Help!! Audio for outdoor wedding.

[Byron Jones]

Thanks! I am taking notes. There is good stuff here. Just realized my go-to store is closed for Passover. I should have known this, but didn't consider with all the other things in my head. Might be making some mic covers instead. Anyone know a good website how-to for fuzzy/furry windbreakers?

[Jeff Harper]

Amazon has quick shipping and so does Adorama. I ordered battery I need for Saturday and it will be here tomorrow, free shipping.

[Peter Rush]

I've also got my first full outdoor ceremony next month - my very first 'glamping' wedding - some good tips here - I thought of a dead cat for my lav mics but they sure look a bit stupid - hopefully the foam windshield will hold up!

Pete

[Don Bloom]

Depends on the mic. I use Countryman EMW which are front facing rather than some others that are top facing and found that foam wind screens do pretty well. I have use used homemade dead cats which have very short hair but I used them over the foam and it they worked out very well. Really knocked down the wind noise in particular.
I did an outdoor wedding 4 or 5 years ago at a golf course which is by a small airport. Normally not a big deal but this weekend there was an airshow of WWll aircraft. Very cool. B24, B25, P51 even a B17. During the vows the B25 was landing and of course we were directly in the landing pattern. The plane couldn't have been more than a couple of hundred feet over our heads. LOUD! WHAT! I SAID LOUD! Luckily everyone got a laugh out of it and they repeated the vows. Guess what remained in the final version of the video. Yep, the whole thing. It was too good not to leave in. Sometimes you just got roll with it. The B&G loved it. It was definitely part of their day.
Oh yeah, the wind that day was pretty strong and as luck would have it the groom had his back to the wind so that helped a lot. The officiant had wind coming off her left side and the bride had it in her face but the groom blocked a lot of it so in post, I was able to clean up about 90% of it and if I do say so myself, it all sounded pretty good. Whew! Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!

[Jeff Harper]

I've done many outdoor weddings. Foam is fine in very low wind only, a few miles per hour. Gusts will kill you. Furrys look stupid but in wind more than 5 miles an hour or so your audio will be nearly useless without it or some equivalent.

With furrys (dead cats) on my shotguns and lavs and Zooms my audio is clean and nearly perfect. Would never be caught outdoors without them.

[John Nantz]

What an opportunity!

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

Normally not a big deal but this weekend there was an airshow of WWll aircraft. Very cool. B24, B25, P51 even a B17. During the vows the B25 was landing and of course we were directly in the landing pattern. The plane couldn't have been more than a couple of hundred feet over our heads.

Did you get a full frame shot of the B25 going over? That would have been great!

(Ooops, forgot. You're supposed to be taking a wedding video. Sorry 'bout that.)

There are a LOT of hits for improvised home-made windscreens on the net which I'm sure Jeff already discovered. It would be a good idea to do some testing of the finished product before doing the gig.

Mic Zeppelin Wndscreen on the Cheap
DIY Mic Windscreen (Zeppelin) on the Cheap
has some hints. His blue "fur" leaves something to be desired though.

DIY fur windscreen for Zoom H1
Best fur to use for mic windscreen?

DIY Fake Fur Microphone Windscreen
DIY Fake Fur Microphone Windscreen | DIY Reviews!

The devil is in the details. What about making some little monogram tags that say "Rycote" and sew them into the seams?

Not to stir the pot some more, but if it rains, do they have a tent or a fallback location? When I checked the forecast yesterday there was a "chance of rain" on Saturday afternoon. The good part is that would probably be IFR weather for the weekend pilots and keep the VFR guys grounded.

[Peter Rush]

Does anyone really use these! they look really weird - I can't see a groom happy to have one of them next to his lovely buttonhole :/

[Don Bloom]

John, actually I did, well not a very well framed one but a decent shot so I could drop it in. I figured since everyone was looking up I would too and where I look so does the camera but that sucker was so low and moving so fast I barely got it. FLY BY!
John when I was in RVN our chopper pilots were all IFR. I Follow Roads. I assume it means instrument now! ;-)

Peter, they are ugly no doubt but I think if given the choice of having decent if not good or better audio perhaps the groom would in fact say OK to having a squirrel on his lapel. Around here most guys wear a black or dark grey tux so it wouldn't show to much.

Just sayin'!

[Jeff Harper]

Peter, looks similar to the Rode furry for my Rode lavalier. It works like a charm. The grooms don't seem to mind it. I put it on a minister who complained more about it then any groom, but he was a Baptist preacher who was very particular about his appearance. It eliminates virtually all wind noise, I love it.