Interesting Wedding Stories

Back in 1998 Lifetime Images was one of the first wedding photography studios to have a website.  At that time most studios websites consisted of five images and a phone number.  We started writing stories about the weddings we worked at and showed around a dozen images per wedding.  We were among the very first wedding photography studios to blog.  Our clients loved the stories and images.  But over time it seemed like every wedding we went to wanted to have their blog story on our website.  The end result? We couldn't get to half the weddings because each wedding took about 3 hours to write about and put online.  We decided to do the backroom work instead of grandstanding about our work we did.   Also we found that not every wedding had a compelling story, nor where they all glamorous.

Through the years we've picked up many great stories that we haven't been able to convey on this website.   To this day they happen all the time.  So with this section we're going to focus on great stories more so than the photography.

 

One of our all time favorites

The new definition of wedding day drama

Around the year 2000 we had a bride who called us from New York who was driving back to California.  She made us swear that we wouldn't give away her date over the next four days.  Still worn out from the road she showed up bright and early the next morning to sign up.  That started our relationship with Christine, one that's lasted for nearly ten years.  It's fun to see her go from bride to wife, to mom.  Speaking of being a mom. .  .

Well, the story really gets started when her older brother decided to get married.  He met a nice gal and they planned a fall wedding.  But after she booked all her vendors she decided to change her wedding to a summer wedding on a Friday.  All her vendors were available. As I stood at the alter at St. Denis Catholic Church  on the wedding day I was talking to Christine, now a bridesmaid.  She was at this point 8 and a half months pregnant.  "The doctor says I will go early." she said.  "I hope not today" I joked back with her.

We used the fountain out front of the church for some images, but the bride was antsy to take images at her reception site.  I had to swear that I would be super fast before I sent her on her way.  Reluctantly, we did the photos of her and her bridesmaids.  Because they were in a hurry to leave I sent my second photographer to follow the limo.  I stayed behind a few minutes to clean up and took a shortcut to the reception.  When I got to the reception the limo wasn't there. That's a bad sign, it means it came and left and everybody was inside, or so I thought.  The first person to greet me was the DJ  "Did you hear what happened?  Some bridesmaid had her water break on the way  here."

Poor Stephanie didn't know what had happened. I always wondered why she had a Camero, now I know why.  One minute she was following the limo down the street, the next minute the limo was making a U-Turn and driving through the city of Fullerton at 80 MPH.  As it pulled up to the emergency entrance at the local hospital, the first one out was the bride, who easily gets car sick and had just been on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. She came out crying, and that's all I can say about that.  The next crying gal out of the limo was Christine. 

Around a year later I was doing an engagement portrait at our local park, Christine, her husband and two kids (one in a stroller)  were all out for a walk on a summer's afternoon.  We hugged and said hello, and the bridal couple I was photographing asked if they were a former client.  "Yes, we have a lot of history together." 

 

The Firestorm Bride.

It was fathers day and my wife was wondering why I decided to work instead of spending the day with my kids.  I told her "It's only a half day, and it's going to be easy."  When I came home about four hours later than I should of, exhausted, I said "Turn on the news, see what happened!"   Indeed the 'incident' made headline news in Los Angeles.   But I digest!  :)

The bride and groom had small families, everything was in one spot which was at Puddingstone Lake near Pomona.  It has a lovely view the lake and canyons from ontop of the hill.  The bride was young and very nervous.  The day started off like so many other wedding days.  The bride had an older sister who lived in San Francisco who was a bit animated.  She was a herself nervous and at one point I found her alone outside and she said "Hey, I don't want to freak her out, but there is a fire over there."    Seeing nothing I said "Where?"  She said "Around the corner."  Taking a few more steps I could see across the valley and this "fire" had flames that shot up 80-100 feet in the air.  It was about a half mile away and heading our direction. As I started to photograph the groom and groomsmen the helicopters started arriving.  The wedding was delayed because one of the roads in was blocked.   The plan was made to start the service about half an hour late and by this time there were so many helicopters in the air it sounded like Apocalypse Now!  "I love the smell of burning weeds at a wedding!"

As the service was over 2 squad cars pulled up and the officers said "Time to go!"  Yes, time for plan B.  what exactly is plan B?  Occasionally we have a bride who is so organized that  buys a second guest book in case the first one is lost or damaged but so far nobody has ever told me of the contingency plan in case their reception site had to be evacuated.   This is when people think on their feet and this is where the community of friend and family pitches in.  Someone volunteered their house for an impromptu wedding reception.  So nice of them don't you think?   The neighbors must have been so happy!    The reception site surrendered their chairs, tables, utensils and linens. People were literally grabbing table settings and throwing them back of their cars.  People with pickup trucks and large SUVS suddenly were transporting tables.  Within around 20 minutes the reception site was clean.  The site coordinator was showing on the news the empty and spotless site on the news and said "This place was set up for a reception and 120 people were here."  

As the guests arranged the backyard of this house for the reception I got the bride to a local park to do pictures.  She really wanted to do pictures by the lake but at this point it was evacuated and too far away. We went to a local park and did pictures.  And I just felt so bad for this gal that I told her "Hey, don't clean your dress, we're going to go to the beach and take pictures of the two of you when you come back from your honeymoon"    Sure enough a week later I got the call and I set up the appointment for the beach.  We had a beautiful day and they seemed to be very happy.  After sunset this limo was sitting near where we parked and I asked the limo driver if we could take some pictures in it.  He said certainly and the bride commented "I've never been in a limo before."  The driver heard her and insisted we go for a ride to Dana Point.   She was smiling and very happy while we ended up at the St. Regis for a few more pictures.

One of the first weddings I did over 12 years ago was for a bride who used to work at Disneyland.  At Disneyland when something is planned for 4:00 PM it really means that it's planned for 3:55PM and you wait for five minutes.   She walked into  her reception for a toast only to find that nobody bothered to put out the toasting glasses and pour the champagne.  So, in the half an hour it took to do this she sat there and sulked and held back tears.  The common theme of the first two stories is that these are receptions that were nearly ruined.  In both cases the bride had to reach inside to find calm, peace and put on a happy face and make the best of the situation.  Little problems happy at every wedding, you can't avoid them, but you're only as big as what brings you down. 

 

Slow learners?

The main story itself was an interesting enough story to get mentioned here.  We had a bride who had an unusual dilemma.  She wanted to get married, but many of her friends couldn't make her wedding.  They couldn't leave their confines  because they were experiencing life sentences.  Right away you're thinking of prison, but don't jump to conclusions.  These friends had feathers.  The bride  was the bird trainer at the Los Angeles county zoo.    Thus her wedding was held at the bird show exhibit at the zoo.  It was a fairly normal day, after you get used to the fact that you were at the zoo.  The guests sat where the crowd would sit to watch the show, and one of them was another trainer who had one of the birds pick up the rings and fly them to the bride. 

The bride had many good stories herself, such as one bird who was a little too slow getting into his cage and predatory bird in the act that followed took the opportunity to have a second lunch, in front of a horrified audience.  The birds don't like change so the flowers that surrounded the exhibit had to be introduced slowly.  Overall the birds did the routine flawlessly.  One of the bitds did the "Mawidge" scene from the Princess Bride, it was too cute!   Such a fun and uplifting event.

After the ceremony everybody caught the tram to the reception.  The zoo has a special place reserved for special events such as fund raisers.    As you can expect, a place designed for black tie events made for a nice place for a reception.   It was great.  At dinner we were sitting at a table with Plug Video when they put down the main course in front of us, Chicken!  I asked everybody  while pointing to the food "Who were these birds, the slow learners?"

 

 

Where's the beef?   

The subject of meals has always been one of those subjects that is somewhat controversial to me.   The wedding day often goes on longer than 8 hours.  It's a lot of hard work and a photographer that is working hard works up an appetite.  In my early years of wedding photography I never brought up the issue of being fed because in most cases the bride or her family made certain that I ate.  It's very nice to be included and I've always appreciated that fact that people look out for me.  It's always been my position to appreciate whatever is offered.

Typically, high end weddings have wedding bands.  They pose an interesting scenario for the bridal couples.   Often, they bring another five to ten bodies along that need to be feed.  At $100 a plate this isn't feasible to feed the vendors the same meals what the guests eat.  Many of these venues have vendor meals which are often sandwiches, an apple, a cookie and potato chips.   Hey, it's not fillet mignon but it will do especially when you are hungry.  The Ritz Carlton in Dana Point has something called "Oasis" which is employee commissary.  It's a buffet and it's kinda a lot of fun to eat there.  The one in Marina Del Rey is, well, not as advanced.  I had one vendor meal I didn't partcicularly enjoy so the next time I worked there my assistant and I stopped off at Carls Jr.    This gal was  a vegetarian so she ordered a hamburger without the meat (the cook  asked "No Carne?" ).   The wedding was going smoothly but I noticed this one gal who was hanging around in the background.  She followed the band out on the break.  I was talking to her and asked what she did.  "I am the band coordinator!"  I said "Oh you're the band manager?"   She said "No, I am the band coordinator, I help the the interaction between with  the  bride and the band." Folks, this was one of the band member girlfriends.   They gave her a bogus title to make her feel better.  Along with the title came a very, very small responsibility, coordination of the food for the band.   My previous interactions with the sweet old wedding coordinators is that there is no amount of responsibility that you  can give a person that cannot abuse.   But, what I was about to witness was going to put everything seen thus far to shame. 

  After the idle chit chat she started discussing her favorite topic, food.  "Yeah, the brides never know what they are buying when they purchase a vendor meal.  They think that since they are spending $30 its a good meal, but its a box lunch with a sandwich and a potato chips and a cookie."  Then she broke into her rant which I heard ten more times "My guys drive from far away, and they have to play for four hours!  Sometimes it takes them an hour to drive here.  They need a hot meal with meat."   She then went on to list all the local wedding venues that tried to give her boys a vendor meal. 

In the background you could see a smartly dressed Ritz Carlton server setting up a hot tray to hold the upcoming meal.  The band coordinator was in the middle of her rant about venues that dared serve vendor meals when she saw them put in the main entree.  "What is that?" She yells.  The server who spoke in broken english said it was tortellini.  "Is there any meat in there?" she again yelled. The guy said "no."  . . . .

OH MY GAWD, I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE IS NO MEAT IN THE TORTELLINI!  I CALLED THE BRIDE YESTERDAY AND TOLD HER THAT MY GUYS NEED MEAT.  THEY DRIVE FROM AN HOUR AWAY AND PLAY FOR FOUR HOURS, THEY NEED MEAT.  HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?  I AM GOING INSIDE AND I'M GOING TO TELL THE BRIDE HOW UPSET WE ALL ARE BECAUSE THERE IS NO MEAT!!!"  The guy is scared beyond recognition and says "I get my manager." 

This rant went on four ten more minutes each time with a new face showing up. to try to ease the situation.  It was so over the top that it was comical.  My fear was that she was going to make herself a nuisance to the bride and suggest that the photographers were also upset. When the evening was over the band would have no further interaction, but I would still have to work with the bride and groom to make an album for them. 

So, what happened?  The Ritz Carlton is a high end place, they do have extra meat in the kitchen.  They could have remade the dish with meat, but they didn't.    The band was hungry and ate what was there.  I was glad that the serving staff took a stand against this loud mouth bully.   Rewarding this approach only ensures that future dealings will also be hostile in other situations. The vegetarian I was with got a big kick out of what happened.   I think the lesson learned is that you should slug a gift horse in the mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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