Wedding Videography Done Right

Dave and I have pretty much nixed getting a videographer. "Remember that Flip camera you got?" he said. "We don't even watch that." (except for the time I surprised him with a 4-month-belated Christmas present) And frankly, I never really saw the appeal; most wedding videos I've seen are fuzzy-sounding atrocities jazzed up with star-swoops and soundbites from Grandma giving awkward sex advice. I don't even like the quick-cut close-up wedding video seen in Love, Actually, which some videographers actually boast they could reproduce just for you (you know the best part about that video? it was thirty seconds long).

But then my future-brother-in-law forwarded me the video from a friend's wedding, and I was completely blown away. Beautiful imagery, stunning photography, heartfelt editing--I've never even met these people and I actually shed a little tear, just witnessing all these wonderful little moments from their wedding events. It perfectly captured the love the two of them feel for each other and the pure joy of friends and families getting to witness and celebrate their marriage. And I challenge you to listen to the brother of the bride's proud, nervous toast to his sister without getting choked up.

As brother-in-law Steve says, "a trailer for the wedding? I really want to see this movie!"

Naeema + Taha from Society Hill Studios* on Vimeo.

*they are in New Jersey, where Dave and I are getting married. wheels spinning...

Talented Friends: Andrew the Photographer

This is Andrew:

And these are some of Andrew's photos*:

Is he not brilliant? Evocative? Absurdly talented?

Andrew is one of my good friends and a former intern of mine when we were both poor, starving, and air conditionless in New York (some of us have yet to move beyond those things...). He was/is a photographer whose boundless enthusiasm for interesting moments and tableaus would have been annoying if he wasn't so charmingly excited all the time. I don't think he's ever taken two steps out his house without at least three or four cameras slung on himself, and when he gets into photo-taking mode he can be so intensely focused that I used to keep watch over him like an anxious parent, lest he completely forget about me and wander away to go take some photos of a cool fisherman or something.

Andrew may also be part of the reason Dave and I got engaged, since looking at his photos would make both of us say we needed to have a shotgun wedding asap so we could hire Andrew before he got too expensive for us (still true).

*they are scrunched up and poorly-rendered here, and a million times more beautiful at his website: http://www.andrewburtonphoto.com/