One of the first questions I often get asked by potential clients during our in person meeting over a cup of coffee at places like the Oxford Exchange, Cafe Hey or Starbucks, is “Do we get to choose our own music or do you select the music for our film?” The first few times caught me off guard as many other meetings start with us telling clients about our business, how we learned to do what we do, how long we’ve been filming weddings, etc. Being a lover of music and 1/3 of a music review podcast (shameless plug), I take the music that is selected for our films seriously. I love this question because it immediately lets me know that the couple I am working with cares about the music for their film.

To answer the question, we do allow all of our couples select their own music, however, they are somewhat limited as we cannot allow them to choose just anything. In keeping with underground artistic efforts (and complying with copyright law) we license music from this wonderful community of creative musicians at the Music Bed. There’s a plethora of different music to be found there, made for films of all sorts.

There’s a great section of “cinematic music” that is normally ideal for wedding films. There’s no rule out that stating that you must pick a cinematic love song for your wedding film. The only rule we lay out to couples is that they select music that speaks to their heart. Once we hear the track, it informs us on the sort of wedding film they want to see. It reveals a little bit about their personalities and that’s the sort of story we are looking to tell in our film.

I’m very proud to say that Stefanie and Baris have been the first couple to break far away from the mold of cinematic love songs and go for a totally different and unexpected genre of music: electronic. Granted, we had a fun and upbeat song from a previous couple (and fellow Pokemon Go hunters), Samantha and Scott from way back in 2014, but even this song selection can fit a theme of love.

Stefanie and Baris challenged us with a piece that just normally would not fit over a film meant to tell a love story about a beautiful wedding. The film’s editor, Imani (owner of athletic wear company PGB Apparel), rose to the challenge (he was very excited about it) and put together a breathtaking edit that flowed so incredibly well with the music selection.

It also fit right into Stefanie and Baris’s personalities – carefree and madly in love with one another. Nothing reminds me of the joys of love and marriage more than hearing a bride and groom get vulnerable during their ceremony and express their love – in their own words – in front of family and friends. Stefanie eloquently brought the room to tears with her words for Baris. They are a wonderful couple and it was an absolute pleasure getting the opportunity to capture some of their most precious memories.

On a side note, it was also very cool revisiting the beautiful Bayanihan Arts & Events Center, the place where my wife, Olivia, and I were married. 

Special thanks to Eva Burmeister from Eva Photo Studio for providing the lovely photography!

-DP

[vimeo width=”640″ height=”360″ video_id=”169640775″]