A friend is getting married in November and has asked me to do their photography. I'm flattered but now petrified I'll mess it up as I've never done this before and as I mentioned the other day portraits are my weakest style!
I've brought all of this to my friends attention and she's still adamant that she trusts me and wants me to do it. (Which makes me feel rather proud but still nervous!) She offered to pay me but I've refused as I can't guarantee the quality and have asked that instead she only pays for the prints.
I have quite a while to practice more portrait shots so I'm going to do as many as I can.
Does anyone have any tips for me and also any tips for lenses? I have a canon 350D camera and at the moment only the 18-55mm lense it came with. I was planing on saving for the 100mm macro lens although that now may need to go on hold so I can get something suitable for this.
I'm also planning to save for a bounce flash.
I feel your pain. I have gotten asked to do a TON of weddings, and I have turned them all down. Looking back at it, I missed out on a lot of money opportunities, but I really just don't have the courage to do it. :( If I were you, I would set up some portrait sessions with some people just to get some practice in - and if she's doing it in a church, do the shoots indoors somewhere so you get the feel of it. I'm sure you will do excellent!
I like Kristen's advice. I would also look at some of the professional wedding photographer's sites and see what kind of photos they take pictures of. In addition, I know there are online lists of the type of photos one should have taken at weddings.
Find a local wedding photographer and ask if you can shoot alongside them and give them your photos. Most of the wedding photographers I know would be fine with this, as the get more photos to choose from, and they don't have to pay you for it.
make sure you find out the location of the wedding and scout out the area around the place before hand so you have an idea of locations to take the group photos and time out photos (and have a back up location inside if it is pouring with rain)
ask the bride and groom which shots are "essential" and if there is someone that definitely has to be in the photos, and make them a top priority
find someone from either side of the family and make them your photo co ordinator for that side of the family (they will have a better knowledge of the family than you will and will be able to organise getting people together
prepare prepare prepare, there is nothing worse than getting to a location and finding you have a flat battery or the wrong lenses.
find out what the couple want to achieve in the photos , do they want it formal or something different
details, stitching on the dress brides shoes rings flowers table settings button holes they may be simple but are important
but most important have fun, if you are enjoying the day others will be put at ease
November is yonks away - you have plenty of time to PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE but with that said, you also need to have faith in yourself! She obviously chose you for a reason - most brides take this sort of stuff rather seriously; there are no second chances. I would suggest you read up on it as much as you can. It'd probably help to browse sites of wedding photographers and get some ideas regarding outdoor shots, angles, etc. At the same time, you want to be original - try to avoid the generic poses and have them do something they'll want to look back on and smile at.
Emma, weddings are actually more like photojournalism than portraits. True, you may do portraits with the bridge, groom, the parents, and various group shots, but 90% of a wedding is spur-of-the-moment photography revolving around everything that is a wedding.
For practice, do you have children or friends with children? Spend a day shooting a birthday party. It is much the same as a wedding: as a bride is the center of a wedding, the child is the center of a birthday party. Everyone is there to see them, talking to them, and pose for pretty pictures. There will be cake, food, and entertainment. And, just like with weddings, you will only get one chance to shoot that photo. It makes for very good practice.
As for equipment, I've only shot about a dozen weddings as a backup photographer for friends when they need the help. I can tell you the bare minimum you will need is two camera bodies, three lenses in the range of 12-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm, and two speedlights. You will be dealing with a lot of low-light situations, so lenses with a maximum f/2.8 aperture is a must. Variable apertures will kill you.
You'll need two camera bodies because you won't always have time to switch lenses. When shooting groups of three or more people you'll use the wide angle lens. Individuals you'll just use a normal range lens, something like 50mm or 85mm. The 70-200mm is not exactly a requirement, but I like the limited depth of field when shooting close to someone and the fact you can shoot a moment from across the room.
The only other vital piece of equipment are the speedlights. Don't think like a portrait photographer: you won't have the time or the means to set up strobes on light stands like a portrait session. Instead, you'll need to be mobile, able to move all around multiple rooms, without ever setting up a light stand. Having a speedlight for each camera is a must.
I recently had a friend whom I had gotten interested in photography in your same exact position. She was nervous, didn't charge because she felt the quality would just not be worth it, but she also only shot with a Nikon D200, the 18-55mm f/3.5-4.5 kit lens, and the built-in strobe. To put it bluntly: she cried for a week after the wedding. She shot 800+ photos and could really only use 10 or so, and those were the ones she shot outside without the need for a flash.
Wedding photography is a serious business because this tremendous event for a bride and groom only happens once. If you really want to do it well you need good equipment. Kit lenses with variable apertures just won't do it. A single camera body will work, but you'll miss a ton of shots while trying to change lenses.
Now that you've read over all this, you understand why no one does weddings for free. There are many places out there where you can rent camera equipment including bodies, lenses, and flashes. Some places even have a "Wedding Kit" prepacked and ready to go. At the very least, you should charge to cover your expenses. And also because every time a friend does a wedding for free, a professional photographer is losing business. Think of it like this: what do you do for a living? How would you feel if the neighbor across the street offered to do it for free and you lost your job because of it? At the very least, charge for the expenses and enough to take your husband/boyfriend/fellow-365er out for a dinner.
Please don't get discouraged by all I've told you here. I want to help you get prepared for this wedding, but I don't want you to struggle with bad lighting, poor lenses, and miss all the shots you wish you'd gotten. Feel free to ask any other questions and I'll help as best I can with the experience I've gotten.
Holy !&$* I wrote a lot. Read it in sections. I cannot be held responsible for eye cramps or temporary blindness. Please consult a physician if blindness lasts more than a few seconds. Not recommended for children under 18.
My thorough terror at screwing up a cannot-be-repeated event overrides all confidence in my talents, abilities, equipment, and 'eye.' When money or friends are involved, multiply that terror by 79. No money is worth the anxiety, IMVHO : )
@jasonbarnette
Wow! Thank you for all your advice, I've read through it but plan to read it again once the house quietens down so I can take it all in.
As it happens it's my sons 4th birthday this weekend so that's a perfect chance to practice!
I will look into renting equipment in my area, the other possibility is I have 2 friends who were photographers but are both now studying at universtiy. They may be willing to lend me some of their equipment.
Very novice question but what do you mean by a speed light?
If I have to rent equpment I will ask the bride and groom to cover those expenses.
@musicguy1982
That is a fantastic idea, I will look into it, thank you
One thing you might do before the wedding is practice an engagement photo session with them. I've seen a lot of couples photos done before the wedding.
@emmar84 A speedlight is an external flash you can attach to the hotshoe on the top of your camera. I have Nikon gear, so I'm not sure what the best speedlight for a Canon would be.
However, I have three Nikon SB-80DX speedlights for my camera gear which costs me about $150 each and are more than enough to photography weddings and events. The built-in flashes on cameras are just not powerful enough to properly light scenes for weddings.
Wedding photography is intense. My best advice is to try and 2nd shoot with another wedding photographer. There is no other way to practice shooting a wedding than actually shooting a wedding.
Rent some prime lenses 50mm 1.4 is great and then a good zoom lens 70-200 is what many pros use.
A flash and a tripod are also essential to rent. If the reception is indoors in low light, then a tripod is going to help you get the shots. Without it, be prepared to see many blurred images.
Practice, practice, practice and shoot at least 1 wedding before shooting your friends.
Wow, I have a similar situation (friend asked me to do wedding). I did the couple's engagement portraits beforehand so they could see my work and see if we "clicked." However, after just a 1-hour session I spent many hours editing what ended up being about 2 dozen shots. I like her a lot, but there is NO WAY I would agree to do the wedding for free. I know they are on a tight budget, but I kind of feel like you will get what you pay for. I threw out $500 (which is a STEAL for where we live) and haven't heard back yet. I know it would be an incredible experience for me, but honestly it wouldn't be worth doing it for less. I hope she says yes :) Thank you all for your tips and advice!!
Someone recently asked me to shoot their wedding too (a friend of the lady who works for my mother in law) I want to do it, but I dont know if I can. I am WAY too scared I will screw up. Plus I dont have all the equipment. I know I could rent it but I think I need more experience first. She even offered to pay me $500-$1000 :-O
I think I will still offer to shoot some engagement pictures for them though, it would be good practice :)
Good luck with whatever you decide... its a very nerve wracking situation!! lol
http://www.lensrentals.com/
A 4 day rental of a 70-200 2.8 lens will run you about $80. I'm shooting my firstw edding this fall, and like you I am apprehensive.
Lee gave you some great tips- ask the bride for a list of "Must-have" shots, get a family member who can be yyour assistant in rounding up those people the bride and groom want in the photos. Is the wedding inside? As if you can go to the place in advance and take some practice shots around the time of day the wedding will occur. Outside? Do the same thing. See where the light will be coming from.
November can be chilly or rainy- make sure you have a plan for inclement weather. Talk to the bride about umbrellas for the bridal party.
Speedlights are flashes. Don't know what kind of camera you have- but for Canon my speedlights are 580 EXii.
Practice without a flash. During the ceremony, you really don't want to be a distraction with it. Some churches (if they are using a church) will frown on it.
Google it. Look for ettiquetes. You don't want to be in the way.
There are books that show different poses, and how they were shot. You can probably get a lot of that from the internet too.
@jasonbarnette Jason, I love your comments. Especially the one about the "for free, and someone loses a job".
I shoot wedding only for friends and family that ask me. I have a personal admiration for a wedding photographer, because when I'm done, I'm spent...and I'm in shape.
For free? Hahahahahaha. My friend charged me $300 an hour, and I know why (yes, she is that good, and booked solid well into the future).
(I say this everywhere I go but) you could pick up a gorgeous f/1.8 50mm for like $100 or so, and it's a beautiful portrait lens which I think would be the best thing for a wedding. :)
@moncooga Shooting an indoor wedding is like riding in the Kentucky Derby without a saddle: it can only end in a bloody mess.
The first wedding I ever shot was in a Catholic church with towering cathederal ceilings and tons of windows. The light poured in from the perfectly clear skies outside. And yet, this was the meter reading: 1600 ISO, f/2.8 @1/125. It is absolutely amazing how we can take an interior scene that is so bright but can still look so bad with a camera.
Although churches frown on flashes during most events, churches do not actually run weddings. In fact, the wedding coordinator leases the church during weddings, and a part of that lease specifically states that photographers and videographers are allowed to "do their thing", basically.
And thanks! I always try to spread what I've learned as much as possible. I'm one of those photographers that also loves to teach, and I'm always eager to share all that I've learned. All, that is, except my best-kept secret locations. Ya'll can gawk all you want, you ain't getting those GPS coords out of me!
A final FYI: the weddings I shot were as a second, backup photographer for a friend who does weddings for a business. These weddings were just too big for a single photographer. She paid me $150 an hour for about 8 hours average in each wedding, and charged in the area of $5,000 for her services. For that amount of money, the newlyweds received 400+ edited, cropped photos ready for prints, a select number of printed photos ranging from 8x10 to 3x5, a photo album with cover photo and 25 pages of photos, and a CD with watermarked photos for use on the web. We shoot about 3,000 photos throughout the day.
@moncooga My first boss in photography, who turned into a friend and mentor, was a photographer for the New York Times when the Atlanta Prison Riots began in 1987. He was immediately sent down to Atlanta to document the event.
Kodak showed up with a whole trailer full of goodies for the photographers. Jamie (my friend) was shooting on Nikon film cameras, but I don't know which ones. But the riots lasted for days, I think, with them burning parts of the prison at night. Kodak handed out free rolls of 1600 ISO film that was simply unheard of at the time so they could continue shooting well into night.
Yeah, come a long way. Jamie now works as the Director of Photographic Services for UNC Wilmington where I went to school. Just a week (YES A WEEK) before I graduated and moved on he bought a Nikon D700 and D3X. Bastard.
Those cameras can shoot up to about 3200 ISO with as little noise as you normally see at 400 ISO. I think they have a range up to as much as 64,000 ISO! Incredible, huh?
Listen to the advice about pairing with a pro. If that is just not an option, rent a second camera body and lenses. I would also rent a light umbrella and triggered flash to pair with one on your camera. (Canons do this easily)
SHOOT RAW!!
Find someone who has an eye for detail. Their task is to watch for simple thing like the grooms tux exposing the cumber-bun in an awkward way. (Ask me how I know and how many hours I had photoshopping pictures for a friends wedding).
tylenol, and duct tape if she starts turning into a bridezilla. on a more serious side, a small travel sewing kit can come in handy, i have shot two where dresses ripped and no one else had a travel sewing kit. also a couple strobes or solid hand flash units, a back up camera body, something in the 70-200 range lens, this is just a start.
Jason had mentioned the sb-80's for nikon, great flash units. you can get a vivitar 285HV which will throw almost as much light for a little less than $100, and you can find one that works with canon. MAKE SURE you go with the HV model, the old vivitar 285's throw out too much voltage for digital cameras of today.
Thank you for all the replies, I hope you don't mind I've copied and pasted this whole thread into a word document so I can re-read it enough times so all the information sinks in.
As a small update already I've looked into hiring a 2nd body, speed light and the lenses, for 3 day hire it is about £120 which I think is reasonable and I have asked the bride to cover this expense which she is happy to do.
I was already planning on buying 1 speedlight (although I was used to calling it a bounce flash) and a decent tripod over the coming months.
As a little history about me I used to work as a 2nd photographer/assisstant for a national school photographer company although I moved into my current job about 5 years ago. I know it is 2 completely different forms of photography, 1, it won't be staged like school pics are 2. I won't have half the equipment that we had for the studio style shots.
However the usefulness of having this in my back catologue is that I am stil lin contact with a lot of my previus colleagues.
Last night I contacted my old boss and asked his advice where to hire the equipment from and if he would be doing any weddings over the summer. He won't be but he's put me in contact with one woman who lives int eh same city as me who exclusively does weddings and one of my old colleagues who in my opinion in a fantastic wedding photographer (I would have used him for my wedding if we hadn't been on such a tight budget!) and I have emaile dhim asking if I can accompany him to some of his weddings.
Engagment photos aren't really possible as the couple in question have been engaged for nearly 2 years (they weren't planing on gettign married for another 203 years but have decided to forsake the big wedding so they can be married sooner as that is more important to them). I will however be askign them if I can practice taking some photos of them a few times prior to the wedding day.
As of yet a location hasn't been picked but once it is I will definitely be visiting it.
To each of you who say they would be better off with a professional, I couldn't agree more! I didn't volunteer to do this or put myself forward in any way. I have been very clear to them that it is not something I have experience in and I cannot guarantee the quality of it. However they have a very small budget for the wedding and cannot afford a proffesional photographer (they have looked at the options).
They are placing a lot of trust in me and I don't want to let them down which is why I've asked for as much advice as possible and I probably will continue to ask over the coming months.
But there is 100% no pressure here for me. The lady they did use was also holding a canon. A 7D with L lenses. Im not saying you stand no chance.
Seems like your getting the extra equipment, so thats fair enough.
Go to the venue and look out for intresting shot areas, but mainly I'd practice and plan. There are so many things that happen only once. Brides entrance, couple leaving, throwing confetti.
Best of luck and it will be great to see your practice shots and some from the day. Could be a career change, you never know?
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http://weddings.about.com/od/photographer/a/Photogchecklist.htm
make sure you find out the location of the wedding and scout out the area around the place before hand so you have an idea of locations to take the group photos and time out photos (and have a back up location inside if it is pouring with rain)
ask the bride and groom which shots are "essential" and if there is someone that definitely has to be in the photos, and make them a top priority
find someone from either side of the family and make them your photo co ordinator for that side of the family (they will have a better knowledge of the family than you will and will be able to organise getting people together
prepare prepare prepare, there is nothing worse than getting to a location and finding you have a flat battery or the wrong lenses.
find out what the couple want to achieve in the photos , do they want it formal or something different
details, stitching on the dress brides shoes rings flowers table settings button holes they may be simple but are important
but most important have fun, if you are enjoying the day others will be put at ease
For practice, do you have children or friends with children? Spend a day shooting a birthday party. It is much the same as a wedding: as a bride is the center of a wedding, the child is the center of a birthday party. Everyone is there to see them, talking to them, and pose for pretty pictures. There will be cake, food, and entertainment. And, just like with weddings, you will only get one chance to shoot that photo. It makes for very good practice.
As for equipment, I've only shot about a dozen weddings as a backup photographer for friends when they need the help. I can tell you the bare minimum you will need is two camera bodies, three lenses in the range of 12-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm, and two speedlights. You will be dealing with a lot of low-light situations, so lenses with a maximum f/2.8 aperture is a must. Variable apertures will kill you.
You'll need two camera bodies because you won't always have time to switch lenses. When shooting groups of three or more people you'll use the wide angle lens. Individuals you'll just use a normal range lens, something like 50mm or 85mm. The 70-200mm is not exactly a requirement, but I like the limited depth of field when shooting close to someone and the fact you can shoot a moment from across the room.
The only other vital piece of equipment are the speedlights. Don't think like a portrait photographer: you won't have the time or the means to set up strobes on light stands like a portrait session. Instead, you'll need to be mobile, able to move all around multiple rooms, without ever setting up a light stand. Having a speedlight for each camera is a must.
I recently had a friend whom I had gotten interested in photography in your same exact position. She was nervous, didn't charge because she felt the quality would just not be worth it, but she also only shot with a Nikon D200, the 18-55mm f/3.5-4.5 kit lens, and the built-in strobe. To put it bluntly: she cried for a week after the wedding. She shot 800+ photos and could really only use 10 or so, and those were the ones she shot outside without the need for a flash.
Wedding photography is a serious business because this tremendous event for a bride and groom only happens once. If you really want to do it well you need good equipment. Kit lenses with variable apertures just won't do it. A single camera body will work, but you'll miss a ton of shots while trying to change lenses.
Now that you've read over all this, you understand why no one does weddings for free. There are many places out there where you can rent camera equipment including bodies, lenses, and flashes. Some places even have a "Wedding Kit" prepacked and ready to go. At the very least, you should charge to cover your expenses. And also because every time a friend does a wedding for free, a professional photographer is losing business. Think of it like this: what do you do for a living? How would you feel if the neighbor across the street offered to do it for free and you lost your job because of it? At the very least, charge for the expenses and enough to take your husband/boyfriend/fellow-365er out for a dinner.
Please don't get discouraged by all I've told you here. I want to help you get prepared for this wedding, but I don't want you to struggle with bad lighting, poor lenses, and miss all the shots you wish you'd gotten. Feel free to ask any other questions and I'll help as best I can with the experience I've gotten.
Wow! Thank you for all your advice, I've read through it but plan to read it again once the house quietens down so I can take it all in.
As it happens it's my sons 4th birthday this weekend so that's a perfect chance to practice!
I will look into renting equipment in my area, the other possibility is I have 2 friends who were photographers but are both now studying at universtiy. They may be willing to lend me some of their equipment.
Very novice question but what do you mean by a speed light?
If I have to rent equpment I will ask the bride and groom to cover those expenses.
@musicguy1982
That is a fantastic idea, I will look into it, thank you
However, I have three Nikon SB-80DX speedlights for my camera gear which costs me about $150 each and are more than enough to photography weddings and events. The built-in flashes on cameras are just not powerful enough to properly light scenes for weddings.
Rent some prime lenses 50mm 1.4 is great and then a good zoom lens 70-200 is what many pros use.
A flash and a tripod are also essential to rent. If the reception is indoors in low light, then a tripod is going to help you get the shots. Without it, be prepared to see many blurred images.
Practice, practice, practice and shoot at least 1 wedding before shooting your friends.
Good luck!
I think I will still offer to shoot some engagement pictures for them though, it would be good practice :)
Good luck with whatever you decide... its a very nerve wracking situation!! lol
http://www.lensrentals.com/
A 4 day rental of a 70-200 2.8 lens will run you about $80. I'm shooting my firstw edding this fall, and like you I am apprehensive.
Lee gave you some great tips- ask the bride for a list of "Must-have" shots, get a family member who can be yyour assistant in rounding up those people the bride and groom want in the photos. Is the wedding inside? As if you can go to the place in advance and take some practice shots around the time of day the wedding will occur. Outside? Do the same thing. See where the light will be coming from.
November can be chilly or rainy- make sure you have a plan for inclement weather. Talk to the bride about umbrellas for the bridal party.
Speedlights are flashes. Don't know what kind of camera you have- but for Canon my speedlights are 580 EXii.
Here's an interesting article...
http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/what-a-first-time-wedding-photographer-needs-to-know/
Google it. Look for ettiquetes. You don't want to be in the way.
There are books that show different poses, and how they were shot. You can probably get a lot of that from the internet too.
Have a spare camera, just in case!!!!!!!!!
I shoot wedding only for friends and family that ask me. I have a personal admiration for a wedding photographer, because when I'm done, I'm spent...and I'm in shape.
For free? Hahahahahaha. My friend charged me $300 an hour, and I know why (yes, she is that good, and booked solid well into the future).
The first wedding I ever shot was in a Catholic church with towering cathederal ceilings and tons of windows. The light poured in from the perfectly clear skies outside. And yet, this was the meter reading: 1600 ISO, f/2.8 @1/125. It is absolutely amazing how we can take an interior scene that is so bright but can still look so bad with a camera.
Although churches frown on flashes during most events, churches do not actually run weddings. In fact, the wedding coordinator leases the church during weddings, and a part of that lease specifically states that photographers and videographers are allowed to "do their thing", basically.
And thanks! I always try to spread what I've learned as much as possible. I'm one of those photographers that also loves to teach, and I'm always eager to share all that I've learned. All, that is, except my best-kept secret locations. Ya'll can gawk all you want, you ain't getting those GPS coords out of me!
A final FYI: the weddings I shot were as a second, backup photographer for a friend who does weddings for a business. These weddings were just too big for a single photographer. She paid me $150 an hour for about 8 hours average in each wedding, and charged in the area of $5,000 for her services. For that amount of money, the newlyweds received 400+ edited, cropped photos ready for prints, a select number of printed photos ranging from 8x10 to 3x5, a photo album with cover photo and 25 pages of photos, and a CD with watermarked photos for use on the web. We shoot about 3,000 photos throughout the day.
1600 ISO, f2.8 @ 1/125? Geez. Remember the medium format days when 1600 ISO was completely unheard of?
Kodak showed up with a whole trailer full of goodies for the photographers. Jamie (my friend) was shooting on Nikon film cameras, but I don't know which ones. But the riots lasted for days, I think, with them burning parts of the prison at night. Kodak handed out free rolls of 1600 ISO film that was simply unheard of at the time so they could continue shooting well into night.
Yeah, come a long way. Jamie now works as the Director of Photographic Services for UNC Wilmington where I went to school. Just a week (YES A WEEK) before I graduated and moved on he bought a Nikon D700 and D3X. Bastard.
Those cameras can shoot up to about 3200 ISO with as little noise as you normally see at 400 ISO. I think they have a range up to as much as 64,000 ISO! Incredible, huh?
SHOOT RAW!!
Find someone who has an eye for detail. Their task is to watch for simple thing like the grooms tux exposing the cumber-bun in an awkward way. (Ask me how I know and how many hours I had photoshopping pictures for a friends wedding).
Jason had mentioned the sb-80's for nikon, great flash units. you can get a vivitar 285HV which will throw almost as much light for a little less than $100, and you can find one that works with canon. MAKE SURE you go with the HV model, the old vivitar 285's throw out too much voltage for digital cameras of today.
As a small update already I've looked into hiring a 2nd body, speed light and the lenses, for 3 day hire it is about £120 which I think is reasonable and I have asked the bride to cover this expense which she is happy to do.
I was already planning on buying 1 speedlight (although I was used to calling it a bounce flash) and a decent tripod over the coming months.
As a little history about me I used to work as a 2nd photographer/assisstant for a national school photographer company although I moved into my current job about 5 years ago. I know it is 2 completely different forms of photography, 1, it won't be staged like school pics are 2. I won't have half the equipment that we had for the studio style shots.
However the usefulness of having this in my back catologue is that I am stil lin contact with a lot of my previus colleagues.
Last night I contacted my old boss and asked his advice where to hire the equipment from and if he would be doing any weddings over the summer. He won't be but he's put me in contact with one woman who lives int eh same city as me who exclusively does weddings and one of my old colleagues who in my opinion in a fantastic wedding photographer (I would have used him for my wedding if we hadn't been on such a tight budget!) and I have emaile dhim asking if I can accompany him to some of his weddings.
Engagment photos aren't really possible as the couple in question have been engaged for nearly 2 years (they weren't planing on gettign married for another 203 years but have decided to forsake the big wedding so they can be married sooner as that is more important to them). I will however be askign them if I can practice taking some photos of them a few times prior to the wedding day.
As of yet a location hasn't been picked but once it is I will definitely be visiting it.
To each of you who say they would be better off with a professional, I couldn't agree more! I didn't volunteer to do this or put myself forward in any way. I have been very clear to them that it is not something I have experience in and I cannot guarantee the quality of it. However they have a very small budget for the wedding and cannot afford a proffesional photographer (they have looked at the options).
They are placing a lot of trust in me and I don't want to let them down which is why I've asked for as much advice as possible and I probably will continue to ask over the coming months.
and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=494416&id=720075611&l=f2b0909626
But there is 100% no pressure here for me. The lady they did use was also holding a canon. A 7D with L lenses. Im not saying you stand no chance.
Seems like your getting the extra equipment, so thats fair enough.
Go to the venue and look out for intresting shot areas, but mainly I'd practice and plan. There are so many things that happen only once. Brides entrance, couple leaving, throwing confetti.
Best of luck and it will be great to see your practice shots and some from the day. Could be a career change, you never know?