When she was 12, a young girl named Tory started writing love letters to her future husband.
She didn’t know who he was. She didn’t know when she’d meet him. She just had faith that one day they’d be married. So she wrote to him often, sometimes several times in a day, and she always signed off the same way: “XOXO, your wife.”
Many Years And Hundreds Of Letters Later
A young man named Henry walked into the gym where she worked. He was insightful, he was kind, and he insisted on calling her “Victoria,” a name befitting a princess.
More than any of that, though, Henry was persistent.
At which point you’re thinking, this is him. This is the guy she’s been writing to all these years. And you wouldn’t be wrong. But nothing is ever that simple.
Victoria and Henry started a friendship, which eventually became a first date. On that date Henry asked her, “Do you see a future with us?”
Victoria immediately and directly answered: “No, I do not see a future with us.”
But as I said, Henry was persistent. That first date led to another one. And somewhere in there, Victoria’s letters and her prayers started being directed at a specific person.
The Wedding
This film is the culmination of both halves of that: Victoria’s letters and Henry’s persistence. A wedding to a husband long dreamt for, and to a wife who was persistently pursued.
There’s One More Part To This Story
Victoria and her dad have always been close, and he knew that growing up she’d written all those letters to her future husband.
What he did not know is that she had written something for him, too. A song. She wrote it, she recorded it, and she played it while the two of them danced together at her reception.
That’s the kind of thing you cannot plan for as a filmmaker and cannot possibly ask a couple to recreate. All you can do is know it’s coming, be in the right place with the right lens before the music starts, and then stay out of the way. Everything else about a wedding day is repeatable. That is not.
“The Best Wedding Ever”
That’s how Henry put it, and I would agree. Partially because it genuinely was wonderful, and partially because Henry is Rachel’s cousin. We are thrilled to be related to such an incredible couple with a story like this one.
Why This One Runs Long
This is a full film rather than a highlight, and it earns the length. A four-minute highlight is built out of the best images of a day. A film this long is built out of the best talking, and that only works whenever the couple has given you enough of it: letters read out loud, vows in their own words, toasts from people who actually know them.
Victoria and Henry had all of that plus a story that had been building since she was twelve, so the film could take its time and let the story tell itself instead of cutting hard to keep the energy up.
The Gear I Filmed This With
📷 My favorite wedding filmmaking gear, and my Sony a7S II wedding setup specifically. Color graded with my LUTs.
Getting Married?
Rachel and I would love to film it. 🎥 Please get in touch.
And if you’re the one behind the camera, 🎬 my wedding film editing course is where I teach how a film like this gets built.