Just this past Saturday ( June 16, 2007), we shot for the first time in this tiny commercial chapel that could barely hold sixty people, stuffed like sardines. We'd made special arrangements to miss the rehearsal because of another wedding to shoot on Friday. As is the practice with these commercial chapels, we weren't let in until about forty-five minutes before the ceremony. The air conditioning wasn't working and the outside temperature had climbed past eighty. Maybe this is why the officiant was a little cranky, but when I approached him to discuss wearing a microphone, he waved me off and flatly stated, "This.." (pointing to his house-sound lav), "..is the only microphone I wear!".

On other forums, I'd heard about uncooperative ministers from other wedding videographers around the country, but this is the South and I'd only had occasional, mild resistance in my previous three years of wedding video shoots, and I'd always been able to convince them to wear my mic.

I smiled and politely explained that our mic wouldn't interfere with his sound system and that it was needed so his voice would sound crisp and clear on the wedding video, ending with something like, "..I'm sure the bride and groom would really appreciate if you would wear this, because they'll want to hear your words clearly, each time they watch the video, over the years."

But this only seemed to set him off. He dug in and flatly refused, saying he'd never wore one before and will never wear a "video microphone", and stormed off. I gave him about five minutes, then went up to him and in as apologetic tone as I could possibly muster, I said, "Because it is so critical to a video that a minister wear a microphone, I'm afraid we'll have to post on our website that getting a good wedding video is not possible at your chapel - I'm sorry."

He nearly exploded! His face turned beet red and he said, "Are you threatening me?". In a quiet, polite tone, I answered, "No sir, not at all. But we take our job very seriously and we have to look after our clients. To do anything else would be just wrong, I hope you understand."

I nearly fell over, when he said, "Well, I'll have to think about it." Five minutes before the ceremony, he walked up to me with a smile (I don't know how genuine it was) and asked if I was ready to mic him! He was so friendly after that. He came up to me several times after the ceremony and during the reception and would ask how things were going, in such a friendly voice and with a smile that seemed sincere.

The reception area was cramped also, but at least the air conditioning was working. The shoot went fine and we got a clear sound track on the minister who even asked for some cards so he could recommend us!