Jenny + Dave — Wedding Day

A spe­cial film for a spe­cial cou­ple.

I was giv­en the chance to film the wed­ding of Jenny and Dave on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Everything about the day was gor­geous, from the trop­i­cal weath­er to the bur­geoun­ing cen­tre­pieces1 to the torch­lit recep­tion. It all came togeth­er to cre­ate an atmos­phere of sub­lime charm, and I had so much fun cap­tur­ing it all.

I make each wed­ding film as acces­si­ble as pos­si­ble, so any­one can get a sense of the day even if they weren’t there. But I also include cer­tain things that would be under­stood by only the peo­ple involved. In this film it was shots such as an uncle doing an hilar­i­ous bump-and-grind on the dance floor, or the bride tear­ing up while writ­ing her speech, or the father-in-law say­ing a few words while firm­ly hold­ing the groom’s hand dur­ing the tea cer­e­mo­ny. Details such as the lat­ter may not seem like much to an out­sider, but fam­i­ly and friends at the wed­ding would under­stand how such a small phys­i­cal dis­play of affec­tion can mean so much.

This was by far my most chal­leng­ing wed­ding film to make, but it was well worth it. For a while, it became my rea­son for liv­ing, the one I want­ed to be remem­bered for, and my goal was to deliv­er this film before I died. There’s a piece of my soul in it, so I can’t say how lucky I am to have been giv­en this oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate this for Dave and Jenny, and how I hap­py I am to know they deserve it.

(A big thank-you to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er Mike Adrian, who was a delight to work with, and taught me a thing or two about how to pack for des­ti­na­tion wed­dings.)

  1. The Four Season’s now has a rule that lim­its the size of the cen­tre­pieces, because they would some­times catch the wind and fall over. This was the last wed­ding at the Four Seasons to have such mas­sive ones, the rule being grand­fa­thered in, as Jenny and Dave planned the wed­ding right before it came into effect. []

4 comments

  1. Beautiful job, Jeff. I real­ly enjoy read­ing the com­men­tary that accom­pa­nies each video — it adds a spe­cial ele­ment to the view­ing of it as well for me.

    • Thanks, Jason. There are many small details and ideas that don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly come out just from watch­ing the footage, so I always like to shed some light on the cre­ative process that goes behind each film.

  2. Love the unex­pect­ed way the M83 blends with this footage. At first I thought it would­n’t be sen­ti­men­tal enough, but real­ly, the bride and groom don’t seem as much sen­ti­men­tal as mod­ern, any­way. It worked! And Really a chal­lenge, with all the light­ing vari­a­tions, wind, etc.… great job.

    Pretty cool hav­ing a fire dancer & hula dancer at your wed­ding … and the FLOWERs holy cow.
    Beautiful. And that lit­tle hal­monie (grand­ma) is so cute. I love that you showed her hands.

    • I had no idea you were an M83 fan…very inter­est­ing. And I agree it takes a cer­tain type of per­son to under­stand how an M83 song can work with footage that’s typ­i­cal­ly sen­ti­men­tal. Luckily, Dave and Jenny are the right peo­ple.

      If I ever get mar­ried, it will be a wed­ding like this.

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