We mentioned recently that there are a few weddings that we can’t show any visual evidence of due to some strict privacy concerns.

Well, this past weekend, Feria Cinematic Imagery was the official cinematographer for Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s daughter’s wedding. It was a two-day affair at the Governor’s Residence and the Belle Meade Country Club.

It rained for a portion of the day, but, cleared up plenty for the beautiful ceremony. The reception was fantastic—huge dancefloor was filled with hundreds of guests, a huge, lavish reception tent with antler chandeliers, with a fire pit for s’mores and cornhole games outside.

We even became friends with the Secret Service men over the weekend. Maybe, someday our wedding film might be seen—not likely. Too bad, or else you’ll see the Governor getting DOWN on the dancefloor and his first lady singing tunes with the band.

A career highlight for now for sure.

Ellie and Nick are a living example of the term “opposites attract.” The enjoy life through their love of food, music and their dogs. Here’s a highlight segment of their story.

We had such a great time spending time capturing Ellie and Nick’s story. I mean, come on… who wouldn’t enjoy combing the vineyard isles at Tennessee’s own Arrington Vineyards; or running the steps in Tennessee Titan’s home, LP Field… the visuals just jumped at us knowing the locations we were going to be able to film. But even more than that is the caring and heart felt compassion Ellie and Nick have for each other. They may be Yin and Yang but but they enjoy life like they were created for each other.

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!!!

A quick preview of Ellie and Nick’s upcoming story. A couple who are as opposite as yin and yang but enjoy life through music, dance, food and the outdoors.

Look for a sample of their story in the highlight video coming soon!

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

We loved the footage so much from their wedding ceremony we had to create another highlight video showing them off! What a great couple to work with!

We had a fun time getting to know Sarah & Jay on our pre-wedding shoot with them in Kentucky. Small town, but big love. She’s gorgeous. He’s a hard-working country boy.

We spent the day zooming around in Razor ATVs across 200 acres of grassland/farmland/corn fields, enjoyed time in the town square and getting to know them during our interview session on their porch.

We used Canon 5D2, 7D and our GoPro HD cam. Lots of L glass. Would love your comments!

Update: We were asked to handle the still photography work for this wedding as well—so the Feria team was extra large this time. So excited with the results we got. Here’s a sneak peek:

We had a great time shooting our b-roll footage with Brianna and Seth this past Saturday. Although this crazy Nashville summer weather hit about 120 deg with the heat index, this adorable couple were so fun to hang out with. We have to say, they are as pleasant as they come. Really easy to direct and just fun to watch them interact with each other.

We started off with an interview sesh in a really vibey, 1920′s house in old Nashville. Gotta say, they were super open and revealing about so many things and emotions really came out in their answers to our questions. Ben and I stayed strong, but our two assistants were bawling their eyes out (just kidding). After lunch we revisited the wedding location, Scarritt Bennett Conference Center for a quick shot under THE TREE that we sneak peeked earlier… we are hoping that our experiment will work in editing (show you later if it does).

After that, we zipped out to beautiful Radnor Lake just south of town. Seth and Brianna love to be outdoors, and we took some still footage along with our motion footage. A combination of winding trails + lush forest + slider + bokeh = lurvly footage.

Lastly, we decided to hit the Wilson County Fair—these lovelies shared their first ever date at the fairgrounds a few years ago. However, about 2 minutes after we splurged for “all-you-can-ride” tickets, the heavens poured out a bevy of liquid. It poured as we huddled underneath the small lip of the popcorn stand. Rolling TENBA camera case (shoutout!) actually kept our gear all dry—but, I was soaked to the bone. After waiting 30min under the stand with a pocket full of ride tickets (non-refundable/good only one day) we decided to leave. Of course, as soon as we got to the parking lot it stopped raining. Figures! Anyways, we decided to cut our losses and come back another day. As the muddy parking swamp was stuck with a thousand cars leaving, the FERIA team had an impromptu soggy recap / brainstorm session as we waited for an exit. We weren’t altogether bummed because from the few minutes we had on the carousel with our Canon 5dMkII / L primes (shoutout numero dos!) we knew we’d get our chance again.

SO… two days later we returned with fresh spirits, ready to tackle the carnies and whatever else the fair would throw our way. We had a blast. It was a quieter night—ride lines were short and carnival employees (our small-handed friends) were enthusiastic that we were getting them on camera and let us do anything we wanted (blog post soon to come: How to get ANYONE to let you shoot anywhere).

So, why are we thanking God for the rainout on Saturday??? Well, we decided to wrap up after a great few hours of capturing the fair and started heading out to the park entrance. And timely…ly, the fireworks started. Hey-o! This went PERFECT with a story element that Brianna shared with us in our interview session. A loving couple exchanging embraces under the backdrop of the ferris wheel and fireworks finale…….. can’t you just imagine it already? We promise to share.

—

Here’s a quick little BHS with Brianna and Seth:

A totally fun-loving couple who we had a great time hanging with. We ran around those fairgrounds like crazy that evening but being with this couple makes all the hard work fun. We had a blast!

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.

Kara and Jake are one of those couples who you just want to be around all the time. They are a young couple that live in Jackson, MS, and you wouldn’t know it by looking at them, but, they can turn around any situation and give it humor.

We absolutely loved telling their story! Even though they live in Jackson, they made the trek to Nashville for their pre-wedding shoot. We had one day to get everything in, so even though it was a long and busy shoot day, we really enjoyed working with each other.

This highlight feature just gives a hint of who they are—super cute, really hilarious but also loving and compassionate people. We threw in a few sneak peeks at their wedding and reception as well from our great time in Jackson, MS. We can’t wait to show you more of what we captured.