We always ask the B&G to send us the pictures from the photog. never had a problem. once or twice the photogs package don't provide high res pics, this way they ask the photogs to send us the pics directly to us and it worked every time. put the responsibility to the B&G and you'll be fine.

The answer is that we tailor our technical product to suit the occasion. In your specific example we will firstly meet with the vicar and explain why we need more cameras. If that fails for legitimate reasons eg lack of space, we have all the cameras on radio controlled hotheads so we can provide an operatorless solution - unless you count the person operating the controls from the back/side of the church.

Of course this is a less satisfactory solution but it works when it has to.

Finally to answer the specific questions we always have two people at least, and from next year that'll rise to three. And we make and sell programmes, not hours of work. We take the cover photo from the master.

1. They get 10 hours which can not be split up. I do a lot of asian weddings where the Tea Ceremony happens early in the morning. Then the Ceremony starts 4-5 hours later. I'm not working from 8am - midnight without a some compensation. All my clients have agreed. So I charge $25 /hr for the downtime.

2. I stopped getting pics from the photographer as well. I use Final Cut Pro and select the Still Frame from the export options. Works good.

Always at least two of us shooting and usually another one or two static cameras in the ceremony (so a total of 4 cameras where suitable / allowed). We also have a third person to act as an assistant and occasional shooter (although this is more a case of "stand here and mind that camera"!). I've found that with two people shooting, 2 static cameras, an extra digital audio recorder plugged in to the church sound system and wireless mics on the Groom to take care of, it's hard to keep up with the wedding party unless you have more people to round up the equipment while we are taking shots outside. We like to have one person go ahead to the reception location if possible to make sure we catch the B+G arriving if we get delayed along the way after seeing the B+G leave the church.

It's also the case that if some one is shooting Bride Prep and needs to catch the Bride leaving the prep location then some one better have gone ahead to the church to get setup there a good 45 mins before hand - otherwise it's tough to get the wireless stuff in place and tested and extra cameras setup in time.

The lowest package has time limits - the other is feature based - although we like to limit the general shooting to 9:30pm. If first dance is going to be within a reason able time after 9:30pm we stay and shoot it. However, if the first dance is going to be midnight then they are out of luck (unless they booked / paid us to stay later).