My concerns vanished, however, when I arrived at the Bedford Springs Resort. What an amazing place! The resort itself is enormous and the grounds are quite impressive. I was also pumped to be working with my friend and colleague, Kris McElligott of KM Photography. She is such a great person to work along side with and her work is really incredible (just take a look at some of her pics!). It also helped to be working for some seriously cool clients. Laura and Jake are my youngest couple of the season and the entire day was influenced by their youth and vibrancy. A great example of this was Laura’s choice in wedding dress. Go ahead, take a look at their wedding trailer below and tell me that wedding dress isn’t the coolest thing you’ve ever seen! I’m very much someone who runs on the energy of other people. When I’m around vibrant people, I know that energy rubs off on me and my shooting only gets better. I say this because the entire day I kept telling me assistant, Jordan, how much I couldn’t wait to get home and edit some of the footage.

When I began to edit this wedding trailer, I wanted to make sure that the emotion of the day was translated through my work. One of the things I picked up on throughout the wedding day was just how important Jake and Laura’s faith is in their lives and relationship. I was inspired by what was said during the ceremony. The message given was that Jake and Laura are great people separately, but together, as one, they are even better; they are the best they can be. I had a great time shooting this wedding and working with Jake and Laura. I hope you enjoy this trailer just as much as I did creating it.

A past client of mine, Karen, dropped me this message the other day about her Signature Wedding Film:

Hi Darrell,

Thanks so much for sending our wedding DVDs to us before July 4th! We gave one copy to my mother-in-law for her birthday and we enjoyed watching it together during our visit. We’re so thrilled with how it turned out! You really captured the entire day so well! And the quality of the picture and sound were incredible too. You’re very talented.

Thanks again for your great work! It was a real pleasure working with you.

Karen

You can check out Karen’s wedding trailer by clicking here.

* Photo by Rob Nicholson of Humbled Eyes Photography

For Jamie and Lynn’s wedding video trailer, I was inspired most by the words of one of the officiants during the ceremony. It’s always a blessing to shoot a wedding where the officiant is well spoken and has a wonderfully meaningful message to work with. When I heard his words “Though human love is imperfect, the promise of god is eternal,” I couldn’t wait to use them in an edit. Perfect, just perfect stuff!

Anyways, watch below and enjoy! Make sure to leave a comment!

Philadelphia wedding videographer: Aubert Films
Philadelphia wedding planner: Chill Weddings
Photographer: Inku Photography
Location: Sofitel Hotel

I had an equally amazing time working with my pals, Darah and Siobhan, from DollFace Studio who did Tina and Andrew’s photography. You HAVE to check out the photos from the wedding over on Doll Face’s blog.
I also got to work with the ladies from 2 Daisies Design, a floral design and wedding planning company from my neck of the woods up here in the Lehigh Valley.

Anyways, I just wanted to share the trailer video that I prepared for Tina and Andrew’s Philadelphia wedding video. One thing I spend a lot of time on is the music in each film and this one is no exception. I searched for the better part of a week to find a sweet track by Explosions in the Sky for this trailer. I hope you like it has much as I do!

Over the years I’ve had the honor of shooting a lot of weddings.  Jewish, Hindu, Catholic, Persian, etc., etc. I’ve also shot weddings all over the country. From Hartford, Connecticut to Napa Valley, California. You name it and I’ve probably shot it.

In all these weddings, there are a few things I have found that can turn a good wedding film into a great one.  These are things that are cheap (some free) and will not only make your film awesome but make your wedding day that much more special.

Here are three things that can make an awesome wedding film:

1.) Card/Gift Exchanges

Almost every couple exchanges some kind of gift the day of the wedding. So often though, I arrive for the preparations and the gifts have already been exchanged and opened. I know the excitement the morning of, but if you wait to open those gifts when both myself and your photographer are present, that emotional and memorable moment can be captured. What better way to open your Signature Wedding Film than with you opening your gift?
Card exchanges are something that are less common than gifts. Why? I have no idea! A gift is great but nothing beats a hand written letter expressing your love and affection for your significant other the morning of the wedding! You don’t need to be Shakespeare and write a sonnet; a quick paragraph will do fine. Trust me! The best wedding films I’ve ever done have card exchanges. It is a universal rule for having an awesome film!

2.) Choose your officiant wisely!
If you’re getting married at your local house of worship by your favorite pastor/priest/etc. so be it. But for those of you who don’t have someone particular in mind or are getting married out of town, take some time to research who marries you! Often I use your officiant’s message during the ceremony as the narrative that binds together your entire film. If you have an officiant who is boring, is not a good public speaker, or has nothing especially compelling to say, it will really hurt your wedding film. Ask for some sample ceremonies or maybe even a past wedding video for you to view. You can even request a copy of your ceremony before your wedding to make sure it’s up to par. Having an awesome message from your officiant will make a huge difference in the emotional impact of your film!

3.) Write your own vows!

If your religion and officiant allow it, write your own vows!!!! Don’t be lazy! I always get the excuse that “We don’t want to have to worry about it.” Tough crap! Haha. Writing your own vows will take less than an hour. You don’t need to memorize them, reading them off a small piece of paper is fine. But write from the heart! Your vows should be personal messages to one another. Writing your own will not only make your film better, but it will be the most emotional and touching moment of your entire wedding.

I hope these tips will help you make your Signature Wedding Film into an awesome Philadelphia Wedding Video.

The reception was held at the Rehoboth Beach Country Club. The last time I shot in Rehoboth, the reception was here as well. It’s a great location and the view from the ballroom spectacularly demonstrated the beautiful sunsets over the water.

For Latane and Karen’s trailer, I wanted to show off both the beauty of Rehoboth. You’ll see a lot of shots of the area, nature, and especially the sunsets. Hopefully you can enjoy it as much as I did shooting it!

Photog ShootOut again invited me as the only wedding filmmaker to come out to their recent Philly shoot and create a video for them. It’s an honor and always a pleasure to attend these events where so many great photographers come together and collaborate and learn. This time it was held downtown at City Hall. It was bitter cold, as in BELOW FREEZING, but we still had a lot of fun. The theme of the shoot was “punk bridal.” It was very cool to have photographer Leslie Gilbert and wedding planner Erin Wren Proud as two of our models!

Here are the names and websites of those involved with the shoot and/or provided images for the video:

Mark Gardner Photography
DollFace Studio
Humbled Eyes Photography
Jeff Dietz Photography
JPG Photography
John Stickel Photography
Cindy Guessford Photography
Michael Allebach Photography
PhotOle
Rob Korb Photography
Julian K Foto
Kristen Lober
Alicia DiBlasio
Gloss Salon
Patty Rittenhouse DeCasere

And here is the video I created. Short and sweet with less video but more emphasis on all the great photos. I hope you enjoy! By the way, if you haven’t already seen them, check out my past Photog ShootOut videos by clicking here and here.

Dan and Michelle were certainly one of my more unique clients this year. I often refer to them as the “Juno Couple” (keep reading, you’ll find out why). Dan, who is a graphic designer, seems to have a liking for comic books, super heroes, and transformers; as evidenced by the logo he designed for their wedding and his, shall we say, unusual custom vows. Check out their awesome invitations by clicking here. Michelle, not to be outdone by Dan, seems equally interested in the musical whims of the movie Juno since almost every song she suggested is on its soundtrack. Not only that, their first dance song was “All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar. I think my favorite line from that song is “If you were a castle, I’d be your moat.” Rather interesting, in my opinion, that their wedding was held at a castle. Connection? Unfortunately Fonthill Castle doesn’t have a moat but I digress.
For their trailer, I chose a song I’ve been wanting to use for quite some time. It’s a variation on a song I used a few years ago so it was familiar yet different at the same time. Dan, who is a fan of some scifi shows, might recognize it but I’m betting not. Anyways, enjoy their trailer below! And watch out for their Juno inspired wedding film in a few months!

Be sure to check out some of my other Philadelphia wedding videos by clicking here!

** This post is for other wedding professionals.

One of my good photographer friends, Mark Gardner, designed a great tool for wedding professionals who do a lot of online bookings. It’s called Wed-Pick. Basically Wed-Pick allows you to build an online pricing menu that clients can use to build their own packages. Using check boxes and drop down menus, a client can change parameters of his/her package and then submit that package to you.

This tool has been so helpful for me when consulting with clients. In the past I could never find a good way to display my pricing that made sense and was usable by the client. I used to send pdfs, docs, etc. etc. Wed-Pick has totally changed that. Now I simply send my clients to my wed-pick page and they can build their package exactly the way they want AND submit it to me through wed-pick. Now all I need to do is send them an email with their contract and they’ve just booked a wonderful Philadelphia wedding video.

There are other services out there that offer similar products, but none of them are as affordable and easy as wed-pick. For those of you looking for an inexpensive way of displaying your pricing that is interactive and WORKS… check out the $99 Wed-Pick.