Last Spring, @winstonwolfe and I had the honor of documenting @bumbleshark's lovely wedding ceremony and reception.
As long-time photographer's, we know that our job is to be unseen, a fly on the wall, if you will. That's really the job any wedding vendor, but I guess one guy didn't get the memo.
Here's a quick example of how NOT to be a wedding DJ:
This is @bumbleshark, and she is about to toss her bouquet.
Doesn't she look beautiful on her wedding day?
Here she goes!
Wait....who's this??
That would be the DJ hired off of the venue's recommendation.
And he just ruined her bouquet toss photos.
What you can't see here is that @winstonwolfe is standing off to my right, trying to get the same moment from a slightly different angle. As soon as this happened, we gave each other a look - an "I'm about to choke a wedding DJ" look.
Because this guy ran in front of his camera, his photos aren't even worth showing.
I'm thinking this is surely a fluke. Maybe he didn't feel like he had the room's attention and was trying to direct it?
Maybe he just didn't realize what he had done.
Okay. Let's give him another chance.
Here comes the garter toss, and so far, so good. He's nowhere around:
Oh...there he is...
Are you serious right now, Mr. DJ Guy?!?!?
@winstonwolfe moved a little to try to get a better angle since it looked like he was going to pull the same stupid stunt. At this point, I'm looking Mr. DJ Guy dead in the eyes from across the room and telling him, in not so many words, to get the f out of my way.
He saw me. He ignored me.
Okay, here we go, I guess.
My shots:
@winstonwolfe's shots:
@bumbleshark and I have been long time friends, so shortly after things calmed down a little, I pulled her aside and told her what had happened. She briefly mentioned that he was the replacement sent in an emergency because the first DJ had already played all the wrong songs during her ceremony.
Ugh.
A few weeks later, she sends me a message and says the thought I would like to know the rest of the story.
Apparently, the tosses weren't the only snafu with this DJ:
I'm not going to waste my time pointing out all the things that went wrong here on a professional level. Really,
it's kind of obvious.
So, if you're looking to break into the wedding DJ industry, just remember that other vendors can possibly bring in quite a lot of referrals for you. Keep them happy and network with them, and please take notes from this guy on what NOT to do.
Does anyone else have a wedding vendor horror tale to share with me? I'd love to hear it!
Thanks for reading!
Noooooo. O goodness some people... Well she looked stunning and I hope that the DJ did not determine how she remembers this special day
It was a beautiful day, and I did my best to make sure her memories of her wedding were this:
Good god, makes me glad we had an awesome DJ for my wedding. Worked with the off the beaten path songs we gave him, and even played my song on our way out the reception!
I really dodged a bullet!
Having great vendors at your wedding makes all the difference!
I am a great fan of weddings eventhough I never have been to one, or never had much of one myself - I literally wore black, had two witnesses I barely knew, and had my family (and you know who they are!) as the only guests at my celebratory dinner, which I was too sick to eat, for being three months pregnant. For me weddings seem either massively O.T.T. or nightmares waiting to happen (and then follows actually wedded life!). I practice empathically my own coping skills with all the things that can and do go wrong at them when I watch wedding-planning, dress and party shows or films.
I can well imagine the awful stress planning a wedding gives (I admire those who have gone through it and survived!) I can also imagine the disappointment with the photos, but above all the irritation on the day!
I sincerely hope a bunch of dreadful photos has zero impact on the rest of the wedded couple's life together! May they have a good giggle about this and see it as a one of those crazy things that set the tone for their resolve to make the best out of any let down, which may befall them yet, as is normal for a life-time together.
(P.S. At least, thankfully, I have no photos to remind me of that awful day barely worth calling a wedding and biggest mistake of my life.)
Not a lot of OTT weddings for us. Most of our brides are pretty thrifty spenders - their budget usually allows for a good chunk of money on their venue, photographer, and dress, then the rest is usually done as low budget as possible.
The trend around here is to ask your bridesmaids to purchase their own dresses, but to also allow them to pick the dress they wear so they are able to pick one they will wear again in a non-wedding setting.
Last fall, I watched a bride throw together her own bouquet 10 mins before she walked down the aisle. lol
Being a wedding vendor can be incredibly stressful, too. I am actually taking a break from photographing them this year to avoid burn out.
Also, we've been so busy with everyone else's weddings that @winstonwolfe and I have been engaged over a year now and have no time to even think about planning our own! lol
I feel so bad for laughing at this story, but I find it to be hilarious!
It's okay to laugh! It's been almost a year now, and the bride and I laugh about it every time. It was frustrating in the moment, but now it's a story to tell!
I can honestly say I haven't read anything this entertaining in months! I just about died when I saw your use of the music head emoji to cover his face. I would think that considering this was the man's first wedding, he would be a little anal about everything, but it seems the opposite. The pictures you did manage to get without him are beautiful though! I am excited to hear more of your stories, good and bad!, in the photography realm.
I have not been to many weddings, but I come from an Irish family, so there is no messing one of those up! lol.
Funerals on the other hand I have attended many, as a flag folder for deceased Veterans. I can tell you this, there were not many hiccups during the 300+ funerals I did honors for, but even a minor hiccup was a huge deal.
The strangest thing I ever saw was this guy who's brother had died, and this fellow was a photographer..Man he was taking so many photos from different angles on the casket, and having us Marines pose with him, doing thumbs ups holding the bugle...I'll never forget it. talk about weird..haha
Oh, yes. Hiccups at weddings usually become funny stories later, not so much for funerals.
Such a strange request from that man's brother. Some people have weird ways of coping with a death that close. Maybe he thought that's what his brother would have wanted?
My grandmother had albums full of family members' grave sites. Most of them were taken just after the funeral when all the flowers were still laying on the fresh dirt. She had photos of headstones of family members from AR, MO, and NE, all across the middle of the country. I thought it was weird as a kid, but I understand a little now. She wasn't able to visit these cemeteries near the end of her life, and I imagine having the photos was comforting.
Indeed, I never thought about it in terms of coping, surprisingly, but that makes a lot of sense. He was very happy go lucky, completely the opposite of what you typically see from a grieving family member, almost hysterical in his happiness. He spoke about him in a way where it was obvious he looked up to him very much.
Thank you for sharing about your grandmother. Photography, when I was growing up, was a very meaningful tradition of sorts. My father always explained to me the magic of a photograph, that it wasn't just a photo, but a snapshot of a memory. I've never taken photography for granted, because it is certainly true. There is nothing that can bring you back to a moment in time quite like a picture.
I hope the selfie, snap chat filter taking generation doesn't lose the magic of photography, because sometimes, I feel it's taken for granted, or perhaps just not as appreciated as it once was, hell the first people who had their pictures taken had to sit still in front of a camera for what? Like an hour? 😄
Take care friend, nice chatting with you.
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