I had the opportunity recently to film a wedding in Childs Park, Northampton, MA. This was the first time I had filmed in Childs Park, and the setting was beautiful. The ceremony took place near the garden house and the formal garden, where everything was in bloom. The bride and groom wrote their own vows, and much Motown was played at the reception. I can’t post the highlight video due to music copyright restrictions, but here are some stills.
Took a walk around Look Park in Northampton today after dropping off my kids’ carpool at school. I haven’t been there for a while, and didn’t realize the the Willow Lake dredging project had already been completed. The lake now looks to be in great shape. The bandshell by the lake makes a great location for weddings, if you’re looking for a beautiful spot outdoors. And if you don’t want to travel to another location on your big day, the Look Park Garden House is a great place to have a reception.
This Saturday, I had the pleasure of taping Maureen and Matt’s wedding. They were married at St. Mary’s Church in Brookline with a reception at Elm Bank Reservation in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It was my first time working with the photographers from AMW Studios. Ariel and Matt were great to work with, and I could see that they were efficient and fun in working with the bridal couple and their family and guests. Brendan Howard of Murray Hill Talent was their DJ, and he kept the party moving along effortlessly. Overall coordination was handled beautifully by Erica Jones of Events by Sharon’s Daughter.
Got a sweet note from Shay and Juliana. They were married last August at Harrington Farm in Princeton, MA. Here’s the note:
“Thank you for all your hard work! The wedding video is absolutely phenomenal! It is so wonderful to be able to relive those unforgettable moments!”
Lately received a thank you note from Sara and Billy, who were married at the Most Holy Redeemer Church in Hadley, MA. Their reception was at the Sheraton Springfield.
“1 word—Fantastic! We love it! Thank you so much for all your work and amazing talent! It is wonderful that there are extra copies for our families! Great Christmas Gift! We truly enjoyed and loved seeing the finished product. We got so many laughs and saw so much we had no idea of. This video will be a continuous reminder of what an amazing day we had. Again I can’t thank you enough for the wonderful work you did with our wedding video. I will certainly recommend you to any couple planning a wedding.”
Saturday I was in Longmeadow, MA for Kristen and Greg’s wedding. They were married at St. Mary’s Church and had their reception at the Longmeadow Country Club. I’ll post some stills when I get them uploaded.
I like shooting at St. Mary’s. The long center aisle and the balcony give a lot of options for covering the procession and recessional. The Country Club has a lot of beautiful spots for outdoor photos, and the main house is broken up into several rooms for cocktails and dinner, with an outside tented patio for dancing.
I love when these connections happen!
I e-mailed a prospective bride a few months ago, and she recently responded. She was watching the “Ron & Jen” wedding video on my website, and absolutely loved their chuppah. She e-mailed me to find out where they they got it. I e-mailed Jen, who explained that she made it herself, but had blogged about the experience and sent me the link. Actually, Jen reposted the very detailed information onto her newest blog, Willow Street Creative, and the prospective bride was very thankful. It’s a must-see!
Jen is an amazingly talented illustrator and artisan who crafted a lot of her wedding accessories. Her blog is filled with detailed descriptions of her handmade wedding items and with great wedding advice, all accompanied by photos. Ron and Jen were married at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, MA.
On Friday, I was at St. Michael’s Church in East Longmeadow, MA, to tape Theresa and Ben’s wedding. Theresa’s cousin flew in from Ireland to celebrate the wedding Mass. Though it was raining on and off most of the day, the bride and groom seemed to avoid the heaviest downpours. The reception was at La Renaissance in East Windsor, CT—a great place to accomodate a large wedding.
Totally new to me was the Photo Booth, which you can rent for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, reunions, etc. It’s one of those boardwalk photo booths that take your picture four times, then spits out a strip of black and white photos. It was a huge hit! There was a steady stream of guests using it for all six hours of the reception. Guests were encouraged to leave their favorites in a basket for the bride and groom. Scissors provided.
Why Didn’t I Post This Earlier? Am I out of my mind? I received a fabulous note from a wedding client in April, but never posted it. Laura and Jeremy were married at the Abbey Chapel at Mount Holyoke College, with the reception at the Hotel Northampton, in Northampton, MA:
Dear Tom,
My husband and I are completely blown away by your work. You really captured the essence of the day. When you asked me what sort of feel I wanted the video to have, I told you “fairytale.” I was so impressed by the way you added those fairytale/magical elements without it becoming cheesey or silly. You still retained the elegant/romantic quality while infusing a magical/fairytale element, and it truly is a work of art. A great example of this balance between elegance and fairytale is in the opening you created for the video. In this opening, you took shots of the outside of the chapel before people have arrived, and you allow us to hear the wind blowing, the birds chirping, and to see the trees swaying in the wind. It feels so magical and at the same time sacred, and it is such a brilliant way to begin the story. It felt like the opening to an epic romance film!
And you go on to capture so many moving moments throughout the day. We were truly impressed to find that watching the video felt like we were stepping back in time. The way you captured the walk down the aisle was just so beautiful. And the way you edit the ceremony was perfect. We feel there is nothing missing from the ceremony and yet at the same time it is certainly edited in a way so that the ceremony does not feel long.
We also love what you did with the highlights section. You really surprised me when you went from black and white to color as I walked down the aisle and changed the music from the original “A Dream is A Wish Your heart Makes” to the contemporary pop version to match the color change. That was a really inspired choice and I really love it. The highlights feel like a music video of all the best moments of the day.
I don’t know if you did this on purpose, but Jeremy noticed that the first words we hear spoken in the video is Jeremy saying to the groomsmen “let’s move forward” (meaning let’s go into the chapel.) It is such a symbolic way to begin the video. We also love how in the opening, when you are showing the chapel and the nature around the chapel, you show two of what I think are lilies of the valley. They look like little wedding bells and there are also two of them. Again, it just seemed very symbolic.
We also loved how you used the music requests we had. The change to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” fit so perfectly with the change of mood. And we did notice how the lyrics matched different moments of the film. And we love how you used the instrumentation of “Storybook Love.”
I think one of my favorite moments is the first dance between my husband and I. You really captured all of the intimacy and emotion of the moment. It was lovely to watch and to remember what we were feeling and thinking as we danced. You just struck such a perfect balance between capturing the funny and light moments and capturing the emotional and romantic moments.
We think we may want to order the raw footage just so that we have it, but we feel like you really captured everything. And the editing is so flawless, and it truly feels more like a film than a boring/long wedding video. My husband, to be honest, was fairly indifferent to the idea of a video since he is camera shy, but he has rewatched this video over and over again because he loves all of the memories and moments captured.
You were definitely one of the best investments and choices we made for that day. You far exceeded our expectations for the wedding video.
Thank you so much for making this truly a work of art. And I know that when we watch this on our 50th anniversary, we will still feel so much gratitude that we had such a wonderful artist capturing our day for us.
Sincerely,
Laura
1st Anniversary thank you from a bride’s mother:
Dear Tom,
Okay, I know I already sent you an email about the wonderful job you did on my daughter’s and son’s-in-law video, but I just had to write again. Because they just had their first anniversary, and because we were together with relatives for the fourth of July, we played the video for everyone. They couldn’t get over how truly beautiful it is. We are amazed that you took a whole day and managed to condense it into a beautiful work of art. I guess in these days, anyone can point a camera and record an event, but your artistic choices on what to film and how to edit it (I suspect the most important part of the job) made it stunning. Thank-you again.
Lorraine
(Laura and Jeremy were married at Abbey Chapel on the campus of Mount Holyoke College, with a reception at the Hotel Northampton.)
Received lately from Rosanna and Joseph, married in NY last year:
“We just wanted to thank you for the beautiful DVD. We will have this wonderfully crafted memory for the rest of our lives! Thank you!”
This was the first wedding I shot with my new Canon XH A1 camera, and I was very happy with the results—the picture was very sharp, and I really enjoyed composing shots in the 16×9 format.
Met with Mirella and Rich today about producing their wedding video. They are getting married at The Log Cabin in Holyoke, MA. It is located on Mt. Tom, and has spectacular views. They will be in the Southampton room, which has a huge bank of windows with a southern exposure. Their late September wedding should give them beautiful views of the autumn leaves.
Have you seen this site? You can enter a zip code or city name from anywhere in the country and get a look at the average wedding cost for that area. Here are some I entered:
Hartford—$33,700
Norwalk, CT—$56,740
Boston—$40,900
Springfield, MA—$26,780
Providence—$27,940
Brattleboro—$24,480
Tonight, I was at the Four Seasons in Boston with my favorite photographers, Glenn and April Livermore! Anne and Marc were the wedding couple, and they were so easy to work with, very sweet.
The Four Seasons was, well, The Four Seasons—luxurious, efficient, and AMAZING food! Anne and Marc did a fabulous planning job, everything looked so beautiful.
Here are some pics:
The cake…
The bouquet…
And a detail from the ketubah.
On Saturday, I was at the Elm Bank Reservation in Wellesley, MA. Elm Bank is the home of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which has quite beautiful and extensive grounds. The bride and groom, Eliane and Shawn, had the ceremony and reception there. Below is a shot from the ceremony, with a grand vista!
And from the opposite angle, before the ceremony, with the Manor House in the background.
Somehow during the reception, a fire alarm was accidentally pulled, and there was 40 minutes of flashing strobes and an intermittent alarm sound. Everyone continued with the reception as best they could, and fire trucks soon responded. While the firefighters were resetting the alarm, guests were snapping away at the bride and groom in front of the fire truck, as shown below.
Aside from the alarm, the day went very well, with great weather, a beautiful bridal party, and happy guests. Who could ask for more?
