Why I film weddings

Of course it is wonderful that my job involves looking at wedding dresses, hearing awesome bands and eating some truly good food. Believe it or not, this is not the reason I want to film weddings.

Cliche I know, but I remember my father taking me to see Shrek at a beautiful old-school cinema, and I thought it was magic. Not just the film, I remember so clearly how everybody in the audience, old and young, were reacting. It was captivating to watch all different people laughing and crying together. That, at the age of nine, is when I realised that film is a powerful and emotive thing.

From then I couldn’t get enough. I would watch any kind of film whenever I could. Through secondary school I would watch a film whilst getting ready for school in the morning, when returning home and before going to bed. You may be worrying for my grades at this point - thank you but I did fine. I knew I had an understanding of film and its own seemingly secret language. I felt I really connected with the people, and wherever somebody on screen would cry, as would I, if they were laughing, I was too.

I did not go on to study film at University level because I thought film was so competitive and a difficult industry to find work in. I actually studied Public Service Management (don’t worry, not many people have heard of it, it is a combination of Sociology, Criminology and Human Resources). Long story short, here I am, living my dream. I get to think about, talk about, and look at film every day. But it’s even better than that, my subjects are real peoples love stories, with my deep love of travel and culture thrown in when I am fortunate enough to film destination weddings.

I still think film is magical and evokes emotions and memories in a way photos rarely can. The combination of a close-up, shallow depth-of-field, ambient audio, a touch of slow-motion, some carefully chosen music and maybe a piece of voice-over from that day all amplifies the true feeling of that moment, which, at a wedding in a beautifully deep feeling. You will often find me with goosebumps or tears in my eyes at my desk.

So filming weddings is my ideal as I get to take care of couples precious memories and turn them into magic. The best part of my job is delivering the films and I am sure I can get more excited about that then the newley-weds. Well, I am sure until I email them and they are always very excited too and the feedback I receive is amazing.

I film weddings because I love film, but I also love love and I am a sucker for the celebration of such. It feels a true honour to personally witness the moment two people declare their love and vow to be together forever. I have seen over 300 weddings and it never becomes ‘just another wedding’.