This makes sooo much sense. I've been doing weddings for a few years, and lapels are generally maddening to deal with when you're a one man production. Thanks for hitting that lightbulb for me.
Thanks Brian, I use 2 ATW system 10 Pro's lapels one on the groom and one on the officiant this way I have backup and a great coverage. Then I also use 2 ATW system 10 Pro's for side readers, that's me but whatever works for you is good. To me a mic stand in the middle of everything isn't the best as far as photo's and pickup. I'm sure some couples don't care but that's one of my big selling points.
I have a small backyard wedding coming up..was having second thoughts on how I was planning on micing it, your video was my first thought...(and already HAVE everything to do it) decision made! Keeping it simple. Thank you.
I wish I could just use one hand held but when given the option the officiant most always want's the hands free option. Nowadays everyone expects to hear the bride & groom along with the officiant so I mic up the groom and officiant, their mics pick up the bride just fine. I do have wind noise issues but not clothing issues, I mic them up myself to avoid that. People understand the wind noise and expect it, no one ever turns around to me like I'm suppose to fix it but I do pull out all the low end which helps a lot. From day one I put it on the groom and officiant to hook up with me to get mic'd, sometimes I have to chase them down but by then I have the pre-ceremony music on auto and have time to square up the mics. Thank you Brian for doing the work on quick, easy, batter powered ceremony systems. Between your vids and a couple of others I have devised a very efficient "one trip" system also using the Maui Go.
I get officiant mic requests as well. When it happens, I explain the technical benefits of hand held to the client & then give them the lapel option, which with multiple mics & more tech, raises the price of ceremony services. Between my explanation on benefits & the price difference, they just go with my suggested method. The cool part in the end is the officiant will complement me on the mic & the sound. My theory is that they've had bad experiences in the past with cheap hand helds & perceive a lapel mic as better quality. One more thing I'll say is that clients sometimes have a habit of asking for things until 1 of 2 things happen: ether you flat out tell them "No", or, you say yes, but require them to do something in return, such as pay more or provide accommodations for me to provide whatever equipment or service they are requesting. As soon as they have to do something in return, they back off real quick
You are spot on! You seem to be in a similar market to myself here in michigan. Most of my gigs have a pretty low budget so not only can I not charge a ton but I also don’t have the income to justify buying a ton of lapel mics. I run 1 handheld for the officiant and maybe one other wired mic for reading if need be. It’s always worked out fine and I’ve had zero complaints. Love your video by the way. Ive been a subscriber for many years.
Great video Brian. Please let me clarify - I WISH I had mic techs Haha - I have 1 and that's, me. Lapel on officiant (or officiants - sometimes there are 2), lapel on groom. Doing sound for ceremonies is really tough - your solution certainly makes it easy, fast and portable.
I realize this video is four years old, but I agree 100% for small market weddings (and most are) this is a great solution. Might even splurge for a wireless handheld mic. I am curious, what set up do you use now?
Thank you for sharing, as I’m torn between mic set ups . Is there a certain position you and the couple are in , so that the mic and stand aren’t so obvious in photos ? I’m a new Officiant and trying to figure this out . Thank you
i did a couple outdoor ceremonies and the pastors preferred my headset mic, however you still can hear wind if its a windy day....and I had a mic stand up there as well and you are right, sometimes the B&G whisper so you cant hear crap
Agreed 100% Brian. Most of our Ceremonies are outside too...lapel mics just don’t cut it, when Mother Nature is part of the equation. Same here, wish I could get $500...here in Eastern Canada, it’s about half of that for a Ceremony.
Brian. Did I misunderstand what you said? Did you say that you only get $500.00 for a wedding ceremony? Is THAT what you said? Now, is that JUST for the ceremony, or is that for both the ceremony AND the reception? If that is JUST for the ceremony, how much would you usually get for the reception? Inquiring minds want to know.
I use a very similar set up for Ceremonys and it seems to work good for what I charge which is very minimal. The biggest gripe I hear is that we dont want a Mic Stand in our photos or video which makes sense to me but I guess we all have to pick out what's important to us. :)
$500 a wedding. Sounds right for me. That's about what I charge. From Hawaii to Pennsylvania to Kentucky (retired Army) all the same price. If I am good friends with the bride and/or groom, I'll give them half back as a wedding present. Sounds crazy, that's just me. But, I do it more as a second income/equipment income stream than as a primary job. I'm a Licensed Practical Nurse full time with an 25yr Army pension. I liked the video you talked about overhead. I do mine on a 5 to 8 year plan as I have electronics and speaker design/building skills that allow me to do my own repairs when needed to extend equipment life. Unless, some new gizmo that will make set up, use, and/or tear down easier comes along sooner. A shocker to some, I charge hourly for most parties which is $10/hr ABOVE my Nursing pay plus 2 hours for set up.and breakdown. I just like to play music and help folks put on a good party. I charge extra to lug my lighting out ($50). I don't advertise, word of mouth only. I'm not trying to undercut my market or put those out of business who do it for a living. Great channel Brian!!!! V/R Jeremy
@@NoizTheDj Yeah that's ceremony only. I bill it out as a separate gig. The way it usually plays out is there's a reception indoors & ceremony outdoors. What I'm able to do now, with a small ceremony system, is show up early & set everything up for reception. Then, go to the remote location for ceremony & set that up. When I make the switch from indoors to outdoors, the music is uninterrupted. Without the separate ceremony system, I'd not only have a 1 hour flip, but possible power limitations. As far as the $500 pricing, figure I have around 2K total invested in that equipment. At a 10% rental fee, that's $200 + $300 for my time, prep, set up & performance. Then I get what I charge for reception as well
500.00 for a wedding.......I would not be proud of that after any amount of time in the business. If I am doing the ceremony too, I start at 2000.00. But after 1250 weddings and 38 years, what do I know.
@@jayallen3145 I think you missed his comment above. $500 is for the ceremony only. Reception is billed separately. I'm pretty sure he would not do the ceremony at that cost without the contract for the reception as well.
After much trial and error, I stumbled onto a setup that I really love. Had a cheap EV mic that I never used because it had awful off-axis noise rejection... when I realized that for a ceremony setup that's exactly what you want - because everyone is off-axis. So I put it on a boom stand (stand sits off to the side a little, boom reaches between the couple and officiant) pointing straight up at about chest-height. Add a foam windscreen if outdoors. I have to work the gain quite a bit throughout the ceremony, but it picks up everyone with minimal setup and relatively little intrusion, which the photographer likes.
I'd love to see a pic of that. Do you have one from a wedding you did? Like a couple of comments I've seen I too worry about a mic and stand in wedding pics. If your setup kind of solves that I'd consider trying that.
Hey Brian, I have used a single Shure SM58 wireless for years and works well. However, more often now I have officiants request a Lav mic. I would like to know what the DJs out there are using. Thanks.
I don't usually like the SM58 as a vocal mic. Sennheiser 935 is much better. I also tried a Sennheiser 914 and it works great for this application. Wind Screen for outdoors might be needed depending on the day. Not to say that the SM58 is bad and that you're wrong (please don't take it that way), I think the 58 is just so common that people just trust it. Not to mention the durability. It could fall of the back of a truck and you could still use it, but I tend to prefer the 835. The 935 is more comparable to the beta 58. You could stick a stage box like the Soundcraft UI16 (or behringer X-air) behind some decoration, just run power, then use one of the alto wireless speaker kits and have a pretty good wireless system, with tons of control, and then still have a multi purpose system. I went on a rant there, but there are alternatives to the 58 that in my opinion, do sound better and are more versatile.
Thank God I do the same thing for the same reason and I get maid fun of by djs that I should use Lapel microphones but they're expensive and time consuming I could not agree more with you thank you
Bride's and grooms exchange vows usually in little more than a hushed whisper so the GROOM gets the lavalier mic. If the officiant wears it, they'll be heard clearly but the vows won't be audible. Mics on sticks ruin pictures and video ESPECIALLY if the officiant holds the mic in their fist. The "Eyewitness News" exchange of vows happens where each celebrant has a mic thrust into their faces comparable to an accident witness being interviewed by a reporter on the sidewalk in front of an accident. Lavs = HANDS FREE and no phallus on a stand or in a clenched fist.
I use a lav for the officiant and offer a hand held wireless for the bride and groom. More times than not the bride & groom say no to the stand however as they don’t want it in their wedding pictures.
@@yourmusicdna Meh, sometimes the suppliers on stuff like this allocates inventory to countries or markets that have ether been vendors for longer, or generally are more established & move more units. I know the UK was on board with JTS before the USA was, by a few years anyway. I think we kind of get used to just having everything available to us here stateside, where other countries don't have the availability we do. Sometimes, the supply chain works the other way around
@@yourmusicdna As far as Amazon goes, that can get tricky. Reason being is we are a very niche market with a relatively small number of retailers. There are several pro audio & lighting supply companies out there that jumped on board with Amazon, only to alienate every other vendor on their certified dealer's list. They couldn't compete with Amazon's outreach, so stopped placing orders with "Coke" and doubled their orders with "Pepsi", so to speak. So, many companies, for that reason, stopped doing business with Amazon. Some things are still available there, but often times, only thru a 3rd party supplier. Other items only go up on Amazon if they can't find enough retailers otherwise, or are doing overstock or discontinued skew blow-outs.
@@briansredd I only used Amazon as the most ubiquitous example I could think of. "small number of retailers" doesn't help me the consumer (generally) and usually that only protects a higher margin for the seller. Again, not good for consumers. If a certified dealer was the least bit interested in selling these units in the US - they aren't making that fact known on the internet by my searching. I could have missed something, but not likely.
Lav Vs Handheld on a stand. Lav sounds better. Lav looks better. Handheld is easier. Handheld is cheaper. I can mic only the officiant with my sennheiser and still pick up the bride and groom better than my Shure SM58 wireless can
Hi Brian, I totally agree. After 30 years of being a mobile DJ I've learned to avoid lapel mics. I wish I could get 500.00 for a ceremony!
This makes sooo much sense. I've been doing weddings for a few years, and lapels are generally maddening to deal with when you're a one man production. Thanks for hitting that lightbulb for me.
Thanks Brian, I use 2 ATW system 10 Pro's lapels one on the groom and one on the officiant this way I have backup and a great coverage. Then I also use 2 ATW system 10 Pro's for side readers, that's me but whatever works for you is good. To me a mic stand in the middle of everything isn't the best as far as photo's and pickup. I'm sure some couples don't care but that's one of my big selling points.
I have a small backyard wedding coming up..was having second thoughts on how I was planning on micing it, your video was my first thought...(and already HAVE everything to do it) decision made! Keeping it simple. Thank you.
I wish I could just use one hand held but when given the option the officiant most always want's the hands free option. Nowadays everyone expects to hear the bride & groom along with the officiant so I mic up the groom and officiant, their mics pick up the bride just fine. I do have wind noise issues but not clothing issues, I mic them up myself to avoid that. People understand the wind noise and expect it, no one ever turns around to me like I'm suppose to fix it but I do pull out all the low end which helps a lot. From day one I put it on the groom and officiant to hook up with me to get mic'd, sometimes I have to chase them down but by then I have the pre-ceremony music on auto and have time to square up the mics.
Thank you Brian for doing the work on quick, easy, batter powered ceremony systems. Between your vids and a couple of others I have devised a very efficient "one trip" system also using the Maui Go.
I get officiant mic requests as well. When it happens, I explain the technical benefits of hand held to the client & then give them the lapel option, which with multiple mics & more tech, raises the price of ceremony services. Between my explanation on benefits & the price difference, they just go with my suggested method. The cool part in the end is the officiant will complement me on the mic & the sound. My theory is that they've had bad experiences in the past with cheap hand helds & perceive a lapel mic as better quality. One more thing I'll say is that clients sometimes have a habit of asking for things until 1 of 2 things happen: ether you flat out tell them "No", or, you say yes, but require them to do something in return, such as pay more or provide accommodations for me to provide whatever equipment or service they are requesting. As soon as they have to do something in return, they back off real quick
You are spot on! You seem to be in a similar market to myself here in michigan. Most of my gigs have a pretty low budget so not only can I not charge a ton but I also don’t have the income to justify buying a ton of lapel mics. I run 1 handheld for the officiant and maybe one other wired mic for reading if need be. It’s always worked out fine and I’ve had zero complaints. Love your video by the way. Ive been a subscriber for many years.
Great video Brian. Please let me clarify - I WISH I had mic techs Haha - I have 1 and that's, me. Lapel on officiant (or officiants - sometimes there are 2), lapel on groom. Doing sound for ceremonies is really tough - your solution certainly makes it easy, fast and portable.
Hey Jim. I guess I was assuming you'd have to bring in a female tech if you were wiring up a bride. If not, yes, busy Jim :)
I realize this video is four years old, but I agree 100% for small market weddings (and most are) this is a great solution. Might even splurge for a wireless handheld mic. I am curious, what set up do you use now?
I agree! Every ceremony I did last year was outdoors here in windy Florida. I quickly came to the same conclusion. My lapels are for indoors.
Thank you for sharing, as I’m torn between mic set ups . Is there a certain position you and the couple are in , so that the mic and stand aren’t so obvious in photos ? I’m a new Officiant and trying to figure this out . Thank you
i did a couple outdoor ceremonies and the pastors preferred my headset mic, however you still can hear wind if its a windy day....and I had a mic stand up there as well and you are right, sometimes the B&G whisper so you cant hear crap
Once again, thank you Brian. I agree with you.
Agreed 100% Brian. Most of our Ceremonies are outside too...lapel mics just don’t cut it, when Mother Nature is part of the equation. Same here, wish I could get $500...here in Eastern Canada, it’s about half of that for a Ceremony.
Brian. Did I misunderstand what you said? Did you say that you only get $500.00 for a wedding ceremony? Is THAT what you said? Now, is that JUST for the ceremony, or is that for both the ceremony AND the reception? If that is JUST for the ceremony, how much would you usually get for the reception? Inquiring minds want to know.
I use a very similar set up for Ceremonys and it seems to work good for what I charge which is very minimal. The biggest gripe I hear is that we dont want a Mic Stand in our photos or video which makes sense to me but I guess we all have to pick out what's important to us. :)
$500 a wedding. Sounds right for me. That's about what I charge. From Hawaii to Pennsylvania to Kentucky (retired Army) all the same price. If I am good friends with the bride and/or groom, I'll give them half back as a wedding present. Sounds crazy, that's just me.
But, I do it more as a second income/equipment income stream than as a primary job. I'm a Licensed Practical Nurse full time with an 25yr Army pension.
I liked the video you talked about overhead. I do mine on a 5 to 8 year plan as I have electronics and speaker design/building skills that allow me to do my own repairs when needed to extend equipment life. Unless, some new gizmo that will make set up, use, and/or tear down easier comes along sooner.
A shocker to some, I charge hourly for most parties which is $10/hr ABOVE my Nursing pay plus 2 hours for set up.and breakdown. I just like to play music and help folks put on a good party. I charge extra to lug my lighting out ($50). I don't advertise, word of mouth only. I'm not trying to undercut my market or put those out of business who do it for a living.
Great channel Brian!!!!
V/R
Jeremy
Jeremy P I think he meant $500 just for the ceremony alone not including the actual party but I could be wrong.
@@NoizTheDj Yeah that's ceremony only. I bill it out as a separate gig. The way it usually plays out is there's a reception indoors & ceremony outdoors. What I'm able to do now, with a small ceremony system, is show up early & set everything up for reception. Then, go to the remote location for ceremony & set that up. When I make the switch from indoors to outdoors, the music is uninterrupted. Without the separate ceremony system, I'd not only have a 1 hour flip, but possible power limitations. As far as the $500 pricing, figure I have around 2K total invested in that equipment. At a 10% rental fee, that's $200 + $300 for my time, prep, set up & performance. Then I get what I charge for reception as well
500.00 for a wedding.......I would not be proud of that after any amount of time in the business. If I am doing the ceremony too, I start at 2000.00. But after 1250 weddings and 38 years, what do I know.
@@jayallen3145 I think you missed his comment above. $500 is for the ceremony only. Reception is billed separately. I'm pretty sure he would not do the ceremony at that cost without the contract for the reception as well.
After much trial and error, I stumbled onto a setup that I really love. Had a cheap EV mic that I never used because it had awful off-axis noise rejection... when I realized that for a ceremony setup that's exactly what you want - because everyone is off-axis. So I put it on a boom stand (stand sits off to the side a little, boom reaches between the couple and officiant) pointing straight up at about chest-height. Add a foam windscreen if outdoors. I have to work the gain quite a bit throughout the ceremony, but it picks up everyone with minimal setup and relatively little intrusion, which the photographer likes.
I'd love to see a pic of that. Do you have one from a wedding you did? Like a couple of comments I've seen I too worry about a mic and stand in wedding pics. If your setup kind of solves that I'd consider trying that.
@@damomoo Can't post pics on a UA-cam comments thread, but I'm happy to send a photo if you'd like.
@@ckoaks I would like to see a pic of that too if you would, firstclassweddingminister@gmail.com Thanks.
Hey Brian, I have used a single Shure SM58 wireless for years and works well. However, more often now I have officiants request a Lav mic. I would like to know what the DJs out there are using. Thanks.
I don't usually like the SM58 as a vocal mic. Sennheiser 935 is much better. I also tried a Sennheiser 914 and it works great for this application. Wind Screen for outdoors might be needed depending on the day. Not to say that the SM58 is bad and that you're wrong (please don't take it that way), I think the 58 is just so common that people just trust it. Not to mention the durability. It could fall of the back of a truck and you could still use it, but I tend to prefer the 835. The 935 is more comparable to the beta 58. You could stick a stage box like the Soundcraft UI16 (or behringer X-air) behind some decoration, just run power, then use one of the alto wireless speaker kits and have a pretty good wireless system, with tons of control, and then still have a multi purpose system. I went on a rant there, but there are alternatives to the 58 that in my opinion, do sound better and are more versatile.
Thank God I do the same thing for the same reason and I get maid fun of by djs that I should use Lapel microphones but they're expensive and time consuming I could not agree more with you thank you
Just do you Brian! Great Idea! Keep on creating
Great video once again Brian I agree with everything you said. I also use just a handheld mic for ceremonies for the same reason.
I used a Tascam dl10 microphones lavalier microphones it actually does pretty good in wind.
Bride's and grooms exchange vows usually in little more than a hushed whisper so the GROOM gets the lavalier mic. If the officiant wears it, they'll be heard clearly but the vows won't be audible. Mics on sticks ruin pictures and video ESPECIALLY if the officiant holds the mic in their fist. The "Eyewitness News" exchange of vows happens where each celebrant has a mic thrust into their faces comparable to an accident witness being interviewed by a reporter on the sidewalk in front of an accident. Lavs = HANDS FREE and no phallus on a stand or in a clenched fist.
do you have a recommended mic for less interference? Had a wedding this weekend and the mic kept cutting out only 50 ish ft from the transmitter.
I use a lav for the officiant and offer a hand held wireless for the bride and groom. More times than not the bride & groom say no to the stand however as they don’t want it in their wedding pictures.
U Rock Brian.
Good day, bought adj saber spot RGBW. I can't find red. In all modes, only white blue and green. Can you help with this. Thank you.
Couldn't find anywhere that has any stock of that microphone. Perhaps it's been discontinued?
It's probably just a matter of getting them imported. Pretty sure it's still in production. I'll find out for sure at NAMM next week
@@briansredd So the middle man needs to get their act together? Get it listed on Amazon.
@@yourmusicdna Meh, sometimes the suppliers on stuff like this allocates inventory to countries or markets that have ether been vendors for longer, or generally are more established & move more units. I know the UK was on board with JTS before the USA was, by a few years anyway. I think we kind of get used to just having everything available to us here stateside, where other countries don't have the availability we do. Sometimes, the supply chain works the other way around
@@yourmusicdna As far as Amazon goes, that can get tricky. Reason being is we are a very niche market with a relatively small number of retailers. There are several pro audio & lighting supply companies out there that jumped on board with Amazon, only to alienate every other vendor on their certified dealer's list. They couldn't compete with Amazon's outreach, so stopped placing orders with "Coke" and doubled their orders with "Pepsi", so to speak. So, many companies, for that reason, stopped doing business with Amazon. Some things are still available there, but often times, only thru a 3rd party supplier. Other items only go up on Amazon if they can't find enough retailers otherwise, or are doing overstock or discontinued skew blow-outs.
@@briansredd I only used Amazon as the most ubiquitous example I could think of. "small number of retailers" doesn't help me the consumer (generally) and usually that only protects a higher margin for the seller. Again, not good for consumers. If a certified dealer was the least bit interested in selling these units in the US - they aren't making that fact known on the internet by my searching. I could have missed something, but not likely.
I 1000% agree with you
I tend to agree very much
I just found a mic holder that wears around the neck and hangs on the officiants chest. Hands free and no stand needed.
Lav Vs Handheld on a stand. Lav sounds better. Lav looks better. Handheld is easier. Handheld is cheaper. I can mic only the officiant with my sennheiser and still pick up the bride and groom better than my Shure SM58 wireless can
wow 500.00 bucks my area is like 150 to 200
agree 1000 percent. lapels suck