Anyone done a Cambodian Wedding?

[Chris Harding]

Hi All

I got an enquiry on my phone this evening whilst shopping from a bride who was from Cambodia and wanted to know if I could do a wedding that starts early "I start at 6am" she said "but only need you from 7 to 12 .... Hmmm that's only 5 hours and although it's an early start I couldn't see any problem doing a 5 hour stint solo and do video and photos too so I gave her a modified version of my ceremony only package and added a bit to cover the time period. I said I could easily do it solo and gave her a price. "Only one person?" she said "For all that time ?" I explained that 5 hours solo was quite manageable and she said "Oh no I meant 7am to midnight, not mid-day!"

Are these people serious?? 17 hours for a wedding??? They get dressed at 6am and then go to the Buddist temple and chant for 3 hours non stop and it just carries on thru the day and night!!!

Apart from the fact I wouldn't attempt 17 hours even with an assistant video person and two photogs I was luckily totally booked out in April anyway so I could honestly tell her that I was booked!

Has anyone ever done such a mammoth wedding gig? I don't think it would be at all easy and it sounds like they want almost everything recorded!!

Chris

[Warren Kawamoto]

I don't know about Cambodian, but I once did a Catholic Vietnamese wedding. The ceremony/mass itself was 3.5 hours long! I don't remember the rest of the day because I was shocked with the length of just the ceremony. At that time I was shooting S-VHS with a Sony DXC-637, running on Anton Bauer batts. I remember squeezing the juice out of my batteries because I only had 4. After the ceremony was done, I remember rushing back home to pick up the charger and more tapes.

[Noa Put]

I would not accept such a wedding if there would be hours of ceremony or other non stop events, did a Curdic wedding once where I had to shoot the dancing part 4 hours non stop, most boring shoot ever.

About the time spend at the wedding, well, you allready have heared me say but 16 hour weddings are not unusual here, last wedding I did last year started at 6 in the morning at the hair dresser and ended at 1 at night so that's 19 hours...Lets see who can beat that :)

[Adrian Tan]

Chris, you seem to get lots of unusual weddings!

I did an Indian one last Saturday where I was up at 3.30 for a 5am to midnight, and I think that's my record. Doesn't beat Noa's though, and also there are slight upsides -- long weddings like this often have a gap in the middle of the day of 2, 3 hours, and also incorporate lunch -- guests (and you) get fed after the ceremony.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

I get a few weird wedding enquiries during the year but that doesn't mean I do them. An Afgan wedding I actually did a long time back cured me are doing ethnic weddings. She wanted the reception filmed from 6pm to midnight and she wanted EVERYTHING filmed and non stop too!!

I take my hat off to Noa and Adrian ...wouldn't catch me working for such a long stint ... I do prep, ceremony, photoshoot, reception to first dance and I'm out of there. Normally a max of 6 to 8 hours ...I don't think I want to even contemplate a 19 hour one, regardless of how many breaks they would give me!!

Chris

[Byron Jones]

I have done 15 hours with a 20 minute "break" in the middle. It is tiring for sure. I had to cut hours out to fit it on a couple DL DVDs. It is hard to imagine recording nonstop as long as she wanted and then trying to assemble it all into something.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Byron

Middle Eastern cultures expect the entire reception to be filmed..even people eating so they don't want to miss anything ... Doing that solo is almost impossible so that's why I avoid those sort of weddings!

The best believe it or not are Burmese weddings ..they get married at 1pm ..you do a photoshoot and the reception starts at 4pm ...they do some quick speeches to a guest list of often 500 people and then feed them all. By 7pm after food the guests simply leave and that's the end of the wedding!!

Chris