Some of my best friendships have come from couples whose weddings I’ve filmed. We’ll sit down over tacos and talk about their lives, their love, and how I can best show that in a film about their wedding day. I’ve been lucky enough to film some of the nicest, most outgoing, most interesting couples, just by being myself and showing them what I can make for them.
With Thuy and Brady, we never got to sit down at all.
Two Days’ Notice
On January 30th I got a call from Brady’s sister. A family member had been hurt and wasn’t going to be able to make it to the wedding, and they wanted a film of the day they could share with them.
And here’s the critical part: the wedding was Saturday, February 1st. Two days.
Even just from hearing Brady’s sister talk about them, I could tell these were going to be great people to film. So I called Brady and we did the whole conversation on the phone instead: how he and Thuy met, their love for music, and the surprises they had planned for their guests.
Which is worth saying out loud, because a lot of filmmakers would have said no to this. A two-day booking with no meeting, no venue scout, and no schedule is exactly the kind of job you talk yourself out of. But the phone call did most of what the taco dinner does. I knew what mattered to them and what to point a camera at, and that turns out to be the actual requirement.
Agave Road, Katy, Texas
The venue gave the day an elegant country vibe, all warm stone and agave and big Texas sky. The entire day was extremely windy, which is its own problem to shoot around, but the clouds that came with it were spectacular.
The Surprise
Thuy is Vietnamese, and partway through the reception she and Brady changed into traditional Vietnamese attire.
Then, while traditional Vietnamese music played, they danced their way around the room handing out lottery tickets to every guest. It was inventive, it was funny, it was completely theirs, and it made the wedding genuinely fun to shoot.
This is the argument for asking a couple what they’ve got planned, even whenever you only have them on the phone for twenty minutes. Nobody puts “we’re handing out lottery tickets in traditional dress” on a timeline. You only find it out because you asked.
Wind, Clouds, And A Quadcopter
Despite the wind we still found time to get quadcopter shots of the venue, and between those and some great cloud time-lapses this turned into a fun and dynamic film to edit. Weather that makes a day harder to shoot often makes it better to watch. Flat blue sky gives you nothing. A sky that’s moving gives you the whole opening.
Special thanks to Taylor Stanley for being available at very short notice to help film this one.
Getting Married Soon? Even Very Soon?
Interested in having me film your wedding? 🎥 Please contact me. And if your date is closer than you think it should be for asking, ask anyway. This one was two days out.