Greg and Karen at the Chicago Club

Video Document: marriage of Karen Parsons and Greg Aicher on October 7, 2006

The documentation process began at the Chicago Club. The venue is a historic private club (established in 1869) on south Michigan Avenue which has dining spaces, a library, lodging, and athletic facilities.
When I arrived on the 6th floor at 10 am the female contingent of the bridal party was wrangling hair and applying make-up. Stealthily moving about the room I shot an array of candid shots of 3 generations of women preparing for their performance at the church.
A unique aspect of this shoot was that I rode in the limo from the downtown club to the church in suburban Mount Prospect. Typically, when there is any extra room in the limo the still photographer is given priority for the open seating.
Another quirk: the remote Catholic church had a very rigorous protocol for camera placement. It is one of only two venues that I have encountered that mandate that photographers only shoot from the side of the church that favors a clear line-of-site for the grooms face. However, unlike typical Catholic rituals, which are choreographed so that the the bride and grooms’ backs are to the audience for the majority of the proceedings, in this venue the couple sat in chairs facing the audience during the readings and the homily. With this staging and the strong light in the room I was able to record superlative reactions shots of the duo. The ceremony transpired over the course of an hour and included a ritual in which the participants consume the flesh of a deity that has been embodied in the form of a wafer via the ineffable process of transubstantiation. While this description makes the activity seem rather visceral it is no more dramatic a spectacle than a slow moving line at the DMV.

After the ceremony I piled into the limo with the entire bridal party and hunkered down between two insulation units containing alcoholic beverages.
The mood in the limo grew increasingly effervescent as bottles were un-corked and I acquired wonderful imagery of Karen and Greg huddled in the back of the limo. Through the window the landscape could be seen zipping past and the dappled illumination that entered the vehicle percolated over the newlyweds faces.
At the reception dinner Greg's father kicked things off with a humorous welcome speech in the 3rd floor dining room. Karen and Greg had graciously coordinated dining arrangements so that myself and my fellow vendors (DJs, photographer, and video assistant Karen) would receive our choice of a hot meal and be able to sit together at one of the guest tables. This provided us a welcome respite from the 12 hour shoot day.
Later in the evening the guests migrated back to the mezzanine level where Fig DJ and MC Megan Taylor initiated the dancing. Greg and Karen did their first dance. With the camera positioned close the floor I was able to feature the vast expanse to the library room looming above the newlyweds. The event segued into a more aggressive dance mode with some Abba and hip-hop . Some guests gathered in the adjacent smoking room to enjoy pungent cigars and watch a baseball game while others grazed the sweet table. At 10:30 pm I closed out the shooting with a shot of the full moon crossing the sky.

Carl Wiedemann: Lead Videographer

Equipment: Sony PD170 camera, Samson wireless mics, Canon XL-1

Video assistant: Karen, Fig intern

DJ: Megan Taylor, assisted by Brent Rolland

Photography: John with Edward Fox Photography