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. [↩]