Communication is the key to everything

I shot a wedding video recently that involved a wedding that was thrown together quickly with no rehearsal. We did receive a list of wedding party members from the bride, with orders to include the names in the video.

When I get that kind of specific instruction, I like to carry it out well, with nice graphics under the names as they are passing down the isle. However, the wedding planner (at least they had one) was sending the wedding party down the isle in a rather hap-hazard fashion. As a result, when it came time to edit, we had no idea who was who. What to do?

We contacted the bride, who told her mother to come to our studio to identify the people in the video, however the mother did not know everyone either. The next step was to contact the bride again, and ask her to send us a written description of what each member of the party was wearing. Fortunately, in this case, there was not a uniform for the members of the wedding party, so we could identify them by their clothing.

What would you do in our case, if the wedding party was wearing uniform clothing?