Remember your first love in high school? I had one of those. And by “had”, I mean that I was the one in love; I don’t believe that the object of my affections actually knew I was in love with her. But thankfully this film isn’t about my high school romance, it’s about Will and Stephanie’s.
At this point though, you’re probably wondering what fairy tales have to do with high school. See, one of the oldest types of fairy tales is that of a couple, one of whom is usually a prince or princess of some sort, that meet, fall in love, and live happily ever after. While most prevalent in Disney movies like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Snow White, there are many modern takes on the tale such as Enchanted and even Spider-Man. They all differ in how they tell it, but at the core they all revolve around a boy and girl meeting, falling in love despite all obstacles, and living happily ever after together.
As viewers, we identify with many aspects of these stories in our own lives (okay maybe not living under the sea or being bitten by a radioactive spider), we all remember one of our first experiences of love in high school. We envision meeting that perfect someone in class, falling in love, sticking together through college, getting married, and living happily ever after. That vision has become a modern fairy tale, one that we dream about when we are young and realize isn’t true when we walk the stage at graduation.
For me and most of us, I feel like that was okay. I don’t think many of us think back on high school with regret of never finding love. But what if we had? What if we met someone in class our junior year of high school, sixteen years old, daring to dream it could last forever, and it actually did? We would be living a modern fairy tale.
What I have just described is the story of Will and Stephanie. Sixteen years old, finding chemistry with each other in chemistry class of all places, and falling in love that lasts. These two give me hope, not that I will go back to high school and fall in love, I’m quite happy with my current love that I found in college; a hope that fairy tales come true even today. There’s something a bit magical about that, and I am glad that stories like theirs still exist in the world today.
Their Wedding Day In Houston
The film starts the way most of my films do, with the ordinary parts of the morning that end up mattering the most later. Getting ready in a hotel downtown. A mother buttoning her daughter into her dress, which is one of those moments where nobody is performing for the camera and you just try to stay out of the way.
On the other side of the building, the groomsmen were getting dressed, and I want to draw your attention to the socks. Look at those socks. I have filmed a lot of weddings at this point and I would like to state for the record that the socks are always where the groomsmen put their personality.
Then there’s that quiet stretch where the groom is standing at a window, dressed, ready, with nothing left to do but wait. Houston is spread out flat below him. That shot is in almost every film I make, because it’s almost always there on the day if you’re paying attention.
The Ceremony
The homily opens with a line I have thought about many times since:
This is not the best day of your marriage. I promise. It is not the best day. There are days ahead that will be far greater than this, because of all that God is going to do with you. You’re being called to a great vocation today. This is not for the faint of heart.
That is not what you expect to hear at a wedding, and it is exactly the right thing to say to two people who met at sixteen and are now standing at an altar in front of a church full of everyone they know.
Woven through the film are the letters they wrote each other that morning, read in voiceover. Stephanie writing about the day she first saw him walk into chemistry class junior year, how confidently he came and sat down right in front of her, and how she knew immediately he was someone she wanted to know. Will writing about tenth grade biology, when he had no idea the person sitting in front of him would change his life, and how within months they were attached at the hip. Sleepovers, ranch nights, studying on her bedroom floor with an unreasonable number of M&Ms.
And then the line that I think is the whole film in one sentence: I don’t need you because I can’t live without you, but because I don’t ever want to.
Their vows are the kind that get specific, which is always what makes them land. Not just I will love you, but here is exactly how. By holding your hand in fun, in love, and in prayer. By continuing to do sweet little things for you often. By always holding you to your best self. By keeping God at the core of our marriage, in good times and in bad. He promises to do his best to make her feel like the luckiest and most loved woman in the world every single day of their marriage.
The Reception
The toasts came from people who have been watching these two since they were teenagers, which gives a speech a completely different weight than one from someone who met the couple two years ago. And the best line of the whole night, the one the film ends on, came from the friend who said it out loud: they say fairy tales only exist in movies, but you guys have proved that it’s real.
Then everybody danced, which is my favorite part of any wedding day and the part I always shoot the most footage of, and the night ended under sparklers.
Credits
Special thanks to Taylor Stanley and my wife for helping me film this day. Shot with the Sony FS100, Sony FS700, and Canon 7D. Edited in Premiere Pro CC. Colored with Magic Bullet Looks.
Want To Watch More?
- Laughter, love, and adventure, an incredibly energetic wedding in the Texas Hill Country
- Growing old, disgracefully, together, a South Texas wedding film
- My breath of life, my other half, my Cinderella, two ceremonies in one wedding day in Dallas
- Bride plays drums while groom dances with whale, a talent show and a wedding in Houston
Interested in having me film your wedding? Get in touch! You can also see more of my work at Filmstrong Productions.