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[Tim Hite]

Is the choir walking in and singing at the same time? 
I'd suggest putting lavs or headset mics on the soloists only.  Bring them up when they start to sing.  When the choir comes in singing you can bring down the soloists and the choir can be acoustic.

Yeah choir is walking in and singing. I do like this solution.

[Mike Monte]

Yeah, this is generally how I do things. Normally I wouldn't even mic the strings. The walking choir is throwing me for a loop and apparently the strings intend to play along with the choir at client request so if I start mixing stuff it's snowballing quickly.

Client is the groom from hell who doesn't really have a solid plan, just a bunch of pieces he thinks will all work out. Wedding is on the 21st and client still has me on hold while getting quotes from other vendors.

I like a challenge but to be truthful this gig seems to be blowing up as the date gets closer.
Do not under any circumstances give him a break on your price.  IMO this gig is setting up to be a PITA so getting paid well will ease the pain......

[Geoff Doane]

I like a challenge but to be truthful this gig seems to be blowing up as the date gets closer.
Do not under any circumstances give him a break on your price.  IMO this gig is setting up to be a PITA so getting paid well will ease the pain......

Or, if you're only on hold, get out now.  (If only I had taken that same advice, so many times.. )

GTD

[Matthew Knischewsky]

Or, if you're only on hold, get out now.  (If only I had taken that same advice, so many times.. )

GTD

THIS. GET OUT NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN. If you think the advance is bad, just think about what the day of the ceremony will be like.

Of course, just my opinion. Trust your gut instinct. If you do go ahead with the gig make sure it's worth it.

[Tim Hite]

I like a challenge but to be truthful this gig seems to be blowing up as the date gets closer.
Do not under any circumstances give him a break on your price.  IMO this gig is setting up to be a PITA so getting paid well will ease the pain......

Or, if you're only on hold, get out now.  (If only I had taken that same advice, so many times.. )

GTD

THIS. GET OUT NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN. If you think the advance is bad, just think about what the day of the ceremony will be like.

Of course, just my opinion. Trust your gut instinct. If you do go ahead with the gig make sure it's worth it.

Thanks for the concern guys. You are correct that this is a dumpster fire of a client.  All of my production and rental gigs are 50% deposit and balance due 7 days prior to the event. He's got until Thursday to send me a wire transfer or he can book another provider. It's a good chunk of change and some holiday work for my guys.  I was open that weekend anyway. Client asked for a 7% discount so I told him I'd pull the wireless down to three channels instead. Will see if he books and if not, I'll go snowboarding.

On the up side, the event planner and venue manager both met me and want to do future business, so it's already a win. Also met another local provider (lights and video) who I've spoken to in the past. He's taking that chunk of the production with me doing sound and I'm sure we will work together in the future.

[Scott Olewiler]

I have an outdoor wedding coming up that has way too much going on. I'm taking a small PA for the ceremony and have several things that may or may not need to go through the PA.

Officiant, bride and groom going through a lav mic in the holy book
Guitarist with vox and backing track will need to go through the PA

String quartet for walk in and out music?

14 ppl choir with electric piano accompaniment? Choir is going to walk in singing, after a couple planted soloists in the audience start the performance.

Client wants wireless on the choir and quartet. Client also wants to keep costs down.

170 attendees, PA is a pair of EV EVOLVE 50's.

The majority of my work is weddings. There is no way I would mic the entire choir. That is way too many lav mics moving through the speaker coverage area to control. Explain to the client that it is unnecessary and might do more harm than good.

 If the planted soloists are positioned evenly through the congregation area, you probably don't need to mic them either.

 You are lucky that they actually told you in advance everything they are going to need mic'd. I prefer to use a single speaker when possible outdoors, because running speaker cables and keeping them out of walkways is tough with two speakers outdoors since people often enter or leave the congregation area in any direction. 

Problem with having multiple mics in various locations is that its hard to find a spot where you can get enough gbf  and volume with a single speaker positioned properly  to cover the entire congregation unless the seating area is relatively small. 100 people is usually the breaking point for me to add a second speaker unless the location is prone to winds like big open fields or tops of hills.

Make sure that the groom checks with the officiant on what type of mic they actually want to use. On more than one occasion I have brought and spent the time to get good gbf on a lav for an officiant only to have the officiant show up at the last minute, after everyone in the wedding party has disappeared to get ready and "refuse" to wear it and request a handheld wireless instead. I have also had a lot of client pay me to setup a lav and the officiant refuse to use any mic.

Since I always have both a lav and a handheld with every receiver its an easy swap, but last time this happened it was so last minute that in my haste I for failed to adjust the channel eq for the handheld and the results were less than desired initially.

On the same wedding, they also moved the quartet on me minutes before the ceremony from the corner of the seating area where the singers/guitarists they were to accompany were located and near where I set up the board and had placed a wired mic above them to the opposite corner. 

There was no time to set up another wireless for the quartet or run the needed cables completely around the ceremony area to move the wired mic so we had to just drop it.

On a side note I had no prior knowledge there was even going to be a string quartet, let alone that they were to accompany the singer-guitarists.

170 attendees is enough to warrant a mic on the quartets outdoors, from my experience. At least to get enough reinforcement for the entire seating area.

 For this particular wedding the singers and the quartet ended up being far enough apart that the singers really couldn't hear the quartet. Since the strings could hear them it was fine for the congregation but given the amount we spent getting the sound right prior to these last minute location moves it was very frustrating for me. From now on, if I get a quartet outdoors I'll use an Omni wireless above them, just in case this ever happens again.

I am doing so much business with just renting and setting up the gear for weddings that I'm considering not offering any actual mixing services for ceremonies any more. When we do a set up and leave situation, the client gets the exact equipment they requested set up and tested and any last minute changes are on them because we have already left the venue. If the officiant shows up and doesn't want lav mic, I never know and I don't care, as I got paid to provide the mic.

Much less stressful. And there is no blame put on us if things don't go well because they are there and approve how the lav mics etc sound prior to us leaving. I do everything possible during set up to make sure things sound good, but weddings are always one off gigs with virtually zero chance of repeat business. Why put myself thru the stress of mixing these things when I'm making the same money just delivering and setting up the gear?

[Eric Snodgrass]

Thanks for the concern guys. You are correct that this is a dumpster fire of a client.  All of my production and rental gigs are 50% deposit and balance due 7 days prior to the event. He's got until Thursday to send me a wire transfer or he can book another provider. It's a good chunk of change and some holiday work for my guys.  I was open that weekend anyway. Client asked for a 7% discount so I told him I'd pull the wireless down to three channels instead. Will see if he books and if not, I'll go snowboarding.

I wouldn't discount a penny more.  Once you do that the client will sign, then start adding and changing a bunch of stuff. 

[Tim McCulloch]

I've read the thread up to this point and part of me says "cut and run" and the other says "find as many items to put on the invoice as possible and don't take a credit card for the work."

[Mike Monte]

I've read the thread up to this point and part of me says "cut and run" and the other says "find as many items to put on the invoice as possible and don't take a credit card for the work."

Definitely don't take a credit card.....
For weddings my classical trio gets 50% up front with the balance due two weeks prior to the wedding.

In the 90's we did not get the balance up front..  On more than one occasion the groom forgot the check for the balance the-day-of.
I had to pay the rest of my ensemble out-of-pocket an wait for the couple to return from their honeymoon to collect..
Soon thereafter we went to "balance to be paid two weeks prior to the event".

Storytime:
My ensemble played this wedding at a venue in Newport, RI on Saturday, June 25, 2005...(I had to go back to my storage unit to find the contract with the exact date/time/venue in my "old files".....kinda creepy checking on this and reading my notes from the event...)
As per our practice we were paid the balance two weeks prior to the event.

Check out what happened to the groom on their honeymoon...  What do you think would have happened if I was waiting for payment after the wedding....?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3201284/The-new-life-marriage-two-children-honeymoon-widow-ten-years-husband-mysteriously-died-cruise-DAYS-wedding.html

[Tim Hite]

I've read the thread up to this point and part of me says "cut and run" and the other says "find as many items to put on the invoice as possible and don't take a credit card for the work."

I'm right there with you. I'd have cut and run already, but the other vendors are great, the artists have been responsive and pleasant and the current planner is pretty cool (the previous planner was also great but she cut and ran). Also, the venue is like 4 miles from my home, so it's all pretty convenient.

This is the venue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8YmVsCT4uU

[ProSoundWeb Community]