Want to be a Wedding Photographer?

Please think long and hard before answering this. I have asked myself the same question on many occasions ; on the face of it being a Wedding photographer seems to be pretty glamorous whilst earning some money for a few hours snapping the happy couple on a Saturday afternoon. If only it were that easy. Many moons ago when I first decided to take on Wedding photography I thought the same thing. I had it all sussed, I pride myself as being highly organised, I don’t get phased too easily and I can quickly resolve problems, but then I’d never photographed a Wedding before had I (more fool me).
Getting my first gig was the first problem, it’s a bit of a catch 22 situation; no one wants to book you because you’ve no experience but to get experience you need a booking! But I got one eventually. So, after numerous meetings with the clients and visits to the venues the big day approaches the doubts and worries creep in, have I thought of everything? Is my gear going to work ok? Am I going to get all the shots the client has requested? Then the panic sets in! I cannot start to explain the experience of waking up at 3am with that feeling that you’ve missed something and realizing that you are responsible for recording the most important day in someone’s life.
Anyway, the big day arrives and off I go, a thousand thought are whizzing around in my head and several hundred shots and many hours later I’m finished, or so you may think, I now have to download all those images, cull and post process them before presenting them to the client; now for some quick maths, lets say I spend about 3 minutes on average per image on post production work, if I have 400 images to process that’s a solid 20 hours sat in front of my computer, now I don’t know about you but I do occasionally like to eat, drink and talk to my wife (just to keep the peace) so this task is normally spread out over a few days but not too long as I may have another wedding to shoot the following weekend when the whole process starts again.
Please believe me when I say that being a wedding photographer is damned hard work, the downsides are trying to get bookings, having little or no control over lighting, location weather etc. long, and I mean long hours, having to sacrifice your weekends and of course the stress and pressure of having to get it right first time, there are no second chances in this game. It does have its upsides though, seeing the beautiful brides in all their finery, the experience of witnessing a joyous occasion, the look of joy when the newlyweds see the photos of their wedding day and of course getting paid for something I am passionate about. Would I choose to be a wedding photographer if I was starting out again? Most probably yes, but if you are thinking about taking up this career path just take a bit of time to have a long hard think about it before you make any rash decisions.
Anyway, many, many weddings later, I'm still at it, having a great time, meeting lots of interesting people and I can't think of a better way of spending a day than photographing a Wedding.