A Wedding Videographer's Wardrobe

Who doesn't stand in front of the closet, trying on clothes, only to throw them in a giant heap on the closet floor? I spent many a wedding Saturday doing just that. I came up with the following "uniform" so I have more time to sip my coffee while packing my camera bags.

I have to be very strategic about what to wear all the way from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. A few fun caveats are thrown in there as well including summertime heat and the fact that I'm a nursing mother (TMI?).

Let me walk you down the list:

Glasses. So I can see road signs as I'm driving across the city with my hazard lights on, parking in no-parking zones and hastily throwing camera bags in and out of the car during portrait time.

Hair. Pinned up and out of the way in case of wind, sweat, or rain. The last thing I need is a flock of hair blocking my view as I'm trying to focus.

Shirt. It's sleeveless and dark-colored so you don't see me sweat as I'm running across the field with bags and gear strapped to my back. (For nursing moms: it also has easy access for whenever I can find time to squat in the bathroom and pump - usually during dinner).

Skirt. So my legs can breathe. It's also lined so again, you don't see me sweat. The only problem is, filming requires unique angles and not-so-ladylike positions to get those angles (i.e. squatting). Then comes...

Shorts. It's a two-fold bonus really. I can crouch, squat and lay on the ground as much as I like without flashing anyone AND it provides an extra layer for, you guessed it, the result of those HOT summer days.

Shoes. I wear flats because I can run faster in them. They're also very quiet so I can sneak around like a little church mouse.

So, never fear. I will show up to your wedding looking cool, calm, collected and classy.

Happy Mother's Day

What's your earliest memory of your mom? Strangely, I don't recall seeing mom's face in my memories. I remember going to bed with the summer sun still not set and the morning doves still cooing. Wandering through our neighbor's flower beds because she had strawberries hidden in there somewhere. Getting into trouble because I think I picked a fight with the preschool teacher's daughter.

What I do remember about mom is her presence. I feel her in the the memory of laying in bed that summer evening, watching me hunt for strawberries and standing up for me to the preschool teacher. I remember the feeling of cuddling with mom, of her playing with my hair, of car rides and jazzercise classes. All times where I don't recall seeing her, I can just feel her there.

It's a mother's presence. You can feel it in this video too.

I visited with Jeni and we talked a bit about her own mom. What I enjoy most about this story is the influence Jeni's mom had over one of the biggest decisions Jeni has made yet. Having a "bun in the oven" for 9+ months sure does change our minds about things. It's probably also why I still tear up when I watch this, even after seeing it a hundred times.

Without further ado, thanks so much to everyone who submitted stories for my Mother's Day project! It was one of those ideas that just popped into mind, and with your help I was able to do it. Here is our final piece. I hope it moves you like it does me.

Ode to Your Mother

It's going to be my very first Mother's Day this year. So, "Happy early Mother's Day!" to all you mothers out there.

You are to be admired. Really. The patience you have is outstanding, and the wisdom to know when that patience has reached its limit is a kind of wisdom reserved for Solomon himself.

I've been distracted thinking about my own mom as May 12th gets ready to make its appearance. Mom is exactly who I want to be when I grow up: independent, hard-working, street smart, numbers smart, lioness. I became very grateful, even for the strict curfews and making me speak for myself. All this retrospective thinking about my own mom hatched a fresh idea last night.

I want to sit down with one of you young mothers to talk about your own mom. We'll create a short video message you can share with her for Mother's Day. There's a twist in the plot, sure to pull at her heartstrings, but that's a secret kept between you and me for now. I'll let you know what it is when we talk more about your short film.



Interested? Here's all you have to do:
1. Comment below about the most important thing you've learned from your mom now that you're a mother yourself
2. Be willing to visit with me to film for an hour (I'll travel up to 3.5 hours outside of Columbus, Ohio).
3. Be a mom of a child 3-years old or younger (if you have more than one child, the others can be older but the youngest must be 3 or younger)
4. Be available to have me visit sometime during the dates of May 3rd-May 9th
5. Be willing to let me share your touching ode online

Submissions will be accepted until 11:59pm EDT Sunday, April 28th, 2013.
Only one entry per person. Email address will not be shared and must be included in order to contact you if you win. Winner will be selected and contacted April 29th.


I'd appreciate you sharing/recommending this "contest" with and to as many mothers you know and hopping on over to "Like" me on Facebook so you can see the final story when it's released. Here's a cute family story to prime the pump for sharing your mother memories.

Unity Ceremony: A Guest Experience

Your wedding day is here! Like my friend Todd tells his couples, it's like a train ride at this point. All you have to do is hop on and go for the ride. Here's a quick tip to help you enjoy that ride even more.

It's time for you both to go up and light your candle, pour your sand, plant your tree, box your bottle of wine...in other words, to declare that the two of you are one, now and forever. What you may not think about is whether or not you want everyone else to view this unity ceremony.

Damian, of United Marriage Services, has a great suggestion for couples in sharing this moment with your guests, your photographer and your videographer. Watch the clip above to hear his thoughts.

I listed a few different unity ceremony ideas I've seen in my day. What kinds of things have you seen or are you considering? What do you think of Damian's advice; would you rather that moment be public or private?

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Featurette: Matt and Emily

[Matt and Emily's wedding was filmed in conjunction with Todd Seimer Photography]

One day, Mr. Noodle walked his charming lady to the park bench. He dropped to one knee and reached into his pocket to retrieve a small box, or so she thought. Instead, he pulled out a treat for his lady's faithful pooch, Milo. Mr. Noodle was always playing. He did ask for the lady's hand in marriage and both she and the pooch agreed they would all make a fine family.

That's how I imagine it in my mind anyway. The bench part is true, the rest is pure fiction. Matt is as quirky as Emily is sweet. Their favorite pose as you'll see in their Featurette, is called "Double Trouble". You also know it's going to be a fun and relaxed wedding when the biggest worry is whether or not Matt would wear his new, large orange sunglasses during their ceremony.

I'll let their Featurette do the rest of the talking for me. I also want to thank Austin Craig for permission to use one of his songs. He's a local Ohio native now living in Texas and worth taking a listen to. I'm always on the lookout for local Ohio musicians to feature in my trailers, so please get in touch if you're interested or know someone who would be.

Enjoy a few stills from Matt and Emily's trailer:

Yarn and Yuengling: Kyle and Mikaila Expecting

Kyle and Mikaila are into good music and good beer (for the record, "Yuengling" was the only "Y"-named beer I could think of). So we took their maternity photos doing what they love. Irony is another thing they enjoy. Like how Mikaila wanted to don the typical housewife look while pregnant at a bar. And you should have seen their tug-of-war over the "Wham!" album! I had so much fun during our shoot and you'll have to agree that this is different than any maternity photos you've seen before.

Baby is due in a few short weeks and I can't wait to meet the little guy! Your mom and dad are so excited to meet you and introduce you to all the pups waiting for you at home.

1 Year New: The Bad and the Ugly

If you want to question everything you've ever done, become your own boss.

Reaching my 1-year anniversary as a full-time freelance videographer has me thinking a lot about this past year. I shared some of the good things I love about it, but I need a whole post dedicated to all the hard lessons I've learned. Take a deep breath because here it all comes.

The Bad and the Ugly
I question my productiveness. I was used to having a distinct schedule in the lab based on the protocol I was following. 1 hour incubation here, 15 minute centrifugation there. Easy peasy. Now my brain hurts after digging through footage for an hour straight or searching for music that I deem worthy for a solid 6 hours only to come up empty-handed. I didn't know I was doing well with 2 hours of solid editing during the day until I talked with other "creatives", as I'm called now. The rest of the day is spent building my business, accounting, networking and getting lost in other people's work. This brings me to my next point.

I question my ability. Am I good enough to make it? Am I driven enough to get through the droughts and organized enough to hunker down during the floods? I'll spend hours watching other people's work and begin to wallow in my lack of talent and lack of "likes" and "followers". I rarely doubted myself in science. If it worked, it did. If not, the lab gnomes had messed it all up. Simple as that. Even if things are working now, it's so easy to feel they aren't because there's always someone else out there doing better, being noticed more, and who seems to have it all together.

I question my decision to leave a job with a salary and benefits. I once calculated that I'm making $10/hour as a videographer. Beyond charging $5,000 per wedding or filming 30 weddings a year, it's been very hard to even approach what I previously thought was a modest Research Associate's salary (which now seems like making bank in comparison). I know there are things I can change to fix that, and I'm working on it.

I question my integrity. This is the BIG one. I was scared that I wouldn't have enough income, so I filmed 20 weddings last year. I finished editing the last one this week. It's April, people. That's a ridiculous amount of time that has passed. I've written so many "I'm sorry it's taking me so long to get your film back to you" emails that it's embarrassing. Some of my clients asked if I had forgotten about them. It was quite the opposite. I've been haunted by the pile of work mounting and stories floating around in my head. I've made promises I didn't keep and it breaks my heart. I'm being brutally honest here so you hopefully learn from my mistakes.

So what does this all mean for the future?

I still love being my own boss and I can put on my big-girl pants and make the necessary calls when needed. I've come to terms with what a good day can be (2 hours of solid editing) and how often the bad days come around (85% of the time). I know better what work load I can handle. That is why I am only working with 10 couples this year and have grand ideas for personalizing each wedding film. I am setting deadlines and announcing them to my couples so I have to be held accountable to those deadlines.

That's the glossed over version of the hard lessons I've been learning. And is it worth it? Absolutely. I love learning, remember? Like all other creatives, I hold these thoughts by Ira Glass near and dear in the dark times. What gets you through? What makes it still worth it to you? I think it's that even though there are so many questions, the big answer is that I can create. And the things I create have the ability to move people in ways nothing else can.

1 Year New: The Good

April 1, 2012
I think my boss thought it was April Fool's too.

I was a science geek and could charm the socks off almost any immortalized or stem cell. I had risen among the stars and became the lab manager, but it came to a point where there was just nowhere else to go (without starting grad school at 30). I had climbed the technician ladder for almost 8 years and found myself at the end of a high dive.

Regardless of my fear of heights, I felt the need to jump. So I made my splash and did what any rational person would do. I became a videographer. You know, because filming and editing have soooo much to do with DNA replication. I told myself if I had 20 weddings lined up to film in 2012, I would hang up my pipettors, say goodbye to the world of molecular biology and leave the worries of epigentic effects to others. I reached that goal and turned in my lab notebook a year ago today.

"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"
I'll start you off with all the good. First, I love being my own boss. Who wouldn't? Especially when you're a control freak like me. I set my own hours and pick my own music. I can take time out to play with our new daughter, the refrigerator is also always close-by for those mid-morning, mid-afternoon and early evening stomach rumbles. Staff meetings are also very simple. I still have to schedule that happy hour for my office, come to think of it.

The work I do is consistently the most fulfilling work I've ever done. How could it not? As a left-handed creative that loves numbers, videography is perfect. The creative storytelling contrasted with the analytical, frame-by-frame editing. The math of camera settings compared to the art of framing a shot. My mind is on a supernova all day and night thinking through story lines for my films. These dark, creative pockets of my mind are finally being explored. The perfect marriage of art and science.

Most of my work is done alone in the home office, so I've started looking to meet people while I'm out shooting and on social network sites like Twitter and Facebook. I have met awesome people out there, even across the country. People I otherwise would have no way of meeting. They have inspired me by the work they do and by taking time to actually respond and connect with me. Makes me feel a little more professional. When I do get out of the house, I love talking to people on the sidelines of sports games, random guests at weddings who tell me stories, and especially getting to know my couples over the course of planning and staying in touch after the wedding.

I'm always learning. Like how Mom should have taught me to swim; just thrown me in the water. This learning is on the go and the the faster, the better. I learn anywhere and anything I can from print to online to people. I didn't know I would have to be my own accountant and marketing agent as well. I'm constantly learning better techniques for shooting and editing. What I love most about this work is that it's going to be a lifetime of learning. There will always be new technologies, new ways to improve, new trends.

I am so happy to have made this switch at this point. The sky is the limit (that's a lie, there are plenty of limitations, but more about that in the next post). This past year has been the most rewarding and the absolutely most difficult work year I've ever had. So that's "The Good". Funny how the draft for "...The Bad and The Ugly" is much much longer right now, but I promise I'll keep it concise.

What do you enjoy about working for yourself? Did you make the leap recently too? It took the encouragement of others in the same boat for me to make the leap and to keep my sanity after doing it. Feel free to get in touch if you want someone to bounce ideas off of for doing what you love full-time. I'm also learning that I have a lot to learn still so if you have advice for me, I'm all ears.

Roly Poly: Aubrey Turns 6-Months Old

Aubrey just turned 6-months old. That means she's rolling over, sitting up, and is all kinds of adorable. I love that you can see her observing and internalizing everything. The wonders of small minds. I also love the reds Aubrey's mom incorporated into such a cute outfit from painted toenails to red ruffles and a curly-ribboned barrette that managed to last the entire shoot!

Paper Anniversary: Corey and Nicole

I remember Corey and Nicole's wedding so vividly. The sweet words they said to each other and the cherished look in Corey's eyes whenever he looked at his bride or talked about her. As their wedding videographer, it was an honor to be called up to take photos to mark this first year.

Corey was surprised to see me, as this had been planned in secret. They often spend weekend mornings at the local coffee shop, so I met them there. Corey will write Nicole sweet little notes on her cup when picking up their coffee, so I asked him to write a note this morning. You can see his note to his bride for yourself.

I love getting to know my couples and tossing ideas back and forth (Nicole created the "1" tags for their drinks). I also love that my couples are such genuine people. Congratulations Corey and Nicole! The best is yet to come. Marriage certainly keeps getting better with time.



Here's Corey and Nicole's wedding Featurette for those curious about how gorgeous their day really was:

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Choosing a Photo Booth

What not only entertains guests, but also provides a unique keepsake from your wedding? A photo booth! People volunteer to be put in front of a camera, strike a super flattering pose, and leave you with a photo of how much fun they were having at your reception. As I've filmed weddings, I've seen photo booths where guests (and the couple) are encouraged to be as goofy as they can be with props either provided by you, brought in, or gathered from your wedding's surroundings. Here's my insider information from my many wedding travels.


Retro Booth
The first is a retro fit photo booth complete with curtains and two strips of photos printed on the spot; one for you and one for your guests. In some photo booths, like this one from Buckeye Entertainment, there's a modern surprise. The photos are also instantaneously uploaded to Facebook. There's always a long line for this and I find great joy in perusing the Facebook photos afterward. You all have some silly guests out there.


Photographer Booth
I've met wedding photographers who also provide their own version of a photo booth. These are usually solid backdrops and a single camera manned by the photographer or assistant.

Groups will fit in to have their adorably ridiculous photos taken and images are later uploaded to the photographer's site for you to purchase prints (and possibly share on Facebook). Shutterhead Studios first introduced me to the concept with their You Booth and I later saw Mary Wyar and also the Ely Brothers have a similar approach with their Fauxto-booth and The Awesomeatic.


Couch Booth
A new take on the photographer photo booth route is the photo couch from Henry Photography. It's probably the prettiest couch I've seen and can make an appearance at your wedding in front of any backdrop the photographers deem worthy. Ooh la la.



DIY Booth
If you're looking for a DIY alternative, I've had couples hang a sheet or pretty tapestry, bring in a crate of hats, wings, glasses, picture frames, chalkboards, you name it, and set up a small point and shoot camera complete with self-timer on a tripod. The guests seemed to enjoy encouraging each other and suggesting poses and props.

A cyber option would include encouraging your guests to take photos and upload them to a site like Instagram using the same hashtag and later create your own album of images on a site like Shutterfly.


You can really let your imagination run wild with the possibilities. What are you considering for your reception? Comment below or pop on over and "Like" my Facebook page to share your ideas and stay current with my videography world.


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