like learning lighting, etc

Hi there. That's awesome you want to get into wedding photography!

First of all, read all you can about photography including photography magazines, websites (www.kenrockwell.com is a great site), photography books and put into practice the things you learn from them. If you don't understand certain aspects of what you read, come here and ask.

Practice, practice, practice. Maybe do a photography course if you have one avaliable. When you become confident with your camera and using shutter, aperture and white balance, take your camera to a friend's wedding. Shoot away. Be sure not to get in the main photographer's way but don't be intimidated by him/her. Also study what he/she does.

After you feel confident enough to shoot a wedding, prepare yourself a list of the important parts of the wedding to capture like the arrival of the bride, exchanging of rings, first kiss, etc. Then wait until an opportunity arises where a friend is getting married but can't afford a photographer. There's your opportunity to offer your services for free. This is a great way to learn wedding photography. And after a few weddings, you will stop being nervious and you will feel confident.

If you're shooting with a digital slr, buy a few spare memory cards so you can shoot lots and lots of images. It's always good to have many images to choose from and also, when you shoot the important moments, shooting more than one image ensures you have it at the perfect moment without anyone blinking etc.

Well I hope this helps. If you would like any more tips, feel free to email me at mason@straightshots.co.nz

You can take courses and read books and search the web.

Along with that, I would find a pro that is looking for a second shooter or apprentice and work under them for a while.

Nothing beats real world experience. It's doubly as effective if you have a mentor willing to work with you.

shoot friends using a variety of lighting for a few years till you become competent at portraiture, you hopefully will find that weddings are an extension of portraiture but with loads of people