“It’s a Wonderful Life”

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(What you don’t know you want in your wedding film)

Your wedding day is one of the most memorable moments of your life. From the exchange of vows to the heartfelt speeches and the celebration with loved ones, it’s a day filled with emotion and significance. Thankfully for me (I’m a maker of wedding films) many couples choose to capture these moments on video so they can relive them for years to come. However, despite the initial excitement of receiving their wedding film, some couples find themselves rarely, if ever, rewatching it. You paid good money for it, it is an important day, why is this?

Video Capture from Jade & Luke ‘s Wedding Film By John Mark Art Photo/Video

Well, lots of reasons. Hopefully not, but maybe it just wasn’t that great of a video. Another reason is simply the busyness of life. In the whirlwind of daily responsibilities, careers, and family obligations, setting aside time to sit down and watch a video can feel like a luxury. After the wedding day excitement fades and reality sets in, finding time to devote to reliving memories from the past can be challenging. We’ll come back to this.

Do you have movies you tend to watch every year, maybe around the holidays? Titles like It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Love Actually, and many more are fan favorites. We know the stories, but still we come back to them year after year. Why is that? Two reasons I suspect. First and foremost, they are great stories and great stories engage our imagination. Second, these stories conjure up memories and feelings that make us feel good. Even the act of watching them over and over through the years takes on its own feelings of nostalgia and becomes a tradition.

You may have jumped ahead of me and figured out where I’m going with this. A great story is what’s missing in many (ok most) wedding films.

On a warm summer weekend, we were privileged to be able to tell and capture just such a story. In this case, it started more than a month before the ceremony. Jade and Luke wanted us to help tell the story of their unlikely meeting and subsequent romance to their extended family and members of the wedding party in a video premiered at their rehearsal dinner, which was held at Winstead Mansion at the Governor’s Club in Brentwood, Tennessee.

We call these videos, Couples Stories. For Jade and Luke, we interviewed several of their close friends and family members and gathered lots of photos from their childhood all the way through their engagement. The stories of how a city girl from the Pacific Northwest met, fell in love, and eventually said “yes” to a southern outdoorsman were funny, romantic, and thoroughly entertaining.

The big finale was interviews we did with the bride and groom, where they told their story in their own words (without the other listening in) and shared their hopes and dreams for their future life together. As you might guess, there were a few tears shed the night the video was premiered.

The wedding ceremony and reception were located at the White Dove Barn in Beechgrove, Tennessee. The venue and the weather were both amazing that day as was the entire affair.

Every couple has a story. Our goal at JMA Photo/Video is to tell yours in a way that brings you back to it year after year. To see a highlight reel from Jade and Luke’s big day, as well as other wedding films, you can visit our wedding films portfolio page here.

In our next blog post, we will dive into the ways we can take your wedding film from a simple music video, to an actual story – here’s a secret, it just takes a little creativity and not necessarily additional time and expense.