I’m so thankful to be shooting our wedding this weekend. It is for a girl that I’ve seen grow up in my church, become a student leader and go off and graduate from college. A couple months ago we did an engagement shoot, and here are some of those pics.
Can’t wait to celebrate with Erica & Kris!
What is your favorite image?
We met Brittany & Trenton what seems like soooo long ago. They came into our downtown studio, told us about themselves and looked at our work. It seemed like we connected with them immediately, and shortly thereafter, they booked us for their wedding—15months later. That 15 months is now this Saturday. We are so excited for them. We feel like through our filming process, we have become good friends.
We’ve spent a day shooting engagement pictures, another day some pre-wedding cinema b-roll footage, recorded interviews at their brand new house (hardly any furniture, still!) and have met with them many times to discuss their special ceremony day.
And now, it is finally here. I wanted to post some of my favorite engagement pictures I’ve ever taken—it was a rainy day in Franklin, TN, but these too were troopers. We covered so much ground in less than two hours…
This is the cover of their wedding guestbook.
We started out at the Factory in Franklin. Altho the weather was pretty horrible, Brittany & Trenton were in a great mood. She brought a sweet polka-dot umbrella and we hid underneath awnings and coverings. While scouting out the location, I snuck underneath a 2ft door covering—let’s just say that it didn’t suffice. I was soaked.
They changed out of their casual get-ups and got down-right classy. Their dark suits and dress made their smiles really pop out.
This reminds me of an old gangster movie. Where the “gangster” is a tough-looking guy with the most tender heart.
After we left the Factory, I took them down a country road and we found a farm with huge overgrown fields and a long, black fence. They braved the wet grass and trecked out into the pasture. I love this image.
We can’t wait to show you how we capture their day. They are entrusting us with a cinema & stills package—we love handling all of the creative responsibilities of that. More soon. Congratulations, Brittany & Trenton!!!
We’ve posted some amazing footage and stills before of Sarah and Jay — our simple country couple from Kentucky. Over the course of two weekends, we had a fun time shooting their pre-wedding and engagement sessions, as well as the beautiful outdoor wedding and raucous ceremony that carried on late into the night. (The DJ might or might-not have been arrested for violating the noise statutes, we aren’t going to say!)
Anyways, we just wanted to share images from the event and album. Our team did a fabulous job covering the static and motion event—wedding cinematography and photography. A big shout-out to Ben, Bobby, Amelia, Joel, Ian and Ryan! We worked together really well and the long ride there and back didn’t seem so bad. Especially, with Ian giggling in the back seat the whole time. Anyways, here they are:
This southern wedding had amazing details to shoot. This is probably my favorite shoe picture we’ve ever shot. Perfect! Sarah’s mother did a great job planning the event. In fact, she actually wrapped up construction of this amazing house just in time to host her daughter’s wedding! Sarah and her mom did a fantastic job with all of the details.
Jay got ready with his groomsman a few miles away from Sarah. We found a picturesque fading wood barn to shoot him and his groomsmen. I pulled this quote from our wedding cinematography highlight video.
I imagine that any bride would love this reaction from her bridesmaids:
I can’t watch the wedding video without choking up at the moment Jay says this about his bride. And I’ve probably seen it two dozen times by now.
The junior bridesmaids and flower girls were just super adorable. All the bridesmaids had champagne dresses and gorgeous bouquets—flowers were provided by The Twisted Stem, and they really did a wonderful job with all of the flower settings.
This huge wedding cake was bursting with fresh flowers between each tier. Virginia from Mert’s Cakes is seen here putting on the final touches. And yes, it was scrumptious.
Our custom designed guestbook was filled up with so many well-wishings by the end of the night.
Horses and carriages carried all of the bridesmaids—Sarah and her father in a princess carriage—through the town up to the ceremony.
It was the perfect time to shoot the ceremony. Beautiful sunset light shone over the audience and brightly illuminated the bride’s veil. Love the sun streaks on the wide angle shot!
After the ceremony, we rushed our lovely couple down some country roads and into acres of fields and tall grasses. We eked out shots until the sun completely set (LOVE our dslr’s—we got amazing shots at 6400ISO using 1.2 primes.)
The classic blindfolded-groom-feeling-up-a-groomsman trick. Works every time.
The band, Black Widow from Nashville, was amazing—the dancefloor was just about always filled with people grooving and moving their feet, and after they finished, the DJ took over. The party was slated to go till 3am. Alas, we’re getting old and took off around midnight—filled up with Jarfi’s catering, delicious wedding cake and really happy with our results. We took some peeks and knew that we’d have plenty of great footage for an amazing wedding video.
……………………………………………………………………………….
Vendors:
Photography/Cinematography: Feria Cinematic Imagery
Catering: Jarfi’s
Reception Entertainment: Atmosphere Entertainment
Band: Black Widow
Cake: Mert’s Cakes
Florals: The Twisted Stem
Carriage: Around the Town Carriage
Ceremony / Reception Site: The Withers’ Family Farm
Of all the questions via email or twitter (FOLLOW US @feriacinematic) regarding our wedding cinematography work, this is by far the most frequent we receive:
What gear do you use???
Over time, through working on a range of projects, we have figured out an effective assortment of tools for us to capture what we need to make the movies that we want to make.
We will make a series of comprehensive posts in the near future about all the gear we use, with shoutouts to all of the manufacturers (Canon, RedRockMicro, Manfrotto, LowePro, etc.), but for now, here is a list of everything we used for our last wedding for Brianna and Seth:
Camera bodies:
(4) Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR
Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR
Lenses:
Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II
Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 L
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L
Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L II
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II
Support:
Redrock Micro rails support with follow focus
Glidecam Steadicam
(2) Custom made sliders
Video Heads:
(2) Manfrotto 504HD
(2) Manfrotto 503
Tripods/Monopods:
(2) Bogen 535 tripod
(2) Bogen 190xb tripod
(2) Bogen 685B monopod
Accessories:
Lexar Professional 233-300x 16gb and 32gb CF cards
Pelican and LowePro Cases
Pelican Compact Flash Card Memory Cases
———————————————
Over the past year we’ve gone back and forth and tried different arrangements of support systems and lenses and other video gear. In upcoming posts we’ll show you some of the new techniques we’ve developed, some extra gear we decided to strip away to move faster (more gear doesn’t always equal better), and the upgrades we’ve made and whether that has helped or hurt us. And of course, the gadgets us dslr tech geeks couldn’t resist trying!
More videos to come!
And please, comment away on your fave gear or latest upgrades that you love! We learn a ton about effective products from our great network of video professionals.
Exciting news today! Feria, along with photography by Krystal Mann was featured on Style Me Pretty, on the cover page today. We are so thrilled and thankful for such a wonderful opportunity! More thanks go out to Cedarwood Mansion for their wonderful location. We’re hoping this will lead to more work together.
Here is the video from that post!
This is so late getting up but we helped shoot this during an extremely busy part of the year so we just had no chance to get a copy to post it. However, better late than never!
Jeremy Cowart came to me last year asking if I’d help shoot capture some video for the Help Portrait events taking part later that year. I was more than excited to help out.
The shoot was directed and edited by Barry Simmons. Normally I would have edited this except I was leaving for Guatemala just a few days later. I asked Ben to come out and get some pickup shots as well. We shot everything on the 5D MkII using Canon 24-70L and 70-200L lenses. All supported by RedRockMicro gear.
Jeremy had invited all the photogs he knew in the Nashville area to come set up shop at the Nashville Rescue Mission both as a test to see how well the HP system would work and also to provide those at the mission with some amazing photos. This video is what happened during that day…
Have some tissue handy!
Marko
help-portrait.com/
jeremycowart.com/
The Feria team dedicated some time to renovating our Nashville meeting room next to our studio. In the chaos of wedding shows, client meetings, shooting and editing, we were able to scrounge some time up to get some frames up, a flat panel LCD TV and some new lighting. We though we’d upload some images to share. We already broke it in with our now newest client, Brittnay and Trenton. We are excited for their engagement and look forward to getting to know them and tell their story.
Weddings can be expensive. In some cases, break-the-bank costly. I hear many people say, “Heck, you get to do it one time in your life—go for it!” And I agree. Most important day of your life—live it up.
Then there are couples that approach their big day much more economically, with help from a glut of new blogs that focus on planning cheaply by applying some DIY features to their weddings. “Shoooooot—save on the wedding and put a downpayment on a house!” Well, I agree with that as well. A house is a great physical investment that can last a lifetime—a wedding is just one day.
Huh? Make up your mind!
No, I see the value in both lines of thought. My wife and I look back at our own wedding eight years ago and talk about the major expense of it. And how perfect it was. And what the money could have otherwise been used for in our low-income-earning-21-year-old lives. And how we were spared the intense summer heat that Memorial Day and the majestic sunset that dipped behind the palm trees that our relatives from all over the country witnessed with us.
If we did it over (knowing what we do now) we’d cut some cost: we know some fringe guests that can stay home, less extravagant food options, um, some more guests that can stay home—hehe. However, our cost-cutting would not sacrifice the experience we had, and the close friends and family that made the day so much fun would all be there.
But, with all of the ways to cut down costs, one thing I am sure we would NOT skimp on would be our wedding photography and video—the most effective and enjoyable way we relive our amazing memories. My goofy groomsmen cracking me up to keep me loose. Our good friends in the band playing before the ceremony. The emotions we felt when she walked down the aisle. The horrendous dancing at the reception.
Think about it: almost ten years later, and what do we have from that day? We can’t eat the tasty food we had that night. We have never brought the wedding dress or shoes back out from storage. My tux was a rental. The flowers died, and her dried-out bouquet fell apart during our third house move. Those were all amazing additions to our wedding day, and the detail photos of them remind us of how they completed the glorious scene, but, without great photography or video, we couldn’t enjoy them again. We have our album of prints that friends always ask to see, and enlargements on the wall that always make us smile.
In fact, we’d spend more on photography and wedding video than we originally did. Amazingly, I had NO CLUE what photography was back then. If I could do it now, I’d hire one of my many great candid/photojournalistic style wedding photographers that I know—those b/w candids are our favorite shots from the day. And I would hire a legitimate wedding cinematographer, not just have a buddy with a camcorder do us a favor. Technology has changed so fast, large LCD HDTVs are affordable and keep getting less expensive, and camera picture quality is so great now that moving pictures tell the wedding day story like nothing else. Youtube, Facebook and other social media outlets make it so easy to share photos and videos, even in HD.
So, if you are a bride and you are wanting to plan an amazing wedding with a low budget, right on! There are some amazing resources available now and loads of inspiration to design a memorable celebration to kick off your married lives. However, just take a minute to think down the road—anytime someone comes over to your house, or checks your Facebook page, or asks about your husband and how you met—how you invest in your wedding imagery will affect those exchanges. Invest in a trustworthy photographer / cinematographer that will capture your story—one that you will tell again and again and again.
[Like I mentioned earlier, our wedding day was magnificent and to this day still the most fun I've attended. We were so blessed to have an amazing community of friends that actually gifted much of their talents to us and are still so thankful for them—Melissa's flowers, Penny's cakes, the band's music, Kirk/Kevin's video, etc. You all made it so wonderful. Thank you!]
When we heard about a couple in Birmingham, AL that needed wedding video coverage with less than a week’s notice, we jumped at the chance. It was a minor scramble to put together our travel kit and team, but, we made the 3 hr trek down south, thirty minutes outside of downtown Birmingham.
John and Andrea were got married on her family farm—rolling acreage that includes picturesque ponds (complete with swans!), green pastures with grazing horses and even a covered bridge. Raindrops fell a couple times during the day, but, tapered off just in time for the afternoon ceremony—outdoors overlooking the water.
The ceremony itself was beautiful, accompanied by violins played classical music throughout the service. We experimented with some timelapse shots of the amazing rolling clouds and had our glidecam going to capture some dynamic moments. We will have more still images and our trailer up soon.
With the announcement of Marko Visual Wedding’s new services, we are announcing our new packages. We are exciting about these new services that are being offered and believe the details are innovative, of premium quality and offer a new level of service to wedding media.
There are many videographers out there who simply capture and edit the events of a wedding using templated editing techniques that are standard for every wedding and every couple. As storytellers, we aren’t satisfied to do any wedding the same way. Our top priority is to get to know each couple—their personalities, unique tastes, and communication style. Then we go to great lengths to make sure their story is told from a personal perspective with cinematic flare.
Multi camera coverage
Pre-wedding interview shoot
Cinema-style edit as well as full Ceremony and Reception edits.
HD web and streaming video formats ready to upload
Western Digital Media Streamer and Hard drive
All delivered in a beautiful handmade Video Giftbox, wrapped in silk cover with personalized image from your wedding
… and much, much more!
Our other packages just keep adding the features from there. Please check out our Info Page for all the details on all the packages we offer. And of course, if you would like to alter the packages in any way, we’d be happy to cater your package to your wants and needs.
