Another Wedding

Part of the Portrait Studio Management curriculum at Randolph Community College is the Mock Wedding. For some students the Mock Wedding will be the first opportunity to put all of their training together into a single "real world" experience. The Mock Wedding allows students to photograph their "first wedding" in an environment where it won't cost them too dearly if they have problems.

Sort of a dress rehearsal for what you face in the real world.

Pentax K20D, DA SMC 18-55, ISO 800, f/5.6 @ 1/10 sec

It's your average small intimate wedding. One bride, one groom, one best man, one maid of honor ... 12 wedding photographers.

With a very few exceptions, all of the parts are taken by students. The wedding party is made up mostly of first year photography students, and the wedding is organized by second year students with massive amounts of assistance from a few former students.

One exception is the clergy.

We held this years Mock Wedding at the Church of the Good Shepard in Asheboro, NC and the minister gave a talk on wedding etiquette for photographers. The most important lesson I learned from her is to make sure the prospective bride & groom  provide a copy of the church's photography policies early in the negotiations for the contract.

This gives the couple the opportunity to avoid surprises, and allows the photographer to advise the couple whether the venue is going to permit the kind of photography they want.

Mostly the Mock Wedding is a chance to show that you know your equipment from the point of view of what can go wrong, what can you do when it does go wrong, and what backup equipment to have along. By this time in your career, you should know your equipment backwards and forwards. If you do, you'll sail through the Mock Wedding.

If you don't, the Mock Wedding will make your shortcomings abundantly clear.