Studio 272 | Moving Pictures

Reena and Vin were married during a morning ceremony and so their day began at sunrise. There is a tranquility at dawn, a stillness, felt no more immediately than in a city like Chicago, where moments of silence are rare, let alone extended periods when all you hear is the sound of the wind and crickets. Without a doubt Reena’s prep was the quietest bride prep I’ve ever experienced. It was peaceful, as was the venue prep at the Ivy Room. This was the aura of their wedding, at least as I experienced it, and it stuck with me throughout the day.

So when I sat down with their footage and began charting their film, this is what I kept coming back to. A quiet feeling of love and joy. After a while I found a song that spoke perfectly to that feeling as well, and then came the decision about the audio. Normally I try to find a piece from the ceremony or the reception to use as the backbone of the film, and that certainly was an option here (even though most of the ceremony was in another language there were parts in English and the entire reception was in English as well). But every piece of spoken audio I inserted felt out of place, almost to the point of distraction. The thing about Hindu and Sikh ceremonies is that the bride and groom say almost nothing audible, and putting in words from someone else kept pulling me away from the feeling I had on their day. So I began to strip their film down, removing everything that didn’t convey that feeling, until I finally realized that all I wanted was the ambient sound of their day to come through.

This is a film that I hope conveys the feeling not only of Reena and Vin, but of the day they were married. Enjoy.

Photography: Olivia Leigh Photographie | Venue: The Ivy Room | Coordinators: LOLA Events | Decor: Botanicals | Design: Art of Imagination | DJ: Swara Sagar

Jessica and Coe are two of the sweetest, most gentle people I’ve had the pleasure to work with. Though they’re both from Illinois it was in Colorado where they first met while in college, and though they did return to the area while Coe was in graduate school, they’ve since moved on to Nebraska. Which is unfortunate because it’s always a bummer when really nice people move away. Illinois’ loss is Nebraska’s gain, though.

One other quick note: Jessica wore her mother’s wedding dress (slightly altered, of course) and Coe wore a really awesome blue shirt/black vest combo. I’m generally not much of a fashion person but goodness gracious did I love how they looked. Going into a wedding I never know what’s going to resonate with me about a couple, but in Jessica and Coe’s case it was definitely the clothing. What they wore was perfectly aligned with who they are.

I hope you enjoy their film.

Photography: Melissa Hayes Photography | Venue: Gallery 1028 | Flowers and Design: Kehoe Designs

When I meet with couples I always try to keep things as laid back as possible. No one enjoys business meetings, myself included, and so my consultations tend to happen over drinks somewhere comfortable. An anti-business meeting as it were.

But that’s not the primary reason I like to keep my consultations low key. The primary reason is this:

You really don’t get to know someone all that well if you meet them in an artificial environment. A traditional consultation is basically a two-sided interview, which is about as artificial as it gets. (When is the last time you just happened into an interview?) Since my work centers on each couple’s personality, on their story, on what makes them unique, it’s important we meet somewhere they feel at ease. I don’t even like to think of it as a meeting. I approach it as if I’m just hanging out with a couple of friends. This is why my consultations tend to last a long time. And the reining champs for Longest Consultation Ever are Jaime and John-Mark.

When we got together earlier this year we started around 7pm. We had a few beers to break the ice, then ordered a few burgers because we were hungry, then had a few more beers because why not, and by that point time was flying. We finally called it quits just before midnight. If it weren’t a school night (Jaime is a teacher) we may have carried on even longer.

What’s the point of telling you all this? I’m not sure. But I will say this: Jaime and John-Mark are a lot of fun and really make me love what I do. It’s wonderful to do something that results in becoming good friends with new people you might not otherwise meet. Here is their film.

On the Friday morning before their wedding Cheryl sent me a spreadsheet detailing the events of her wedding day. This is not unusual; I usually receive some sort of schedule from my couples as it’s always helpful for everyone to know what’s happening when. What was different about this schedule is that it was for upwards of 60 people, began at 6am, ended past midnight, and was broken down to the quarter hour in most places.

Cheryl has a type A personality.

Ed has a type B personality.

The only way for Ed to be more laid back than he is naturally is for him to be asleep. Which is exactly what he was fifteen minutes prior to when the schedule had him waking up. Of course ten minutes prior to when the schedule had him waking up one of Cheryl’s bridesmaids went up to his room to wake him up anyway, because in the land of detailed spreadsheets ten minutes early is really on time.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this except to provide a little context for maybe my favorite moment of their day. Here it is:

When Cheryl wrote her card to Ed she cried. Crying wasn’t on the schedule. She had to run downstairs to have the makeup artist touch up her makeup maybe 20 minutes after she had just finished it. That wasn’t on the schedule either. So when she read Ed’s card to her it was really touch and go there for a few moments before she decided that there wasn’t any more time for crying (I still caught a few tears in her eyes though).

Here is their SDE:

Lindsay and Jay were together even before they knew one another. Their respective mothers were pregnant with them at the same time, in the same hospital. Pretty wild. Green Bay, Wisconsin, isn’t the largest city but it does have the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers more than one high school and as we all know the prospect of dating someone from a rival school is pretty outrageous when you’re a teenager. So despite the best efforts from their families Lindsay and Jay never connected until an internship after their first year in college. Together from birth but they don’t meet until they go away to school. The fact that they ended up married is testament either to fate or the matchmaking savvy of Jay’s grandfather. I like to think it’s the later.

Details: Photography: Mark Hawkins Photography // Venue: The Weidner Center // DJ: Dreaming DJ //