Longest time spend on a wedding day

[Noa Put]

Eventhough I have decided not to accept any new weddings I still have to try to finish the ones I had booked for this year, as if it's not bad enough to have to do this with a bad back it seems I also have some weddings on my agenda that are the toughest ones I have to deal with since I started my career.

I had to start at the brides place at 06:30 in the morning to shoot brideprep, because she lived 2 hours drive from my place and because I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night and then spend my time in traffic jams on a Friday morning I decided to sleep over at a B&B the night before nearby her place so it only took me 15 minutes to get there.

The couple also had payed to do some guest interviews, something I stopped doing a year ago but they booked me 2 years ago when I was still that stupid to offer this, so I had to stay one hour after the first dance to do that part which takes a hour.

The problem was their friends had been doing several acts that seemed to have no end between meals which made the first dance start at 1 in the night, I shot some regular dancing after that before I set up everything in a separate room to record the interviews.

I only started to pack up everything around 02:45 because people would keep coming after the agreed 1 hour and since those included the couple's parents I couldn't say no to that (but they won't be saying no to the extra hours I charge extra for this :)), when I said goodbye to the couple and when I was sitting in my car it was 3 at night, then add a 2 hour drive and a half hour of sleep when I stopped over at a gasstation because I felt I was falling asleep while driving I got home 05:30, dragged my gear inside and was in bed at 6 in the morning.

I think this must be a record for longest time spend on a wedding, anyone else that can challenge my record? :)

[Steve Bleasdale]

Phew Noa that's hard.
I booked a Jewish wedding in Spain four years ago, they really got a good deal from me. Arrived in the morning at 8 am worked all day without any drinks or food (tight buggers), then just before the speeches she came to me the bride and said we are not cutting the cake till 4 am in the morning and had booked me till 11 pm. Just as the speeches where starting at 8.30 pm a weird mist came in from the sea and as the hotel was right on the beach the bloody speeches where cancelled till later on so i ended up waiting there anyway till 5 am due to the cake and the mist. Phew never again. In the end the movie was great but it was only because i had stayed. They sure got there monies worth. Things we do hey mate... Steve

[James Manford]

Crazy timings! Only if the client knew.

South asian weddings are normally this long.

A friend I regularly second shoot with. It's not strange to wake up at 4am and come home at 2am. So you have basically worked 22 hours straight.

[Andrew Maclaurin]

Ouch! 10 -14 hours is the norm here and I end up completely knackered! I have got home at 04.00 in the morning and then spent 50 mins looking for a place to park :( . That life in a city centre.

[Colin Rowe]

Are you guys on another planet. 12 hours max shooting, and you all know that's a long day. After that its pay for the extra time or I walk

[Tim Akin]

Dang Noa, that's a long day!

12 hours is it for me and that sometimes feels like 24, that's why I'm giving this up after this year......just don't enjoy it anymore.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Colin Rowe

Are you guys on another planet. 12 hours max shooting, and you all know that's a long day. After that its pay for the extra time or I walk

My current packages are also time limited with extra charge per additional hour, I don't work for free. :)