the Money Dance (anyone that wanted to dance with the bride and groom had to pay 5 or more dollars). I have never seen one of those before; it was interesting to watch. Being that there was nothing else going on after that, we had the “ok” to leave which was good because IN & OUT Burger doesn’t close until 11pm in Temecula and it was a little after 10pm, so I was stoked! We packed all the stuff into the equipment car and another successful day assisting at a wedding!