What are you delivering in terms of reception dancing?

[Max Palmer]

This is aside from the B/G dance, mother/son/father/daughter dances. Are you capturing a few songs with dancing in their entirety, or small interesting clips of dancing throughout the whole night?

[John Knight]

First dance. That's it... outa there! :)

[Adrian Tan]

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/wedding-...ou-supply.html

[Nate Haustein]

Montage the three major dances (first, mother, father) together to the music track of the first dance. Start on the couple, then do a minute of father/daughter, a minute of mother/son and back to the couple for the finale. Also, I don't do real-time cuts most of the time, I just find my favorite clips from the whole dance and cut them together.

As for other dancing, I stay for one or two songs at the most. Get a few fun shots and call it a night.

Unless something else is requested, of course.

[John Knight]

Originally Posted by Nate Haustein

Unless something else is requested, of course.

From a bridesmaid? :)

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

First Dance and then about 2 songs after that and like John I'm outa there. It seems so pointless staying past that point and you end up sitting doing nothing between 9:30pm and midnight. If they do a father/daughter and mother/son then I substitute that for the 2 songs after the first dance.

I no longer wait for the bouquet toss and garter unless they do it straight after the first dance. It makes a massive difference to get home around 10pm instead of crawling home closer to 1am ..I guess I'm getting old but starting with bridal prep at maybe 11am thru to after midnight is too long a day for me!

Chris

[Peter Rush]

Hi Folks

Officially I stay for the first dance and then any bride/father dance etc and if people get up straight away I'll stay and film for a few songs and then I'm off :) I don't however hang around waiting for people to dance (unless I've been paid to do so - which has happened very occasionally)

On the DVD I have a chapter where I intercut shots of people dancing with general evening reception mingling.

Pete

[Robert Benda]

We are usually first dance & father/bride dance plus 10 minutes, UNLESS they book our photo booth (another 90 minutes) or if I'm the MC for the reception. Then we can catch some great stuff, like this one. Open dancing starts at 15:00, but the part we wouldn't usually catch is after 16:16 and goes for about a minute. Plus some amazing stuff that ended up in the outtakes/blooper reel like the pastor singing "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" (which is after the 20:30 of this video).

I know that isn't typical, but sure is nice to catch when you do.

Olivia and Lewis' wedding film on Vimeo

[Arthur Gannis]

What does one do between the 3 hours from the opening parent's dances and speeches to the cutting of the cake that happens near the end of the evening ??????
Or perhaps you convince the couple/maitreD to have the cutting done early so you can leave early ???

[Dave Partington]

We try to get them to cut the cake either as part of the speeches or just before first dance.

[Arthur Gannis]

I am moving to the UK.

[Dave Partington]

What's the point of cutting the cake late since most people want to eat it at the reception…..? OK, some take it home, but really……. it's a cake for the reception.

OTOH, there are so many things about the US weddings that make us want to move to the US ;)

[Max Palmer]

I dunno about U.K. weddings (maybe you guys dance like crazy as soon as the reception starts), but I end up waiting to get good dance shots later in the night because a lot of receptions don't heat up until the drinks have been flowing for a while. There is often a lull between the first dance/speeches and dinner, with the cake cutting, garter/bouquet and crazy dancing happening later in the night. Around here, if I left after the first dance, I'd end up with a pretty unfulfilling video.

Maybe this is why my long forms are ending up around 2 hours.

[Matt Brady]

We shoot the first dance and continuing shooting till it dies off a little. Usually 2 songs, 3 at a push, unless the bride books for extended evening coverage.

People can start to look a bit worse for wear due to the alcohol a little later on, so we call it a day at that point and hit the road.

[Robert Benda]

Originally Posted by Arthur Gannis

What does one do between the 3 hours from the opening parent's dances and speeches to the cutting of the cake that happens near the end of the evening ??????
Or perhaps you convince the couple/maitreD to have the cutting done early so you can leave early ???

Arthur, the schedule is very regional. For instance, here in the midwest a typical schedule is:
Arrival
prayer (possible welcoming speech by parent)
dinner
cake cutting
video slide show if applicable
cake served
toasts
first dance
parent dances
open dancing with dollar dance, bouquet, garter usually happening 30-90 minutes after first dance