OK, some of you people are going to come up with some incredible stuff but I'm pretty much a lighting infant, I have certain setups I use at weddings but nothing exciting.
Here is a photo from an ultra traditional Chassidic wedding. The couple will not touch during the photos so it forms a challenge to think up 'connecting' poses! I had exactly 10 minutes to shoot this couple with the mother in law ("I don't believe in photos!") standing over me like a hawk! I did 22 seperate poses of them in ten minutes and I still don't know how! One of my 5D's is actually in the repair shop at present from being rained on so heavily during the outdoors ceremony from that job though it did a futher wedding, barmitzva and 250 college headshots before the rear LCD packed it it!
Anyway enough blabber. Keep in mind that wedding work is fast paced and you need 'one size fits all' solutions. You also don't have the time to set up or organise mutiple lights so lights have to do more than one job that in a studio you would use seperate lights for.
Here is a diagram of the lighting. The lighting was: Main/Fill - 50" shoot thru white brollies (bounced into), Kicker - Lastolite 45" Umbrella box.
Now for the why. I always try to shoot brides with short lighting. Never met a bride yet who wanted to look fatter. Hence her position on the (camera) right. On the other hand I can't use too high a ratio or position the lights too close as I need the groom well lit as well. I don't mind the fact that as he is next to her he's getting the broad lighting.
I'm using the Kicker light to do 3 things. Firstly lit at that angle it gives an almost imperceptible rim light which is just enough to give a bit of seperation between the white of the bride and the cream background. You can't see it unless you compare the before/after and see her 'jump' out of an otherwise much flatter photo. Secondly it's providing a bit of backlighting through the veil and thirdly it's set to skim across the folds of the curtain to provide definition to the shape of the folds, again to provide more seperation. I know that a kicker is usually set at a lower setting than the other lights but personally I like it to be the same as the fill for effect.
I use shoot thru brollies, always bounced into for a nice incredibly soft wrap around effect and to be honest the extra light bouncing off the walls gives a lot of soft wrap, like making the whole room into a huge softbox but you still get modelling. You need a light that doesn't need changing as you work through many photos when you have so little time! There literally is no time for moving lights, test shots, etc. Hence the very soft overall light with only a small ratio for the modelling. The Kicker uses a lastolite umbrella box which is a great portable round softbox for when I want more direction to my light. Got two of them in my bag.
Anyway, the photo:
Sounds complicated in writing but takes about 10 minutes for my assistant to set up and I'm ready to shoot!