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Having personally filmed over 200 Melbourne wedding videos, we are more than qualified in the area of wedding planning.  We plan your wedding day timeline with you prior to the wedding day from preps all the way up to the start of the reception.  Knowledge equals power and with great power comes great responsibility (hehe…I had to throw that in).  Therefore we have decided to offer up our wisdom free of charge in a series of blog posts.  These posts are in no particular order and no particular time frame.  They are not going be general and will instead focus on small little details of the wedding that often get overlooked.

The aisle walk

You are nervously waiting at the alter.  “Where is she?”  She’s already 15 minutes late.  Your best man is trying to calm you down by blaming traffic and mentioning that she is always late.  He then says  “But imagine if she doesn’t turn up?” and you quickly shoot daggers to shut him up.  You can lipread a couple of guests who are wondering where she is.  There are 100 sets of eyes alternating between staring at you and looking at the entrance of the church.  The priest checks his watch before telling you that he has another service to attend to after the ceremony.  You are pretty sure there was no other wedding after yours but now is not the time to query him.  The quartet is starting to repeat songs.  Seriously, where is she?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the doors at the back of the church, your bridesmaids are all lined up.  Little do the guests know that you are actually here and have been ready to walk down the aisle for 5 minutes.  Your 3 year old niece is the flower girl and you are pretty sure that she has another 2 minutes before she turns feral.  Why isn’t the quartet playing the song that you will walk down the aisle to?  Is the groom not here yet?  Why the delay?  What are we waiting for?

I think that paints a pretty good picture of a wedding we filmed recently.  Yes I have exaggerated a little (or a lot) but the point is, we were waiting for a cue, a sign, an indication that the show was ready to start.

Someone needs to cue the musician or the priest (or celebrant) so that the ceremony can commence.  It seems like such a simple little detail and whilst you often rehearse the actual aisle walk and the positions that you will all stand, sometimes the cue is overlooked.  Now the bride can not exactly give a thumbs up to start the ceremony and therefore it is essential that someone is designated to fill this role.  More often than not it is the priest at a church wedding or the venue coordinator at civil ceremonies.  Potters Receptions in Warrandyte have this detail perfected and always give us a sign (as we are down the front waiting) and in turn, we give the family friend (who is usually more nervous about stuffing the music up than the groom is about his bride walking down the aisle) a thumbs up to press play.

The wedding we shot recently and we were all set to start and we were all waiting.  After about 3 minutes Tanya (my wife and second shooter) went to check what was going on and sure enough, the bride and bridesmaids were waiting for the doors to be opened for them to enter the church.  Such a simple detail yet easily overlooked.  More tips to follow soon.