I'm glad I don't shoot weddings. I am happy as can be with my two prime f1.8's.
I don't normally shoot weddings either. But I thought it might be fun to shoot this one with the UPFRONT proviso that I am NOT an experienced professional wedding photographer. I won't get paid. So they understand you kind of get what you pay for
However, by default I have become a sort of documentary type photographer for our various church events and have been doing a lot of informal people photography. The images are often used for display on a big screen during informal gatherings or sometimes before the Sunday service starts and people are still milling about. The mother of the bride has seen many of these shots so she is familiar with the quality of my work.
I have the Nikon 35mm f1.8, but a lot of the websites I've been poking around on seem to favor the 50mm f1.8, especially on a DX frame, for full body "portraits".
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-50mm-Nikkor-Digital-Cameras/dp/B00005LEN4"]Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens[/ame]
If you set this one to f22 and lock it, doesn't the camera then control the aperture setting? I recall trying to mess around with Scott's when we were all down at Duke's place but the locking mechanism was messed up and I never wound up taking any shots with it. It gets RAVE reviews and is not expensive.
The other lens I have is the 18-200mm f3.5-5.6, which is a great lens for much of the photography I do, like outdoor action shots of the kids on their motorcycles, but it is not so great for the indoor low light stuff. It also lacks that crisp sharpness. This is where I was thinking something like the 24-70mm f2.8 would be really nice. It is also extremely popular with pretty much ALL of the wedding/portrait photographers (bearing in mind it is not as good as a dedicated prime portrait lens like your 85mm). I had been wanting the 24-70 for a long time and thought this might be a good excuse to get one, but...
Scott...unless the wedding is outdoors in mid day you will want fast glass to get decent shots.
When I shot weddings my lenses never left 2.8 and often my ISO would creep up towards 1000 to get what I wanted during the ceremony (very few churches/venues allow flash photography during the ceremony) and the reception.
If I was in your shoes I would rent the 24-70 2.8 for this event.
I have been thinking about renting one.
This place has it for $79/wk. I was thinking that might give me time to play around with the lens and get used to it before I try to use it for the real deal. Of course, I know if I rent it, it will just make me want to buy it...