A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Time for a bit of a rant!

I have been filming and photographing weddings in the UK for over 30 years and it pays the bills, but have begun to see a change in the whole ethos of weddings over the last few years.

When I started filming weddings, almost all were in churches, with a very small minority in registry offices. Most church weddings were followed by a reception in a hall, or hotel with a lot of the decoration and preparation carried out by family members, with registry office weddings tending to be more often than not for those wishing to spend less on their wedding, with frequently the reception in a pub or local village hall.

Since wedding licenses were made available to venues, the trend has been away from church weddings, but more interestingly all receptions are starting to look the same. A typical reception now seems to be an off the peg event more akin to a fun fair than a family celebration.

The day starts off with the bride and her bridesmaids all wearing identical matching off the shelf/internet PJs/dressing gowns/T shirts, followed by the application of caked on theatrical style makeup that makes them all look like store manikins or geisha girls, that is on top of their already applied spray tans. They no longer look anything like their real selves with a make up artistes interpretation of what they should look like.

At the reception, all seating for guests has an off the shelf wrap around sash and bow for each chair, with, jam jars of flowers on the tables and a bewildering array of pseudo vintage tat spread around the room. This can include old brown suitcases, vintage cameras and tripods, oil lamps, floral plates and cups, wooden apple boxes, wooden ladders with flowers on, cart wheels, bits of sacking, pieces of old wood and anything that could have come from old farm chuck outs. Even the speeches are usually just an adapted speech from the Internet, punctuated with tortuous self conscious repeating of the same old jokes also from wedding websites. Don't get me started on wedding food, does any venue know how to do anything other than some form of chicken?

The idea of celebrating a couple getting married and meeting up with family and friends to celebrate the event, seems to have changed into a need to entertain people with more and more sideshows. Photo booths, video message booths, silly glasses/hats/blow up guitars, even exaggerated pictures of mouths, mustaches and faces printed on card and mounted on sticks to hold up infront of your face. Worst of all are the Chinese mass produced weddingy messages on imitation antique boards or card saying things like 'Love is forever', or 'Welcome to the most wonderful day of our lives' and of course any combination of made up emotive or schmaltzy messages. Then there are thumb print pads for hanging your print on a thumb print tree, the same with message tags, messages on writable urns etc.etc.etc. What about the cutout Mr & Mrs letters, or giant illuminated Mr & Mrs signs. Of course performers include Portrait sketchers, charicaturists, harpists, magicians, plus all the ones I have forgotten. At a recent wedding, even the church ceremony started as a bit of a farce, with the Bride and her Father entering to a singer doing a karaoke version of the Guns and Roses hit 'Sweet Child Of Mine', with the Father wearing a 'Slash' style top hat and a giant placard on his back with an arrow pointing to his daughter and the words 'Sweet Child of Mine' in big black letters!

Now I might be old and also a bit old fashioned and a grumpy old sod, but I find myself wearying of just about every wedding turning into an identical side show to most of the others. On the bright side though I had a lovely wedding last week in a more traditional style with people just chilling out and enjoying talking to the couple and spending time with friends and family they hadn't seen for a while.

I still love filming, photographing and editing them, but the wedding day itself has become so predictable and repetitive to the point of tedium.

Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

When it gets to the stage you need to take a load of Valium before you go, then it will be time to hang up your cameras!:-)

Dave

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

LOL

Perhaps I should just increase my prices to help cushion the pain, after all if they can afford to hire in all that tat, they can probably afford to pay me more to record it :-)

Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Trends come and go. However I'm more on the side of making it fun, hence I'm a part of the funfair tradition, with Marryoke, Guest Messages, Video Booth and same day edits on a TV screen I setup. I love humour more than the trite romantic stuff, which can come across as mushy, cheesy or false. In fact I like it when the couple avoid the tedium of formal photos, which I have had a few this year, including last Saturdays.

A Wedding is suppose to be a happy, fun day celebrating the couple and their personalities. Yet too often it seems its dominated by the tedious overlong Ceremony at a church, followed by endless photos that Guests hate, followed by Speeches that those speaking fret over and which the Guests tolerate before the party finally begins in the evening and everyone relaxes and has fun. And the couple paid a fortune for this day. It feels like formality for the sake of tradition rather than because people enjoy it. So when the couple try to inject some fun into their day, I am all for it. I find more pleasure filming humour and fun than endless talks and photos. I find the Weddings where the guest just stand around talking to each other to be frankly boring and not very interesting video.

I admit the endless meals of chicken, veg and potato gets tedious, especially when I'm being fed this also week in, week out. Alas with so many people having different views on what makes great food, couples play it safe and pick something generic and bland that won't offend. However I've done enough barbecue Weddings this year to balance this out.

Plus the boring hotels seem to be less in favour at the moment so I've done quite a few marquees, barns and outdoor Ceremonies. Two in woodlands, which admittedly a bit of a trek, made it refreshingly different to some tight room in a hotel. I like the rustic Weddings myself as I'm more a rural person that urban person.

All the tat, like finger printing on trees, magicians, harpists, message tags just gives me something to film. Perhaps Roger you've just too many Weddings. Was it really so much less tedious and repetitive in the past.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

You have is spot on Roger, 25 this year with many to go and the same old s.....te... Nothing different same crap different day.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

I think it was less tedious in the past, Bride's preps were private, so filming and photos started about an hour before the ceremony to capture guests arriving, then a comparatively short photo groups session at the church then back to the reception. The meal was usually fairly soon after arrival, then following speeches and cake cutting, the couple left for their honeymoon in their car which had been 'decorated' with tied on tin cans, and lipstick scribbled good luck messages.

Now everything from the start of hair and makeup to drunken dancing and fireworks 14 hours later are expected to be captured. I'm all for filling the day with fun, but I hate the fact that usually, wedding fun today has nothing personal about it. It just seems to be pre-packaged Chinese tat that has become obligatory and identical at so many weddings and I just can't get interested in it after the 8th identical wedding in two weeks.The day just drags on for ever with people either bored or feeling compelled to play the games in the hope of relieving the boredom. Every so often though I film a wedding where the families have put in real effort to do something personal, different and fun. It's a bit like the difference between a cheap holiday camp and a planned adventure holiday. Perhaps I am covering the wrong end of the market!!

Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Hey Roger

As one of the 25+ generation I have found much the same as you and only the ceremony nowdays seems to have any semblance of order ...the receptions here too have turned into drunken eating sessions and brides too are going all out with funny booths (we now have one sadly) and magicians (what?) oyster shuckers, cartoon artists and the one we did a few months back even brought in pinball machines, air hockey and a basket ball machine too. Yep it's getting way too much for me too!!

We are doing quite a lot of live streaming now and I have offered it for bridal ceremonies with good results! I love the concept too ..Shoot the ceremony live and our CDN also makes me an online MP4 that's available to the bride immediately ...it's a weird feeling though ..you set up, shoot the ceremony, pack up your gear and you are done!! No editing night after night and no post work at all!! From an costing point of view it's highly viable ...you make a big profit and you get to bed at a reasonable hour too!!

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

The biggest change I have seen the past 10 year is the addition of these photo- and videobooth's and the fact everyone now expect the photog to stay until after the first dance while 10 years ago they only stayed until the reception. But other then that, we still have the same acts and powerpoint presentations in the venue, not much has changed.

One thing that seems to be quite different from the experiences I read here is the quality and variety of the food, Belgians are known to like to eat, and eat well. The weddings I end up the food is always of a high standard, something you would expect from getting at a fancy restaurant. The higher end venues serve oysters and other stuff a normal human being normally never eats and the food often looks like something you see served in one of Gordon Ramsays restaurants. Also often they have real orange juice, not that cheap stuff you buy in your local foodstore but juice that tastes like it has been freshly pressed. I even have some venues where they offer me a "a la carte" meal.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

The biggest problem is the venues, they do not want change! They prefer everything to go their way, not the bride and grooms way or the photogs or videogs way. During the B&G meet with the venue they are even forcing the B&G to have their speeches first before food, nightmare for us!!, however the past three weddings in two weeks speeches have been first before food causing us, the photog and everyone else to rush and then quality fails everything. All to please the venue?

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Photography has been the biggest change for me. In the old days you did the prep, ceremony and formal groups followed by the brides personal shoot and then you sneaked into the reception (before the guests) and did a mock cake cutting and that was the end of your job. Home in plenty of time for dinner!!

We still only do video until the end of the first dance and often leave long before the photog. It's not uncommon now for the photog to stay right until the couple leave at midnight even doing shots of them in the limo before it drives away!! If we do photo we never go past the first dance..it makes it just too long a day!

If you think about it prices probably haven't gone up that much to make it worth while for a videographer to work for 12 hours and then spend another 30 hours editing and making media. I wonder if people bother to see how much their effective hourly rate ACTUALLY is if they take everything in account including meeting to sign up the bride. travelling, the actually wedding day and then the post production ...You might be shocked how little you are getting per hour!! In the early 90's when VHS was the rage, I used to use full size cassettes, pre film the intro titles, shoot the wedding and handover the tape to the couple when I left ... much easier to cost out and you actually make more money too per hour!!

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Things change - something we all have to accept. If you're looking at your job and thinking back to the good old days, chances are its time for you to leave and find something new. Its why I left working for a University after 13 years. It wasn't the job I had signed up for. Maybe I shall one day feel that way about Weddings, in fact I'd lay odds on it. In which case, I would have to think about making a change of career again.

So the hourly rate is pretty poor. If I was in it just for the money, I'd have stayed at the University, good money and the hours were so much better; but that's not always the point.

I've enjoyed a reasonable mix of Weddings this year; perhaps not as memorable as last years, but that set up a pretty high bar. Next year looks a lot better.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

The glory days for wedding video & photography were pre-digital when the weddings were simpler & expectations less. You could make a better living then than now as the influx of weekend warriors has flooded the market & driven down prices. This is particular the case with photography as in the days of film you needed skill & experience plus keeping the negatives gave you a potential long term revenue stream for re-prints.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

If you count glory days in terms of profits and an easy day for the Videographer, then yes, those days are well and truly gone. If you count it in quality of the work and the finished videos themselves, then I say we are entering the glory days now. So many of my clients are come to me and said how the videos of today are not like the cheesy Wedding videos their parents had. Too many not for it to have some grain of truth.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

I completely agree that the glory days from an editing point of view are now. As I said in an earlier post, I enjoy editing the video and processing the photos. Using multi cameras and sound recorders gives much more variety of shots and a slicker finished product.

It's the weddings themselves that have all become identical, where you could basically drop any family into another wedding and everything would be the same. The ceremony is almost incidental. There are certainly times when I have been editing recently when I have felt that I could keep a stock of clips of the same regularly repeated props, to save me even bothering to film them each time. Mmmm!!! perhaps a new business idea, anyone want to hire a clip pool of standard wedding shots :-)

Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Hey Noa,

My wife says it sounds idyllic, do you want a female assistant?

Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Surely they were always identical. Were Weddings 20-30 years ago such varied events with no two alike. Were Ceremonies back then rich in diversity or just using the same theme and words. I think Roger you have less a problem with a lack of variety but more with what the norm currently is. Weddings as you say are about entertaining the guests with lots of different sideshows, gimmicks and trinkets to keep the mob amused. Some of it is down to a hotels set package, which the couple for lack of time and experience accept, and in other cases down to what the couple have seen at other Weddings they attend. Only those willing to be really creative are up to making their Wedding Day unique.

If your taste is for the traditional, then I can understand the current trend for funfair style booths isn't going to win you over, but if you're as wacky as me, then all that nonsense becomes something to enjoy rather than rant over.

Not to say that I don't have my own rants and opinions of course over some of the Weddings I film. However it is more the traditional side of things that bothers me more than the wacky stuff.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Weddings were always about two people committing their lives to each other in the company of family and friends, with a meal, speeches, cake cutting and leaving after the meal. That was it basically, so to a large extent a wedding was all about the people there, so yes the people were different at every wedding and so were the speeches. My perception now is that the wedding is shoe horned into a highly commercialised and scripted party package, with the focus shifted to entertaining the guests with various pre packaged and expensive side shows and tat. Just like many celebrations, the wedding has ceased being about a joining of two people and everything about a commercialised party and out partying the last wedding. What is interesting is that invariably the couple themselves are entertained by talking to their guests rather than the gimmicks!

I'm quite happy to film it all and take the money, but I don't have to sing it's praises or enjoy the plastic commercial repetitiveness that passes for entertainment.

Roger



Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

My first marriage was in 1986 and in those days it was certainly different, like you said very simple, no speeches in my case, no silly games, presentations, but just a ceremony in church, a photoshoot, a good simple meal in the venue and a first dance which started at 21:30 and then a lot of dancing and people getting drunk, including me, and having fun. We didn't spend anything else on entertainment, for that we had a DJ, I still remember today what the cost was of my entire wedding: 2250 euro and we got that same amount back in money from our guests as weddingpresent, basically the wedding paid for itself :) What I hear from couples today that should easily be multiplied by 10 and more now.

Today the first dance is usually around midnight (had one wedding last year where the first dance started at 01:30 at night) and before that it's the speeches, powerpoint presentations, acts by friends, they show films that last forever from their bachelorsparty, there is often a group playing music live during the reception, there is a photo or videobooth, I also have seen during a reception that there where different games the guests could play.

To be honest, I would prefer the way my first wedding was, today I see people sitting in boredom trough the endless speeches, acts and presentations and waiting for finally the dancing to start.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

I just got married in Fort Lauderdale, Florida 8 weeks ago - cost $130 for the licence and ceremony at city hall, $200 for a tog for an hour (really nice guy but who mainly did sports and pets) and a wedding meal at The Cheescake Factory - just the two of us! Nice and simple :)

Good job not everyone is like me or we'd all be out of business!

Pete

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

My second wedding 14 years ago was even more cheaper, The legal part in the townhall, no ceremony but just a meal with my parents, our children and their partners in the afternoon at a hotels restaurant, I fell asleep around 17:00 probably because we didn't hire a DJ :) I think only weddingvideographers get married like that or in my case back then anyone who gets married a second time.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Neither Peter or Noa are really selling the non-funfair, small scale style Weddings very well. :)

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Like Peter said, we would be the worst clients for weddingsvideographers. At my second wedding the photog was my wifes friend and he shot for free and my dad took a handicam with him to shoot video. I"m shocked whenever I hear what the budget of a wedding is and very often the parents have to pay a large part. It's all the "wacky" extra's they want that make it so expensive. But from a videographer point of view you don't hear me complain, it gives me enough material t make a fun film, it's only the speeches and especially the too longs acts by friends that add several hours of editing time.

Edit: I think it's best to move this topic to the members only area.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

At the same time, aren't you guys profiting from the funfair weddings? Sure, ten or 15 years ago, the idea of a magician and a photobooth at a wedding was absurd, and spending $5k on flowers was something Princess Diana did, not something that someone working full-time at Wal-Mart did.

But at that same time, a wedding video was a guy with an SVHS camcorder on a set of steel sticks with one angle would set up at the back of the church, roll the ceremony, pop the tape out, and hand it to the bride. Today... every wedding video looks like a frickin' movie trailer, suitable for playback on the Oprah network. From listening to you guys, it seems the average wedding is spending $3k - $5k on video. You guys rattle on about 2-3 videographers and a half dozen unmanned cameras. I work on TV shows that don't have that kind of coverage!

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Alas prices aren't always as good as you think they are. Photographers offering video on the side, Students looking for a part time job to supplement their studies and those looking to make their video craft more than a hobby tend to lower prices. Whilst Video is (in the UK at least), often the last port of call for many couples; who having spent most of their budget on other services, look at video as an affordable extra. I film on my own and yes with 4 cameras, and yes I am benefiting from the funfair as I offer Marryoke, Video Booth and same day edit. That much is true.

However I can't say whether the latest trends have increased video work or not. Certainly its made it more competitive.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Well I may not enjoy the Funfair aspect of modern weddings, but I certainly earn a good enough living from it.

Sometimes though it makes me sad to see many couples who seem to feel obliged to have a big expensive wedding with all the latest fashionable gimmicks. Then I visit them to deliver the video/photos and see that they are living in a rabbit hutch working every hour possible for minimal wage. I wonder why they didn't just get married in a registry office, go to the pub afterwards and put all the thousands of pounds saved into improving their circumstances.

I will add that although I often find the video filming repetitive and tedious, I love doing the photography since we started offering the joint and individual packages. I feel I have so much more control and artistic input into the photography and I love the closer relationship it brings with the couple and their families. We did a photography only wedding a couple of weeks ago and it felt almost like a day off :-)

Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

I have always wondered whether I should forgo the glitz and glamour of the funfair weddings and the long tedious hours involved and target the registry wedding business? It's huge where we are with a good half dozen every day in the official registry office which is actually decorated very tastefully and has facilities for up to 20 guests too. I did one a while back and was amazed at the nearly 2 month waiting list they have to book a ceremony! No hassle and no issues ..just a one camera shoot for a cost that couples could easily afford and certainly plenty of work and cost effective too .. In and out within an hour and all in one venue. Even our civil celebrants are starting to offer couples a no frills ceremony in their offices and they far exceed the number of funfair weddings and they are certainly far less hassle than rushing to bridal prep, Churches and receptions ... admittedly you would only probably charge a much lower fee but you would get a whole lot more work and it would be a simple in and out affair. Also as they are more often than not done during the week which would eliminate the weekend warrior slashing prices. Anybody doing that sort of shoot ?

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Your comparing apples to oranges, the extra camera's most of us use combined might cost less then one lens on a camera used at a tv show. Also, most of us on this forum work alone and certainly not everyone is able to charge the prices you mention.

The guy with a SVHS camcorder could not buy more then one camera for less then 1k that matched the IQ of his main camera and which was small enough to put in his pocket. Those options where just not available back then, and we are not even considering the challenges he would face by trying to edit a multi-cam sequence.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Steve you do a SDE on your own? Kudos :)

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

These guys might make great weddingvideographers as well: http://www.sdmediapros.org/wp-conten...ManBandMCU.jpg

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

But because the day is such a huge production now it means we can charge more. The value of a guy who turns up to film a ceremony and speech is little. But when they have these lavish affairs it means more work for us and thus more money.

Dont knock it Roger. I know they all go for the same stuff and copy speeches from the internet but it pays the bills :)

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Now, if you want to see a funfair wedding here is a literal one. Will be making it public soon but for now you get a sneak look.

Password: preston4616

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Did I see that right they hired a marry go round and a ferris wheel for their wedding or was there a fair nearby the venue?

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

HI Danny,

Now that's what I call a Funfair wedding:-)

For a number of years I have filmed showman's weddings, but they have never wanted their funfairs included, although I would love to. You are quite right of course, the repetitive and boring weddings pay the bills, so I object to doing them, just grit my teeth and give them what they want. Some weddings are still fun though.

Roger

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

The merry go round was already there. 120 years old and forms part of the venue. I think the ferris wheel and the sideshow games were all brought in.

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Congratulations, Pete! Hope you had a great day!

Sleeping at 5pm... oh dear! Haha!

Amen. I had a recent booking due to the bride's parents telling them that they had spent too much money not to have a recording of their day on film. The couple were reluctant, as I think they'd pushed their budget to the limits, but then they were so happy once they had booked, knowing that all of their wedding would be captured on film.

If weddings weren't such a big deal nowadays, neither would videography. We wouldn't be pushing the boundaries as much with interesting films, and we would have a lot less material for the edit as a whole, though I realise that technological advancements are the real reason for our spurt in popularity and ability to deliver a better product.

I honestly think that if you hate weddings so much, you should consider lending your skills to other areas of videography. I am sure that they would pay just as well.

Personally, I find weddings to be really exciting, and I still see the things mentioned in this thread. The care that goes into these weddings, the love of family members and the happiness that is present... sure, there are extras, but for the most part, I think brides want these things themselves... less so, feeling pressurised into doing so themselves... though I know that from a personal point of view, I wouldn't want all the extras. I'd put that money into hiring an amazing photographer and videographer, have a nice meal, a good DJ or band and call it a day with a decent venue.

Having attended some pretty lavish weddings as a guest, I would feel a bit worried myself of other people's opinions... but for the most part, I think they would expect the wedding that I give to them.

Being lavish is for camera accessories, not for weddings themselves! Haha

Re: A Wedding or a Funfair?
 

Hi Craig,

Just quoted my own post here, because I seem to no longer have the facility to edit my posts after posting. I intended to put 'So I DON'T object to doing them', but I missed out the all important 'don't' which completely changes the context. Just couldn't amend it afterwards :-(

I certainly don't hate weddings and some I really enjoy, it's just the total sameness of many weddings that I find frustrating when I do several close together. It's not the people or the venues or the filming, just the endless identical props and gimmicks to be fashionable.

Roger