I sell a lot of Pre-ceremony (Bride's getting ready). What would you do if you show up to the brides home 2-3 hours before ceremony and she is not there. She is running late and still at the beauty salon.
1. Would you stay and wait for her to show up and videotape ther Bride's Getting Ready Section and arrive to the ceremony late with the bride?
2. Would you leave to the church to get the groom section and the b-roll shots from the ceremony?
3. If you leave to the church, would you return the fee of Bride's getting ready to the bride and groom or would you keep the contract as it is since it is not your fault that she was not on time.

Yeah - has happened a couple of times.

I explain to the bride before the day that the most important thing, is that I arrive at the ceremony location 30mins before the service starts (to setup cams, mics and to film guests arriving). This often means leaving from the brides house 1hr prior to the service.

I set my watch alarm to that time - and then leave at that time. If she's running late - tough luck. Sometimes I get zip-shots, veil being put on, shots with folks etc. Sometimes I get next to nothing because she's so disorganised. Ceremony is the most essential part of the day - nobody gets to screw that up... not even the bride! ;) (Try as they may)

Hi Jose

Simply make sure at contract signing time that the bride is aware that you will need to leave her home (assuming it's not too far away) at least 30 minutes before the ceremony to setup and be waiting for her.
The worst I have had to date is when I had to just do a quick few shots of her in her dress and I just told her, "Sorry I need to leave for the Church" ..They normally understand and I have never had an issue. With the contract I specify the time I will be at the bride's home and the time I will be at the ceremony..if those times are exceeded by the bride being late then she knows I have to leave!!
In my opinion YOU showed up at the correct time for the Prep shoot so if she was not available it's not your fault so no refund is deserved.

Chris

First, I wouldn't return the fee since you showed up on time and had to sit around. That's time and time is money. I might do something like return a portion of the fee to account for the fact that I would have no capturing/editing to do, but I would probably only offer that if I felt like not doing so would cause some issues between the couple and I.

Also, we let all of our couples know that we need to be at the ceremony for prep and setup no later than 30 minutes prior to the start, and we usually try to be there 45 minutes early. This way we can set up and get some cutaway shots. So I would stay and wait for the bride until I needed to leave to accomplish that. We use a 2nd camera op to cover the groom prep so that wouldn't be an issue for us.

Good luck!