[Edit: Title should read: "The groom accidentally unplugged his mic *before* the vows"]

We've been editing more wedding videos, and tonight I just noticed that the audio from a groom's lapel mic ends while he's hugging someone just before the ceremony starts... He must have accidentally unplugged the mic when he hugged whomever he was hugging. *sigh* We were in a very strict church and didn't have any other mics within range for the vows.

Has anyone else had something like this happen? How did you explain it to the couple?

Before our next wedding I'm going to make sure we have several mics within range of the vows.

It's good to wear headphones while recording. Then if that happens, just interupt the ceremony with a smile .. make a joke out of it and reconnect the lav.

Look into the possibility of getting the groom to do some ADR .. you'd need some church tone.
Even if he gets close, edit it and slide into place on the timeline. HTH

Cheers.

we put two mics on the groom. one is wireless and the other is olympus recorder. very happy and secured.

Susanta, that's a very good idea. I think I'll do that from now on. We've got recorders to spare, might as well have them on "just in case".

Allan, I'll definitely propose that to him. He's on the opposite side of the country, but I could always send him one of our digital recorders to use. If he did a couple takes while watching the video from the vows, it'd probably get close enough that I could sync it.

Thanks

was this connection a mini pin type? If it is, you could try a little gaffers tape to hold the connection in place. One more reason I don't like non XLR connections. At the very least it would be nice if it was a locking pin, the kind that has a cap and screws onto the post.

Hi Kevin

You are certainly having undeserved problems!! Yes the plug can easily come out!! What I do is cut off the mic jack plug and solder the mic lead directly inside my transmitter. I know it's a drastic move but after the groom had signed the register, he sat on the transmitter and ripped the plug out so I had no audio from it when the couple were presented to the guests. However I use a Rode Videomic on the camera which saved my bacon!!!

As Allan says monitor your audio !! I shoot on my own with two cams but I use a Bluetooth headphone setup on the main camera so I can keep track of audio whilst shooting cutaways!!!

The golden rule for weddings is always have two of everything and if you can, a backup for the backup!!

John in Perth here had to do a "vows redo" last month when he accidentally didn't turn the DVR on !! I would talk to the couple and ask really nicely if they would mind repeating the vows. With some reallly nice sweet talk, you might even get the priest to do a dummy vows one evening at the venue????

I have actually asked for a ceremony to be halted once (civil one) and the couple were more than happy to "do it again for the video". Our problem was a terrible amount of flies in the gazebo...we did it all again in the garden and they had an awesome video!!!

Chris

hey chris are you saying you stopped the ceremony and asked if they would move locations to the garden or you stopped them and asked them to repeat the vows in the garden afterwards?

Hi David

They did the entire ceremony to comply with legal requirements (together with the 32 million unwanted guests...the flies!!!) and then we actually moved the B&G (and the guests too!!!) outside into the garden and did the whole thing again!!! Just for the video!! Remember our civil ceremonies are a mere 15 minutes so everyone was more than happy to do it twice... not just repeating of vows but everything except the signing of documents (which was moved outside after the first ceremony anyway) The actual initial shoot had no technical problems at all apart from thousands of unwanted critters buzzing around (and even inside my lens hoods!!)

I still have both ceremonies on my drive too!!! Our civil ceremonies are pretty laid back here so (although it's never happened) if you noticed loss of audio I'm sure you could sneak up to the groom and just plug the mic cable back in before the vows anyway and then do some creative editing to get yourself out of the shot.

Obviously you do need to make sure audio IS OK prior to the start!!! ... and at a formal Church service it would have been totally impossible. It was just a unique situation and a very understanding officiant, bride and groom who wanted the best video ever!! In Kevin's case his only real option is to do a repeat of the vows (ideally with the priest/officiant too!!)

Chris

Like Don, I wouldn''t use a transmitter that didn't have locking connectors - ours use Lemos - our Boundary layer mics are miniature XLRs.

Chris, the only problem with cutting the mic cable is that with many - Sennheiser MKE2-4 for instance the cable length is critical for impedance matching (so my guru at Granada TV tells me) so cut with caution - or a least as little waste as possible. It was a situation I came across when I bought an MKE2.-4 without a connector rather than one fitted with a Lemo.

Finally, regardless of what solution we use the important thing is to get the sound right. Not many of us has Chris's hudspah.

I had a similar horrible experience recently. I was shooting a Jewish wedding and 10 seconds after the ceremony started, the rabbi adjusted the lav microphone clipped to her lapel (she was moving it down on her lapel because she was singing). 10 seconds after that it feel and she stepped on it!!!

Ouch. There was no reason for her to move it except her own need to feel like it had to be done. How badly did she damage the mic and did you bill her for it.
When I mic an officiant I emphasize to them that once I place it please do not touch it as it's set where it needs to be. I say it with a smile on my face but with that parental voice to make them understand "don't touch it".

Normally I mic the officiant with my equipment, but for this reason the DJ was doing all the audio because they needed 4 of them set up for the speaker system (lav for the rabbi, lav for groom, hand held for a singer that was moving around, and hand held for the readers with no podium).

I spoke with the family about this beforehand and we all agreed that I was going to tap into the DJs system. I did just that and everything was great, until the mic fell and got stepped on!

So not only did my audio suffer, but no one in the audience could hear anything.

The family knew what happened and they were very understanding.

I think the mic was destroyed and the DJ billed the family.

I had a similar experience recently, except my recorder was plugged into the DJ sound board, and he forgot to hit some sort of pass-through record button until half way through the ceremony. I had my DSLR audio which is absolutely horrible, and then I ran across a problem where I had to start/stop the camera and missed the bride saying "I Will" from all my audio tracks.

I also had another wedding where the officiant kept resting his bible on top of the microphone stand. Which doesn't sound to good when it hits.

Next time i'm going to attach an h4n to my camera rig i believe, and then probably have another 1 or two h1's zip tied near the action to make sure I have redundant audio.

Pauls post is a perfect example of why in all my years I DO NOT plug into the DJs board. The DJ forgot to press a button. Hmmm OK he apologizes to us but it doen't negate the fact that a certain amount of the ceremony was missed, as well as part of the vows. So now when we go to the B&G and try to explain to them why it was missed they think to themselves if not say out loud "oh so you're trying to blame someone else". If you run you own audio, whether it's wireless or stand alone recorders or a combination of both, if there is a screw up then you've got no one to blame but yourself and then you stand up to the B&G and say "I screwed up-not the DJ or the officiant or anyone else but ME" and believe me we've all done it and if you haven't then you will or you're lying. EVERYONE screws up, no one tries to but it happens. Sometimes it no harm no foul sometimes it's a killer but it happens.
Anyway that's why I don't plug into any sound board except when I'm doing a seminar. At weddings and other live events it's a non starter for me. I trust my wireless implicately and while I won't say I've never had a problem I will say it's never been a major problem at a critical time.

It's good to wear headphones while recording. Then if that happens, just interupt the ceremony with a smile .. make a joke out of it and reconnect the lav.

Cheers.

Good point! If you smile real big no-one is going to object.

Following Paul, for the next wedding I'm mounting a H4n on our closest camera (and monitoring it with headphones), putting two mics on the groom, and then hiding a few of our older digital recorders near the action.

Pauls post is a perfect example of why in all my years I DO NOT plug into the DJs board. The DJ forgot to press a button. Hmmm OK he apologizes to us but it doen't negate the fact that a certain amount of the ceremony was missed, as well as part of the vows.

The bad thing about no sound from the DJ board is that when that happens, there is NO sound on the video. The people who are there live at least hear something even if it isn't loud enough. It reminds me of times when shooting someone and they announce that they speak loud enough to not need a mic. Hello! How's your voice supposed to get on my video!?

The cardinal rule is that DJ's are entertainers, not sound engineers. Trust them for sound and it's just a matter of time and you WILL get burned - usually not much time either.

It's good to use a feed from the DJ's board for ONE of your sound sources but one of more than one sound source. If the DJ feeds turns out to be good, then you have more than one choice of audio to use BUT if the feed is bad, you are still covered with your other sound source(s).

Yesterday at a wedding the venue was using the same Sennheiser system as I use. They were using a handheld passed along the line to each speaker in turn so I tuned into that frequency; perfect sound direct to my camera. However I did anticipate and placed boundary mics attached to a couple of pocket transmitters on either side of the groom. Just as well that I did because the first speaker kept putting the mic down. and then part way through the grooms speech a bored three year old bridesmaid started fiddling with the mixer control and lost the feed to the amp. Everyone from the venue had left during the speeches and no one knew how to switch it back. If I had been relying on that I'd have had no audio. Forward planning is essential and don't trust in anyone or anything you don't have control over.
Incidentally I didn't offer to try to sort it out, I did not want the embarrassment of not being able to and then have everyone think it my fault as I was the "technical" person there. I just kept quiet as everyone encouraged him to continue without the mic.

It was a week for things going wrong and as well all know these things are usually not of our making yet we are the ones who have to live with the consequences and deal with the client at the end.

I also had a power cut partway through an wedding reception last week-end, the whole village was out , we had sever winter weather hear in UK. There was only exit level emergency lighting and candles. They had a half hearted attempt a speeches by candle and torch light, but they were curtailed as the bride was so fuming at the venue staff; as if they could do anything. With no prospect of an evening do I left, not just like that I waited until 9pm but no sign of the power returning I left. They phone the day after to say thank you to me for staying, I think that they may have been after a discount but I didn't offer one, just wished them a better time on honeymoon and told them they'll be able to relive most of the day again when they get the DVD.

George, your experience with loss of power is another good reason for making sure the entire operation is battery powered. It not only means no trailing cables but, in the UK at least, no need for PAT testing. I recommend it to everyone.

Hi Philip. I do carry portable lights but the camera lights are not enough to light a whole room, I don't usually expect to have to do that with them as I have Redheads if I need lots of light. The portables are just for fill or key light and as they run off rechargeable packs, or the battery on the camera I'd have no way of recharging if I drained everything by lighting the room all evening. Anyway the candle lit top table worked and looked "Christmassy" and they abandoned the disco. I don't know how they got on in the hotel rooms overnight though, I never thought to ask them when they called. I'll get the lowdown when they get back from their honeymoon.

George, interesting - we've just sold our two blondes and the redheads are making their way on eBay even as I write - such is the lack of use we find.

As for your hotel guests, no doubt they coped much as New Yorkers coped when Con Ed pulled the plug on them a few years back - or maybe it was decades ago - there's a surge in the birth rate to testify!

Re: the cable length on MKE-2s. They are supplied with cables that are far too long, and most people cut them down - cable length on +2KOhm impedance mics make hardly any difference to the impedance - but these cables are not the easiest to solder if you haven't done one before. Soldering a mic direct to the board seems odd to me - a simple mic swap involves a soldering iron, and worse still a nasty tug could pull the tracks off the circuit board.

We delivered the video over the weekend, luckily I didn't get a bridezilla, she had nothing but good things to say about the video, so there much have been enough good stuff to outweigh the bad part, so I would say lesson learned and move on, never again rely on the DJ!