Several summers ago we filmed a beautiful wedding at a local church.  Everything was just perfect for the day.  During the ceremony, one of the mics that was on a soloist went out right before he was about to sing.  When a mic goes bad, it doesn't just stop working, it transmits this awful sounding static that is heard by everyone in the church.  

Photo courtesy of David Boyd Photography 

I guess these things happen. The problem was that as soon as it started, we looked over to the sound board for the operator to fix the problem on the board and no one was there.  Yikes!  The sound board was turned on by the church, but they didn't have anyone to operate it.  I don't know if this is normal policy for lots of churches, but come on, the ceremony is under 45 minutes usually, can't the church pay someone to be there!!!!! 

If someone had been working, they could have had the ability to fix the mic problem or if nothing else, pull his mic altogether.  Because trust me, this guy could have carried the entire church without using a mic!  To make it worse, people were looking at us to fix the problem, but we couldn't.  It wasn't our sound board, and we are running cameras.  Needless to say, for the final edit, we tried and tried to minimize the static on the video, and we made HUGE improvements, but you could still hear it.  Thankfully the wonderful bride and her family didn't let it ruin the day. (This beautiful photo below was not from the wedding in question.)

Moral of the story, make sure that the church not only has a sound board, but also an operator for your wedding.