CIVIL WEDDING CEREMONIES V RELIGIOUS WEDDING CEREMONIES

These days many couples are opting for a civil wedding ceremony. They can be officiated by accredited Wedding Celebrants in virtually any location; parks are popular; it can be held at a Registry office and recently a couple were married while sky-diving!

Of course other couples still want religious ceremonies, maybe because they have a deep religious faith. As well because a ceremony officiated by a minister of religion and/or held in a church or other place of worship is seen as more official and binding.

The final choice can also be determined by the situation where people of different religions or even no religion at all marry each other. All you need is love!

What do couples about to take the big decision to get married think? We invite your comments about the above.

Australian Wedding Professionals

WEDDING VIDEOS Are they really necessary?

People have made comments in the media lately that professional videos of weddings are not only not needed but a waste of money.
They base these statements on the perception that with the price of small digital video-cameras dropping while increasing in image quality, plus software editing programs being bundled with the camera or with computers, anyone, a guest or amateur videographer can shoot and edit a quality video for free or for little cost to the bride and groom.

The opposing view is that unless a professional wedding videographer is used - someone who is experienced in capturing all the events of the wedding day by using a high quality camera with backups of batteries, tapes, a spare camera plus a video tripod; the bride and groom could be in for a nasty shock.

The professional videographer also has the editing done by a professional editor using professional editing software. The nasty shock mentioned caused by having an amateur video shooter could be a shaky, blurry, incorrect colour, low sound, jumpily-edited, missed shots all combining to make a low-budget disaster movie.

What do you think, go amateur and save money or go professional and pay? Does anyone have thoughts on this topic or tales of wedding video disasters and/or magnificent wedding video productions?

By Australian Wedding Professionals

WEDDING FLOWERS, From Florist or Flower Markets?

Many couples knowing they are on a tight budget these days, to save money, buy their wedding flowers at flower markets. Other couples, despite also budgeting, insist on ordering their wedding flowers from a florist.

Couples who decide to buy from markets say the flowers there are much less expensive, there is more variety to choose from and they arrange the flowers into bouquets on the day of the wedding. They say that as the flowers are bought from the markets on the day of the wedding, they will be fresh enough to make it unwilted until the end of the wedding day.

Others say that market flowers still have to be put together into bouquets and buttonhole arrangements and besides, most markets flowers wilt before the Reception even begins.

They say that they would rather pay more at a florist as they will get professional custom-made bouquets, flowers treated so they will last the whole wedding day and delivery by the florist to the bride's place on the wedding day.

What do you think is the best way to go - Flower Markets or Florist?

By Australian Wedding Professionals

WEDDING CARS - Stretch Limos versus Hot Rods

Many couples just love the look of opulence and indulgence of traveling in a huge stretch limousine on their wedding day. Yet other couples equally prefer the style and glamour of being chauffeured to their wedding in a brightly painted and chromed finned-up muscle car.

What sort of transport are you going to choose for your wedding? Remember, whatever your choice, you're going to remember it via the videos and photos taken on the day.

By Australian Wedding Professionals

YOUR WEDDING DAY – TIPS AND ADVICE TO MAKE THE DAY HAPPEN

The following advice contains helpful information to make certain your Wedding happens
without tears, tantrums and biting the carpet. This is general advice and of course will not
apply to all wedding days.

As wedding professionals for many years we have noticed the little things that can lead to
thing going so wrong that even the guests notice! This tips help to avoid potential problems
and disasters.

For a start, make certain that when you book the florist to deliver flowers to the bride’s address that they arrive on time. Ring the florist if they are late. Videographers and photographers need images of brides and bridesmaids holding bouquets.

Make sure that you have the bride and bridesmaids hair and make-up started early.
Preferably the bride first. Again, photographers and videographers will appreciate bridal party members made-up and ready not less than one hour before departure for the ceremony.

On the day of the wedding call your car hire company to double-check the arrival times.
Being 15 min late for the ceremony is acceptable but not 1 hour.

Make absolutely certain that someone in the bridal party has a mobile phone, on at all times (except during the actual wedding ceremony) and give that mobile number beforehand to the wedding ceremony officiator, the Reception organisers, video and photo people plus anyone
else who may need to urgently contact you.
This is important. Photographers have turned up to a deserted church to later be told that
the ceremony was changed to another location and the couple forgot to tell them.

If you don’t wish to occur overtime car-hire charges, follow the guidance of the drivers and
be ready/depart for reception promptly after your location-shoot formal images are taken following the ceremony.

At your Reception enjoy yourselves to the limit but don’t let any guests or wedding-party members get too full. Call a waiter if you see any trouble developing. Wedding Receptions
can be places where family problems come out into the open. Unless they have MC’d
weddings before do not get a friend or relative to do yours. It can become a disorganised shambles with guests drifting away before the end.

If you follow the above few tips you will have the best day of your lives.

Russell Workman
AWP

WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHY – SELECT A PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER

This article is to assist you in choosing a wedding videographer for your wedding.

First, a brief history of wedding videography. Filming of weddings has been carried out virtually since the invention of motion pictures. By the 1960’s, there was a range of cameras available mainly shooting 16 mm and 8 mm film. The 16 mm size film was a professional size, mainly used for documentaries but wealthy families sometimes used it for a professional recording of
a family wedding.

At that point in time there were probably no professional wedding film businesses but in the
late 1960’s Super 8 film was introduced, affording a higher quality image.
Several small businesses commenced, mainly as off-shoots from wedding still-photography.

Right up until early1970’s these studios were the main choice for couples wanting
Professional film coverage of their wedding however few couples sought to have their wedding filmed. However around the middle of that decade, video tape, which had already been around since the 1950’s in the television industry started to make its appearance in other imaging fields. By the end of the 1980’s wedding couples were having their weddings filmed or ‘videographed’ by stand-alone wedding video companies.

As cameras and tape improved many different shooting formats became available, Betacam, VHS, Super-VHS, to name several. With a professional broadcast-quality video camera costing $45,000 only dedicated professionals shot weddings.
The wedding video market kept expanding right up to the late 1990’s. The price of cameras
and technology started coming down leading to more and more people to undertake wedding videography as a profession.

Nowadays with the price of cameras low and the image quality high thanks to digital tape
and hard-drive storage video cameras, plus the perception by many of imaging-media as a glamour profession, some people think it a great way to make easy money.

Therefore couples selecting a videographer should carefully consider whether they should choose from contracting a professional wedding videographer with a proven record of quality coverage of weddings, or have an inexperienced cheap non-professional. The non-pro could
turn up and capture hardly any footage, or overshoot, ending up with so much extraneous footage that the bride and groom will have to pay a professional editing studio to edit it down
to a viewable length.

Amateur videographers can make the bad decision of putting all settings on auto, the colour balance, the focus, the sound, the steady-cam, letting the video camera do everything, on
the assumption that it’ll all turn out right in end. The result is a shoot looking like it was
done by a mobile phone camera.

Be wise, to avoid a wedding disaster, choose a professional wedding videographer.

Russell Workman
AWP

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY – QUANTITY OR QUALITY? – YOUR CHOICE

This article is to assist you in choosing a wedding photographer for your wedding.

First, a brief history of wedding photography. Photography of weddings has been carried
out virtually since the invention of photography. By the 1960’s, cameras had become more compact in size, more affordable and photography had become part of popular culture due
to movies such as ‘Blowup’.

Couples wanting a professional quality coverage of their wedding would contract a
professional studio to photograph their wedding. The studio would send an experienced professional photographer, usually armed with a 2 & 1/4" film camera to cover the wedding.
This was a medium-format camera, which took around 12 photos on each roll of film,
usually in black & white. Therefore the coverage of a wedding was limited unless the
wedding was a ‘high society’ one.

Right up until the 1970’s these studios were the main choice for couples wanting a
professional coverage of their wedding. A perusal of the few wedding magazines on the
market at that time carry advertisements for just a couple of studios.
However, by the late 1980’s, the old studios had been overtaken by a new generation of business entrepreneurs. With new technology in film and cameras and mass marketing, the
field of wedding photography rapidly expanded. Hundreds of photos in colour could be shot
at each wedding and packages with coverages and albums were devised. Brides and grooms
had a huge choice of prices and photographers to choose from.
The wedding market kept expanding right up to the late 1990’s. Digital photography was starting to appear but with the first professional cameras costing around $40,000 it took
until around 2003 before professional cameras became more affordable and better in quality.

However during that time technology kept up a steady improvement in the amateur photography market. Not only did the amateur digital cameras become more affordable,
they improved in quality. Alongside these, computers steadily increased in storage capacity.
Nowadays with the price of cameras so low and photography seeming so easy as the digi
camera virtually does everything, many people are turning to wedding photography as an
easy way to make a bit of extra money on the weekend.
It’s a snap. The cameras are becoming smaller, cheaper, memory cards larger and the
mega-pixels massive. Anyone now can shoot 2000 photos at the wedding store them on
a computer for the couple to decide which ones to have printed at a mall shop.

However, couples selecting a photographer should decide whether they should choose from using a professional wedding photographer with a track record of quality coverage of weddings who knows when and how to capture ‘the moment’.
Or, get an amateur who will turn up and not being a professional with experience in capturing
all those special times on a wedding day will shoot hundreds and hundreds of photos. Virtually they’re using a still camera as a video camera on the premise that there’ll be some good shots among them all. The end result is a shoot looking like it was done by a security camera, No professionalism, no feeling, just a part-time job.
Be wise avoid disappointment, choose a professional wedding photographer.

Article by AWP

WEDDING CARS. ADVICE ON MAKING YOUR CORRECT CHOICE

This article is to assist you in choosing a wedding car or vehicle for your wedding.

Wedding transportation comes in many shapes, ages and sizes.
For many years the most popular choice for wedding cars were Rolls-Royce or Bentleys
followed closely by Jaguars and Daimlers. These makes of vehicles were probably selected – usually in white, as couples liked the feeling of luxury and elegance. It also looked good
being driven around in a car only royalty would be seen in.

While those makes of cars are still in demand, especially older ones, there has been an
increase in the variety of makes now offered for wedding day hire.
This trend started a couple of decades ago when several firms started importing USA cars
from the 1950’s and 1960’s into Australia. When restored and repaired, these outsize vehicles, well suited to large wedding parties, became ‘must haves’ for the wedding day. And, the more fins and chrome on them, the better.

Now there is even more choice of wheeled transportation available for your wedding day.
There are horse-drawn coaches and buggies, plus vintage and veteran cars.
You can select many makes lovingly restored from the 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s,1960’s and 1970’s; from luxury stretch limousines to streamlined sports hot-rod and muscle cars.
All in a huge variety of colours.

As well, there are other modified vehicles especially customised for weddings.
A few of them include 1930’s hearses, stretched Ferrari sports and giant stretch Hummers.
When making your choice of which vehicles to hire for the wedding day, check the cost to
make sure your budget can afford it. Compare the rates for hire overtime and take an
actual look at the vehicles you are thinking of getting.
Some can look the ultimate bling object until you get close and see the rust.
What you don’t want is a car that breaks down on the way to the wedding ceremony.

Hire from a reputable professional firm, especially ones that have backup cars just in case.
Some single vehicle-hire places are fine too as they can have vehicles that are unique
one-offs and well maintained. Car clubs are another source of transportation for your
wedding day, you can be certain that with the owners being car enthusiasts, their vehicles
are in almost show-room condition.

Article by AWP