Pre-Ceremony Shoot and No Bride

[Jose Dominguez]

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 shoots 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.

[Chris Davis]

I would call the bride (or other decision maker) and tell her I'm willing to wait if they want, or I can go and do something useful - it's her choice. I would under no circumstances refund the money.

[Matthew Craggs]

Re: 1 & 2, I would go to the church and prepare for the ceremony. There is no way I would want to be pulling up with the bride to the church because that could leave you with potentially zero time to get your gear out, get set up, and place the mics everywhere they need to be. If she pulls up ten minutes late odds are she's going straight to the doors. Even on a two person shoot you still need to coordinate with the second camera opearator.

Re: 3, I don't believe in breaking the day up into sections and charging per section, but if I did I would argue that I was in the agreed upon place at the agreed upon time and held up my end of the bargain. That being said, if they were to make a big deal out of it I would at most offer a small extra as a gesture of good will. Like a couple of extra DVD copies. That would be my own personal decision based on how much I personally liked the couple and does not mean that I think anyone else should.

[Jeff Kellam]

Your contract should generally lay out a schedule of when you are arriving at each venue in order to have the expectations and schedule in writing.

At the end of the slot of time for each venue, you have to move on, while of course being flexible.

1. No, you can't and you probably don't want to get in the way when someone is running very late.

2. Don't really understand.

3. No, I dont think this is even an issue.

If the prep were a critical element of the production for some reason, this could always be staged later. I usually just stick to staging the critical shots like the first kiss and rings when needed.

[Don Bloom]

Too many variables.
First how late is she running?
Second, how long do you need to do a basic bridal prep, iow, how much time do you generally spend shooting it?
Third, how long to get to the church? 5 minutes, 50 minutes..?
Fourth, is there another shooter at the church or are you flying solo?
Fifth, is it in your agreement to do the guys stuff or is because you feel you need to for the story.

The one thing about weddings as I'm sure you know is nothing, nothing happens as planned. As I've always said, it's like shooting a breaking news event. It happens fast and it happens once. Gotta be flexible.

[Jose Dominguez]

I always offer different packages, from a single camera to a 3 person crew. I had two scenarios that I show up to the bride's home 3 hours before ceremony. wait for 2:30 hrs and no bride. I had left to the ceremony with the consent of the groom but it one case the bride wanted a refund for not covering her getting ready, even thought she arrive at the church 40 minutes late. In that case I gave a credit towards a future video.

[Don Bloom]

OK well 2.5 hours is a no brainer. Leave and go to do the job. As for a refund, I think you did the right thing although I'm not so sure I would have even done that. SHE told me the start time, SHE ran late, the wedding started late because SHE was late and then to ask for a refund!? WOW, that takes chuztpah!

Anyway I think you answered your own question. You did what you had to do to keep her happy and that's all you can do even though IMO, the whole deal was her fault.