Our Wedding: The Chapel

Previously in this series- Our Wedding: The Inspiration

Now that Brent and I knew how we wanted our wedding to be, we had to decide on our locations. For a while I had been pretty sure I wanted to have the reception in the backyard of my parent's ranch house in Central Texas. I had some very nice memories there, and the space was quite conducive to partying. It has a gravel "dance floor" area surrounded by a low stone wall, a large comfy porch with seating, and oak trees covering it all. It's nothing too fancy, but I thought it was perfect.

The hard part was finding a place to have the ceremony. We drove around and found a tiny white clapboard church called Bethel Chapel that was about a mile down the road from the ranch house. My mom tracked down a local who could unlock it for us, and when we stepped inside, it was a marvelous moment. I was just as scared as I was excited, I think. The interior was charming and rustic and simple, just what I wanted. It was also a wreck. There were holes in the floor, animal droppings, wasps nests, junk, and a thick pile of dust on every surface. Check out these pics!

Pretty scary huh? We left the chapel to talk it over, and I was pretty keen on the place. My mom, however, put in a good effort trying to talk me out of it. She had some compelling arguments. So we went back to the area weeks later and spent an entire day driving to every church within one hour of the ranch house. But nothing sparked my imagination like Bethel Chapel. So I made my decision and stayed resolute, and my mom knew that it was a done deal.

We were told we could use the space for free, and were given a key to keep until after the wedding. Brent and I and our close friends spent one weekend with some tools and elbow grease and got the place into a presentable state. It was so fun at the end of the weekend to sit there in the chapel on a pew with Brent and picture ourselves in several months saying our vows in the same spot. It was all very magical. I especially love that the chapel has so much history. In fact, the itinerant preacher for Bethel Chapel preached to Robert E. Lee's troops when they were stationed in nearby Mason. Cool huh?

But wait, there is a moral to this story, and it is this: when it comes to planning your wedding, feel free to think outside the box. Use your imagination. Even if it doesn't make perfect sense, or it's not practical, or it takes a lot of work, if you want it, go for it!

A few pics from the wedding day, by Casey.

Elizabeth & Paul

What do you get when you combine a beautiful bride, a beautiful church, and a beautiful song? Elizabeth and Paul's highlights montage! These two are just the sweetest couple and Brent and I had a wonderful time documenting their big day. They had a full Catholic mass, and since I knew their faith is very important to them, I decided to make the ceremony a large portion of the clip. (And when you have a church like that, and a priest with a voice like that, it's easy to do!) They really love the results and I think you will too.

Elizabeth & Paul from Vanessa McKellar Productions.com on Vimeo.

Ceremony: Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Reception: Garten Verein

Elizabeth said, "We are so happy with the work you did and the great attention to detail you showed. The montage could not have been any more perfect for us. We loved how you incorporated the Mass so heavily in the montage, as our Catholic faith is such an important and central part of our story. I'm also so happy that you captured many of our guests on film at the reception. You caught people we couldn't get pictures of, and I'm thrilled to have coverage showing my deceased grandmother's dearest friends. It meant so much to have them there--they were like an extended family of additional grandmothers. Paul loved the video so much he watched the highlights montage by himself several times again when I wasn't home. AND (don't tell that I told) he got teared-up all over again watching me walk down the aisle. We can't wait to show our parents the video! We love, too, the personal interest you take in each of your clients; we really felt you cared a lot about how our wedding went. Thank you so much for all the attention you and Brent gave to our wedding."

AlexM Photography & Vanessa McKellar Discount!

If you haven't booked your videography and photography yet, this is a fabulous opportunity! Alex produces really really great work and Brent and I love working with him. Check out his web site, drool, then give us both a call!

New Phone Number

VMP has moved and we now have a new phone number, so update your records!

903.894.6078

Thanks!

Allison & Noah

These two lovebirds are so in love and so sweet. I could tell they really cared for each other and for their guests too. They wrote their own vows, which gave me some meaningful audio to work with for their highlights montage. Everyone had a blast dancing at the reception (it was hard for me to keep still!) and Noah and Allison had a classic getaway with sparklers and a vintage red convertible named Ketchup.

Congrats you two!

Noah and Allison from Vanessa McKellar Productions.com on Vimeo.

My View

Just for fun I thought I'd post this picture of my view at work. The flowers are beautiful "leftovers" from our latest wedding. One of my favorite things about my job is that I oftentimes get to take a centerpiece home with me. I put them on my desk right next to my computer and the scent and colors and textures permeate my space and make me so happy. You see my computer sreen there- that's pretty much what I'm looking at most of the time my eyes are open. But it's nice because I get to look at gorgeous dresses and happy brides and stuff like that. And there in the background is an engagement picture of my and my honey from a few years ago. And then next to that are my two awards statues.

So glad I don't work in a cubicle.

VideoMonday: Surprise Reception

You've seen an Improv Everywhere video here before, but today we have one that is wedding related: a surprise reception! The organizers grabbed a couple fresh out of city hall and asked them if they wanted a free reception right then. Of course they agreed and I think the result is pretty funny. My favorite part is probably the toasts- it's surprising how an entirely generic toast can sound rather personal and heartfelt. I also love how they just did all this on a sidwalk. They didn't even bother to have it in a restaurant or venue, and it just makes it all the more quirky.

Enjoy!

Erika & Phil: The Inspiration Board

Previously in this series- Erika and Phil: The Videographer, Etc.

Recently I checked my email and was very pleasantly surprised to find an email from Erika. (If you're new to the blog, she's my dear friend who is getting married in September.) I opened it up and lo and behold it was her inspiration board! (FYI, an inspiration board is basically a montage of photos that convey the look, feel, colors, and vibe of the way you want your wedding to be.)

As you can see, there is a definite purple theme with some brown and green touches. So pretty! It's interesting, as beautiful as purple is, I've only done one wedding with a purple theme, and at that event it was paired with hot pink so it was a completely different vibe than this. I'm looking forward to seeing a unique color in my lens.

I love the wood accent along the right of the image, and the horse is a nice touch. Erika is looking at having her wedding at some family land in Oklahoma, so actually a horse is a pretty feasible idea! And you see the chandelier? Erika has already found and purchased one that looks very similar, and now she gets to figure out the perfect spot in which to hang it.

Just looking at this inspiration board gets me all fluttery and excited. Erika is creative AND she has impeccable taste, so I know it's going to be a treat to film this wedding.

The Maresch Family '09 - Experimental Edit

If you're one of my regular blog readers you might remember the Maresch family's previous "Children on Film" video that we made out at their farm. They decided that they wanted to have a video made every year to chronicle the growth of their family (kind of like annual portraits, but way better), so for this year we wanted to do something different. When the carnival came to town, we knew that was ticket!

We spent several hours and way too much money riding all the rides and letting the kids have a ball. This video was shot mostly with our new Canon 5D Mark II, which is a still camera that also shoots amazing quality high definition video. It creates footage with a very filmic look and a lovely shallow depth of field. The result is a more documentary-esque video that we really like.

The video below is actually Brent's handiwork. He picked the music and did all the editing and I'm really proud of how it turned out. Since it's not quite my typical sweet, cute, gentle style of editing, I will also be crafting a video myself using a song that the Maresch's pick out. I'll be debuting that here later, and it'll be interesting to see how the two compare. In the meantime, enjoy Brent's version:

The Maresch Family '09 from Vanessa McKellar Productions.com on Vimeo.