Any affordable recorder for vows exchanging inside the church?

[Joseph Lau]

I'l be standing 30-40ft away from the couple and won't be able to record their vows with on-camera mic.

[Don Bloom]

Pretty much any of the voice recorders like Tascam, Zoom, Sony will do the job with a decent lav mic.
Watch the overall size of the recorder and spend a few extra dollars for a decent lav if you plan on hooking it up to the groom which frankly makes the most sense. With a decent mic you get groom, bride and officiant although the officiant might be a bit lower level.
This is something that was just talked about in the audio section, you might want to search those threads out.

[Robert Benda]

And maybe a 2nd recorder (like the Tascam) stashed somewhere near the front for ambient recording. I have hidden a pocket recorder in a plant that was 2 feet from where the vows were to be.

Or if the venue/church has a sound system, use a recorder and capture the monitor out from their mixer (just make sure the microphone feed is there).

Or do all three.

[Steve Bleasdale]

Zoom h1 with azden ex-503 lav mic on groom jacket, not to near the button hole lower down.

[Ben Longden]

I don't know how you guys synch it all up in post....

Why not use a radio mic on the groom and receiver plugged into the camera?

About $800 for a Sony Lav set, will get you going.

Its worth the savings in valium alone.

We use two radio mics on different frequencies, one on the groom for the vows ... and another on the lectern for the readings. Also use a second camera for the readings and a third and sometimes fourth for atmos shots in the church.

Ben

[Don Bloom]

Ben,
Personally I've been using 2 wireless for many years. I also use a voice recorder if it's necessary and use my shotgun on my B cam for the music track. Since the music is so loud it works great. Having said this I understand why a lot of folks like using the recorders exclusively. First no chance of interference, second for the price of a single wireless you can buy a lot of voice recorders and of course if the is a problem with a wireless during a ceremony there is nothing you can do about it anyway. However, I'm very old school and want to be able to monitor my sound. I have enough controls at the camera that I can make levels adjustments if needed without going thru a lot of motions. Again, I have used a voice recorder on occasion when needed but for me, my "weapon" of choice is my AT 1820 dual channel receiver and my 2 Countryman EMW lavs. One on the groom, one on the pulpit and use my AT897 shotgun on my B cam for music along with my lavs as fill if needed.
I'm too old to start learning new tricks. ;-)
For sync'ing a lot of the folks use Plural Eyes. Works really well!

[Robert Benda]

Ben, same as using a clapper, find a common element and line up the audio (since it will be 2 or 3 long files its easy), often the beginning of the bride's march. Then I skip to the ending and make sure the recessional is still synced up, too. Often takes 5 minutes total doing it manually.

Or with multiple camera footage to sync, Plural Eyes software will do the job.

I've had too many problems to rely on only a single audio source. Grooms who keep bumping the mic, or who moved it down so it wasn't visible and thus got me a bunch of jacket scratching.

[Ana Conlon]

Zoom h1 and a lav mic on the groom .......love my zooms.....very reasonable and good audio! Can't loose with a zoom.