Just finished long Syrian wedding with 6 GH2:s. Crazy stuff! Gotta hit the sac and catch some z:s before posting some examples. 30h of footage to sift through in the next couple of days.

Oh yeah I forgot! They changed to another church without notice - Nerve wrecking!

Awesome thread for someone like me who has to record the highlights of his sister's wedding in a few weeks!

I´d be very much interested in more tips and warnings concerning audio, especially without lavs, if anyone had some more to give.

Thanks!

@tinbeo Or you could use a Sony RX100 if you start it just when they enter and if the ceremony is less then 30 minutes. Autofocus is damn good and low light is much better then a camcorder. Plus it's small enough to be hardly noticed. I'm trying out mine now with good results and who knows what it will be able to do once the NEX-hack team start working on Sony cameras.

Yes, I have a Tascam DR-40 which has been a great tool since I started shooting with the GH2. Great tip is to call the DJ day before wedding and see what his setup will be, and if you can patch a line/mic out from him into your recorder. So if he only mic's up the officiant, you can then mic up the groom and put that on the 2nd input, and you're set. Usually the onboard mics can pickup good ambience indoors, outdoors if there is even a slight wind, might as well turn those off and save battery life.

If you have more than one shooter, Canon's might work great for you, but for solo work, GH2 with the continuous recording really helps for those stationary shots where you can hit record way before ceremony start and not have to worry about it stopping throughout the entire ceremony...Same with reception.

@tired - Sorry if I wasn't clear, but @Cole is exactly right about what I meant. I don't have the balls to be in that kind of a high-pressure situation with a DSLR! That's why I have massive respect for people who do. I'm sure wedding shooters care. What I said is that I care too much about not letting people down, and I don't trust myself enough in unpredictable situations like weddings, with a [sometimes] unpredictable camera like a DSLR, to know that I won't let them down.

Please read more carefully before getting hostile, next time.

@oscillian - Two rigs, two on sticks. One of the tripod set ups is used for the rear of the ceremony as well as time lapses throughout the day. One us goes with the bride, one of us with the groom. We meet back up for the ceremony and reception.

@oscillian - Thank you!

Here's the finished. iPhone lav mics to the rescue.

@fosterchen I know! Never trust the GPS! You'll end up in a dead end street with the ceremony being on the other side of a brick wall and have to double back for 20 minutes. Google street view have saved me a couple of times.

Make sure to look at a map of where you are actually going for the ceremony & reception...don't just rely on GPS or printout directions...look and see the road, how far you go until the next turn, even streetview on Google Maps helps alot.

And also a BIG NO NO: planning other things on the same day before your wedding job's start time...I don't care if the wedding is later in the day or evening and you want to visit friends in the area...DON'T.

I had an afternoon wedding ceremony that was close to some friends I haven't seen in a while, so I met up with them for lunch...ended up with a parking ticket and was almost late to the church because I got lost trying to find the road the church was on! This is not how you want to start your shoot, stressed out from being lost and pissed that you got a ticket.

I've been literally shooting weddings every weekend this summer, and it's brutal! But my GH2 has proven to be a trooper, just have 3 or more batteries with you for a whole days shoot, maybe charge one at reception start so if you run out near the end, you have at least a partially charged battery for the send off...can't miss that! And I hear you @mintcheerios about using traditional camcorders...it's a hard transition with a lot of anxiety. I'm still using one as backup camera just in case, but one of these days I'll go without it and rely strictly on HDSLR's! But you MUST have a portable audio recorder & wireless mics for good quality audio for reception! And always ask the DJ if you can have a line out from his system if they are mic'ing the officiant and/or groom...they're usually happy to oblige and you get the best audio! (But do not rely completely on them, still use some of your own mics in case their system fails)

And I think sliders are only useful if you have more than one shooter....I've brought mine to every gig, and not once did I even have time to pull it out of the bag! It's just too time consuming to setup and get the shot...I don't know how people do it!

Not bad news, just showing this off!

@Mark_The_Harp Oh that lovely detuned Hoover sound! I always try to sing in unison everytime I vacuum: love the Doppler effect!

Never tried those, @oscillian, but I can imitate vacuum cleaners and spin dryers. My version of a MieleW916 on fast spin cycle is a treat for the ears! I worked for years in BBC sound effects and drama and we spent all our spare time making silly noises and adding foley to everything we did in the office (probably annoyed the hell out of people but we were young then and it amused us). I had a colleague who did foley on porn movies - so it was an interesting bunch of skills we had, though probably not so useful for wedding videos.

Whistling the sound of feedback is great fun - you MUST have an echoey acoustic, though, so you can build up the sound in a very natural way and with a lot of reverb in the room it's difficult to tell where the sound is coming from (so people assume it's the PA). The best one is to wait until they slam all the faders shut, and then start whistling again...