there’s so much of them in this piece so i hope you get a better sense of who they are after watching it. they are an intimate couple and chose to have an intimate wedding with just fifty of their closest friends and family. in the film you can see cary packing a tea set, which was later used during the ceremony, for a simple but meaningful tea ceremony between just the two of them, signifying their commitment to each other.

being film school graduates they are also a bit geeky — cary is an editor who’s done some things for the discovery and history channels (we had lots to chat about when we met for coffee) and myra works in the gaming industry. so instead of a traditional ring pillow, they used pink and brown domo dolls from a series of japanese video games and you can see them throughout the morning as cary prepped to leave the house. they are also very into comic books. apparently before the wedding he had mentioned that he wanted to get some batman cufflinks for the wedding, but myra had already bought him a set of cufflinks as a surprise wedding gift so she had to convince cary that he didn’t need them. while it would have been totally rad to sport batman attire, cary still loved his gift.

and then there’s the kleenex. all morning there was talk in the girls’ room about whether or not cary will cry. after all, they’ve been together for so long and everything is finally coming together but even myra wasn’t sure how emotional they will get. i’ll let the film say the rest but one thing is for sure, they’ve made a home together and it will always be there.

music is ‘fall’ by two seconds away. licensed with etiquette.

joyce

i’m not sure what happened, but the wonderful concierge (bless her heart!) at the front desk upgraded me to a suite for the week. after a whole week on the road, i happily accepted the special treatment. here is the view from my room. the sky was cloudy and gray the whole week with periodic thunderstorms — and i really mean thunderstorms! i didn’t get a chance to take a photo during the heavy downpour but the rain was almost coming in sideways at times.

we’ve been making out way in and out of terminals all month, but i managed to work in some editing on the plane last week and will be posting a new highlight soon. can’t wait to share it here with you!

joyce

the next frame is my favorite. it was taken from the back of the car on our way out of fort bragg and i think it speaks so well to the area and my experience from it. between the pacific coast highway and the 101 fwy is a 40 mile stretch that is pure insanity — curvy, windy, redwood covered mountain roads that would make for a great bmw commercial. what that translates to is gorgeous light coming through the trees and getting very car sick so this one frame really speaks to not only what i saw, but also what i felt that morning.

joyce

joyce

somethings are just meant to be and there’s nothing sweeter than love — well, that and a car full of candy. the night before the wedding the bridal party assembled the candy bar and while the girls were busy figuring out what candy to put in what jar, the guys decided to do a little quality control and pretty much sampled all the sweets. that was reflective of the wedding day as the guys enjoyed the morning with bike rides as the girls pulled the last minute details together for eugenia’s dream wedding.

when i saw the bees hovering around the foliage outside the cottage that morning, the bridesmaids were inside crafting the candy bar sign and it hit me — the sweet life they’re about to start was finally coming together. it made perfect sense to me that we incorporate all these pieces into their story and from their reaction after the debut, i’d say they are indeed celebrating that life.

music is king of something by ryan rebo, licensed with etiquette.

joyce

we took a little editing detour this week and spent a few days with the gang from stillmotion at their nfl workshop. everyone there was from the broadcast world with seemingly unlimited resources and a ton of experience producing pieces on and off the field so it was certainly a very humbling experience for a small studio like us. i took the opportunity to roam around the stage during the sessions and snapped some neat behind the scene photos. you can read up on patrick’s take on the workshop at the sm blog and if you’re interested in learning more about using dslrs, you can also check out their education page for more info.

okay, enough of me — lights. cameras. action.

joyce

music by derby licensed withetiquette

joyce

since they were playing hide ‘n seek, we thought it would make for a neat entry for a short film challenge our friends at stillmotion are hosting. you can check out their post and other top entries on their education blog. i would love to hear your thoughts on this piece.

music is ’stars out’ by daniel dixon, licensed with etiquette

joyce

we spent the afternoon with kristen and brian and asked ourselves, what do you see? for me at least, i see warmth and a whole lot of love. it was a rather warm day and when i picked these teaser shots i decided to tone their set of images a tad warmer still because that’s what i felt best represented them. if you’ve met kristen and brian, you know they’re warm and laid back so having their engagement session at the beach with golden colors was very fitting. they also happen to be getting married later this year on the beautiful island of maui so it very much ties into who they are as people too.

so here we go. kristen insisted that we post at least a few teasers for her while we spend some time designing their album and i’m holding up my end of the deal. however, i thought it’ll be neat to really make this set a true teaser where i don’t show their faces. we got such an awesome set of stills for them, i just have to hold back and show only this for now : )

joyce

the aghd was held around an elaborately decorated spread called a sofreh. this wedding table is setup with an intricate layout of fine cloth and adorned with all sorts of items that symbolize traditional values and well wishes for the bride and groom. the most notable, to me at least, was the grinding of two sugar crystals — called ‘kalleh ghand’ — over the couple. this is meant to bless and shower them with sweetness for their new life together.

it’s events like these that make our days so memorable. yes, weddings are where people get married, but it can be so vastly different from week to week. the location, the venue, the culture and the people make it so interesting and different each and every time. we spent a good deal of time chatting with sheri before the wedding to learn about not just what events will take place, but all the significant meaning behind it all. if you have an special tradition in your culture that you’d like to share, we’d love to hear about it.

joyce