I like to think every photographer (or just human) has a little collection of embarrassing moments they keep locked away and password protected. We’ve certainly had our fair share of stories over the years that have turned our faces bright red or made us want to crawl in a hole. But in reality, all of these humbling experiences, although we’ve felt so stupid at the time, have been pretty light-hearted. Looking back, experience is the best teacher, and we’ve definitely learned a lot along the way. Today we’re here to share the most embarrassing thing we’ve done at a wedding, and why we can laugh about it today.

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Stevie and I had been shooting a gorgeous summer wedding and everything was going so smooth and wonderfully. We did a first look with the couple, the bridal party shots, and then moved into the ceremony that afternoon. After the ceremony ended, we took some family photos in a wooded area there, and then everyone dispersed to head to the reception location – about a 10 minute drive from where the ceremony was held.

We were kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and I don’t remember us having enough service to use our GPS. A lot of people left the ceremony at the same time, so we just hopped in line to follow the herd instead of trying to plug it in to the GPS. I remember it all being a little confusing on where to go exactly, but we weren’t too worried. We headed down a curvy narrow road for a few miles, and up ahead we saw an old plantation home, with a big white tent outside, cars parking and people heading towards the tent and house. We pulled in and parked too. We looked around for a minute as we gathered our gear and observed guests, dressed in their Sunday best, walking up with presents. We thought we recognized some people from the ceremony who were parking too.

There were already a good bit of people trickling in, and I thought to myself I’d better hurry and shoot the reception details before it got too crowded. I told Stevie to do the same, and we scurried over to the tent and started photographing the cake, the floral arrangements, and other details. I started to notice guests watching us as they mingled, some staring like they’d never seen a photographer in action before. Honestly we just get those looks sometimes (people are curious!) so I tried not to feel too self conscious about it. But I kept having that “all eyes are on me” kind of feeling and checked to see what Stevie was doing. He was at the other end of the tent shooting something and seemed in the zone, unfazed. So I got back to what I was doing and started to photograph a cocktail napkin.

I was arranging it on the table, and when I looked through my lens to get the shot, I adjusted the focus to be on the couples name, written in pretty script font and silver foil, on the napkin. That’s when I realized something that made my heart sink. Those shiny names in focus were not the names of our bride and groom. Same date, same city, different names. Suddenly everything clicked. I made a beeline straight for Stevie, still over there in his zone. I grabbed his arm, pulled him in the direction of the car, and said firmly under my breath, “Wrong wedding. This is the wrong wedding.” He was so confused, but all those staring eyes now made perfect sense to me.

I was so thankful that the other couple, whoever they were, decided to print their names on their napkins. I’m sure they never intended on that being a way for guests to triple check they were at the correct reception, but it sure was handy for us! We jetted out of there, now trying to find the reception we were supposed to be at as fast as possible. We continued down the road we had pulled off of 5 minutes before, and of course, there were signs that easily led us to our destination. Luckily (very luckily), the reception was just filling up as we arrived, and we hadn’t missed anything nor was anyone really looking for us. The sheer panic melted from our faces and we got right (back) to work, shooting the reception details and guests mingling, this time with no glaring looks.

After a successful day of capturing the wedding and sending off the happy couple, we laughed about that little mixup the whole way home. We couldn’t believe what we did, and how much more embarrassing it would have been if the other bride and groom showed up while we crashed their reception. *face palm* It was hilarious to think back on, and we were fortunate that our little detour didn’t affect our actual wedding reception one bit. I swear, you see the craziest things as a wedding photographer, and sometimes you are the crazy thing. I only wish that I somehow knew who the “other couple” was… I have some pretty napkin photos I think they’d like.

XO,

Sara-Lane

What’s your most embarrassing wedding moment? (we all have them!) Comment below so we can LOL with you.