36,000 Pictures

Did you know that's about how many individual pictures make up your wedding video?

On average, your wedding film has a running time of 25 minutes. The camera creates 24 individual frames per second. That makes for 36,000 individual pictures when you crunch the numbers (and I love numbers, even though I'll never admit it to my high school math teacher). String all the individual images together over the course of seconds and minutes, and Voilà! You get an idea for where the phrase "moving pictures" came from.

In a few second clip, say about 250 pictures worth, of your groom seeing you for the first time, how do you know when exactly that winning moment is? When your dad tears up as he's dancing with you and listening to the song that says (play it while you continue reading; it'll change your life):

"Where are you going my little one, little one?
Little pigtails and petticoats, where have you gone?
Turn around and you're tiny, turn around and you're grown
Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own

Turn around, turn around
Turn around and you're a young wife"

Words like that make you tear up a little yourself, right? I know I did. You can see in the still frame how Allie's dad is clinging to her. How he's squeezing her as he remembers Allie as that little girl. How he's squeezing his eyes shut as the reality hits home that his little girl is now Jeremy's wife.

How do you find that one picture, among hundreds of thousands that tells the story? That's where I come in and also where I love spending most of my time. About 60 hours gives me the time to scan through these myriads of frames to find those magical fractions of seconds that shows just what your story needs. The key is seeing it and hearing it as your eyes and heart are drawn to that specific, touching moment. That's what creates the emotion you feel when you watch your film.

That's what I live for in making these stories. I want you to see the same moments that bring you to tears in the same way I experience them (and I do my fair share of tearing up whether seeing these individual moments for the first or hundredth time). I can't express how much it means for us to have the same from our wedding day. To remember the words we said to each other. To remember my grandparents replacing my garter on grandma since we now share the same anniversary. Oh, how embarrassed (in a good way!) she was. And I love it and smile when I think of it! I'm sure you have those moments you want to remember too.