BEHIND THE LENS
our blog
Hi all!
Brian here. I just wanted to give you a quick update on things here at With This Ring with regards to your wedding day and the wedding video or photo services that you’ve contracted with us.
(Yes I know, more ‘news’ about the virus…)
What We Are Doing
First, we have been taking measures to help keep our gear sanitized using Lysol wipes on our equipment cases, bags, tripods, microphones, camera bodies and the like. Additionally, our gear is stored in airtight cases which will help prevent any contamination in between wedding shoots.
We are also going to be carrying small hand sanitizers with us that we’ll use throughout your wedding day and if you wish to use it, just ask – we’re happy to share!
We’ll also be altering how we shoot a bit to practice social distancing while capturing all those must-have moments. It’s important that we do everything we can to protect you and your guests while also protecting our shooters and their families. You might find that we’re filming or photographing some moments from a bit further away than usual using lenses with a longer focal length. The end result will be unchanged – a beautiful wedding film and stunning photos!
We will be implementing these ‘best practices’ for all our upcoming weddings this year.
Live Stream for FREE
Additionally, for those couples with weddings booked with us for the 2020 wedding season, we are offering a free live stream of your wedding ceremony for those that can’t attend the wedding (especially helpful for elderly guests, those with young children, and those that may be detained or quarantined locally or abroad).
Just contact us and ask about getting the live stream for your ceremony and we will set this feature up at no charge to you. This special offer is on a first come, first served basis on popular dates, and if we don’t hear from you regarding this live streaming offer we’ll assume that you don’t need it.
This live stream viewing experience is completely unedited, and your absent family and other loved ones will enjoy being able to view your wedding ceremony in real time.
If there are any issues with the live stream and it is interrupted due to connection issues, we will upload the video stream to the channel as quickly as possible after the ceremony.
Need to Reschedule?
As per your contract, if you need to postpone your wedding we will gladly work with you on rescheduling your date. We’ll do our best to offer a little extra peace of mind in these uncertain times.
If you have any questions or concerns, just connect with us and we’ll be happy to chat!
As our shooting season slows down enough for us to catch our collective breaths, we thought it would be fun to look back on some highlights of a pretty amazing year. We had the honor of capturing the weddings of so many great couples in so many fun locations that we’re still pinching ourselves. Is this real life? haha
Most would say that the wedding season begins in spring, but we got a super early start filming Danielle + Brandon’s January elopement in Forks, WA. Yep, that Forks! Danielle searched the country looking for just the right cinematographers and we’re so glad she and Brandon found us.
You’d think after our trek from Nashville to Seattle to the otherworldly Ruby Beach that things would settle down a bit until the spring. Nope! We were then whisked away to Philadelphia for Danika + Arvin’s epic three-day Indian fusion wedding. These two definitely know how to throw a bash! Day one was spent at Arvin’s home for the mendhi and some surprise performances by Danika’s friends. Day two was the most elaborate sangeet you’ve ever seen, complete with bagpipes and group dance numbers. The final, and most heartfelt day, featured a traditional baraat, their wedding ceremony, and a reception celebration that carried on into the evening.
Here’s a sneak peek film that Danika + Arvin received just one week after all the festivities wrapped. They loved it!
March also saw us filming Kelsey + Tyler’s wedding at The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, the start of a very busy spring that kept us a bit closer to home. May opened with Hannah + Anthony’s wedding at Homestead Manor, continued with Amanda + Jeremy at Loft 212, and came to a dramatic close with Stephanie + Sumeeth’s three-day wedding weekend, also an amazing Indian fusion event.
Even though we already had Seattle and Philly under our belts, June kicked off our big destination wedding streak and it was a doozy!
Our first taste of the summer wedding season included our team hopping on a plane and heading down to lush Guanacaste, Costa Rica to spend a week with Jillian + Seth and their closest family and friends at the Dreams Las Mareas resort. There was zip-lining, waterslides, and plain ol’ playing in the sand. We got to shoot alongside rockstar photog John Yates of Celladora Wedding Photography and the collaboration was as refreshing as the ocean breeze.
John actually started a new podcast soon after our trip, aptly named The Awesome Wedding Podcast. WTR owner and lead cinematographer Brian was thrilled to be invited as one of John’s inaugural guests and the two enjoyed tossing back a couple cocktails and talking shop.
Download previous episodes of The Awesome Wedding Podcast to catch up!
Just a couple weeks later our team headed up to Connecticut to spend the weekend with Emily + Dan and I *have* to share a little bit of their wedding film with you. See, during their engagement Dan frequently encouraged Emily to get back into the studio to record music after a bit of a hiatus so she surprised him on their wedding day with a special song just for him! And we asked if we could use it as the soundtrack for a portion of their wedding film. Swoon! (here’s an excerpt)
We finished out the summer with Charity + Kyle and Frances + Jim in our home base of Nashville, then hightailed it up to Milton, NY to spend a couple days filming with Britton + Adi (and to spend a couple days in NYC celebrating Brian’s birthday!).
Our fall wedding season was CA-razy. I just have to warn you. Buckle up!
August ended with an Indian fusion wedding double header weekend. We spent Thursday and Saturday with Nadiya + Sherief, and Friday and Sunday with June + Rachit…zigzagging a path between Philly, New York and New Jersey over the course of four days. Two couples, two amazing weddings, and two sneak peeks that offer some insight into how we adapt our style from couple to couple.
Oh, and Brian did a quick interview in August with International Business Times for an article on wedding tech trends. It’s here.
September and October brought us back home to Nashville as we captured the weddings of FIVE *awesome* couples: Amy + Brandon, Jaime + Alex, Lauren + Travis, Christian + Andrew and Emily + Evan.
That should be a great wedding season right? All these weddings, all these locations, all this travel? We’re not done yet!
Late October. Mexico. Ythy + Chris.
These two lovebirds were originally going to tie the knot in Chattanooga but decided that Tulum, Mexico was more their style. Great decision, as it just so happens to be more our style too. 🙂 There was love, laughter…and plenty of tequila.
November brought us back down to earth with Dani + Jason’s wedding at Loveless Cafe in Nashville and we rounded out the month with a promo video shoot for The Estate at Cherokee Dock (formerly Reba’s home and currently a luxury wedding venue).
And finally, December: we drove seven hours in the snow down to Point Clear, Alabama to spend the weekend with Mary Catherine + Chase at The Grand Hotel and then flew down to sunny Florida just a couple weeks later to film Pamela + Bryant’s wedding at the Tampa Museum of Art. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t plan a fun side trip to Orlando to spend a couple days at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (where we drank waaay too much butterbeer and can solemnly swear we were up to no good).
Aaaaand that’s a wrap! We hope you enjoyed this look back at our crazy, globe-trotting, fun-filled whirlwind of a 2017. Can’t wait for you to see what 2018 has in store!
We’ve filmed hundreds of weddings over the last ten years in some amazing places with some amazing couples, but nothing quite prepares you for getting a call from Vogue and being asked if you’d like to be featured in their magazine. What?! Of course! A million times yes!
We were honored to be included in the January 2017 issue of British Vogue in their “Vogue’s Big Day…” editorial, a curated selection of wedding professionals from around the world. The issue hits newsstands on December 5 and we’ve got a sneak peek at all the good stuff below!
Once in a while a wedding comes along that’s so epic, so grandiose, and so much fun that we can’t wait to share it with you! We spent four days filming in New York with Preksha and Ankit and put together this same-day edit to screen on Saturday, the evening of their wedding reception.
We spent the afternoon of day one in Central Park on the lake and enjoyed Ankit’s mehndi in the evening. Day two saw us covering Preksha’s mehndi in the morning and their sangeet reception later that night at the elegant Chateau Briand, and day three featured their super colorful turmeric ceremonies and a little filming at Preksha and Ankit’s middle school (where they met – how cute is that?). They tied the knot on the fourth day at the Hyatt Regency on the Hudson backed by the expansive NYC skyline and celebrated into the evening as the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Butala!
So many vendors came together to make this amazing wedding weekend perfect, including the experienced team of Jay Seth Photography and rockstar event planners Reema and Kurien of RB Event Design. Reema and Kurien, can’t wait to see you again in August!
And now, for the second time ever, here’s Preksha and Ankit’s same-day edit!
Happy New Year! We hope everyone had an exciting and safe celebration and and rang in 2016 with style! We’re excited to see what the new wedding season brings, and thought it might be fun to take a look back at the adventures of our eventful 2015 season illustrated through moments shared on our Instagram feed.
We began the season in March with two elegant weddings: Missy + James in Memphis at the historic Peabody Hotel and Laura + Zach at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville. Such classy weddings!
April saw us filming three local weddings with Melissa + Lee at Houston Station, Brandi + Scott at Mint Springs Farm, and Melissa + Mark at Legacy Farms. We also spent a couple weeks touring Thailand in April during their New Year festival. Quite a trip!
After returning to the states from our time abroad, we spent May with four amazing couples. Alexa + Harrison in Bowling Green, KY on their family farm, Katelyn + Ben at the ever popular Riverwood Mansion in Nashville, Marcie + Ziad in Louisville at The Brown Hotel, and Rose + Tom back in Nashville at Cathedral of the Incarnation.
June officially began our season of destination weddings! We opened up the month with Steven + Richard in Provincetown, MA, a quaint seaside village off the tip of Cape Cod. We then filmed the weddings of Megan + Michael at Marathon Music Works and Lindsay + Nick at CJ’s Off the Square back home before heading up to Groton, CT to round out the month with Chanmaly + Steven on the UConn campus for their gorgeous wedding at the Brandford House on Avery Point.
July opened up with Amy Jo + JJ’s wedding at the scenic Lilic Farms at Arrington Vineyards, continued with Kristen + John the following weekend at Gordonsville United Methodist Church, and ended with another amazing destination wedding as we filmed with Hayley + Ari at Mount Hope Farm, one of Rhode Island’s last great country estates and the charming backdrop for their vows and reception celebration.
We had an action packed August as well, starting with Sarah + Patrick at Nashville’s Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. We then traveled to New Jersey to capture the three-day Indian wedding extravaganza of Harman + Riva. Check out this fun same-day edit we created that features moments from their sangeet reception on Thursday, the bride vs groom olympics and vatna on Friday, and their wedding on Saturday.
August had one more amazing destination wedding in store as we flew up to spend the weekend with Michelle + Andy at Saltwater Farms Vineyard in Stonington, Connecticut, a coastal farmland, WWII-era private airport, and super chic wedding venue.
Our September was packed with all sorts of wedding-y goodness and we shot in some more amazingly beautiful locales! We opened the month with Courtney + Chanhee at Castle Post (a castle!), caught a ferry to Ocracoke Island, NC to film the wedding of Elise + Josh (an island!), and trekked out to Butterfly Hollow to shoot Bobbi + Thomas’ elopement (so many butterflies!). We slowed our roll a bit and kept things local with Morgan + Giovanni tying the knot at Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, then ramped back up with Svetlana + Melvin’s two-day wedding event in Virginia and Lise + Matt’s upscale nuptials at Oxmoor Farm and the Seelbach Hotel (inspiration of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”).
If you think our September was busy, wait until we tell you about October! We started off the month with George + Kerry Anne in Boston, then flew back to Nashville to film the weddings of Meg + Jake at their family home, Heejung + Thomas at Riverwood Mansion, Stephanie + Michael in Franklin, New Yorkers Lucy + Thomas at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nicole + Corey at aVenue, and Sarah + Kevin at The Loveless Barn. The last weekend of October saw us flying back up to Boston for the epic wedding of Jackie + Chase at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.
We slowed down a bit over the holiday in November, filming the wedding of dear friends Carrie + Cke at Rocketown in Nashville. But we didn’t rest on our laurels for long! In December, we traveled to New Orleans for the two-day Indian wedding weekend of Serena + Ajay at Board of Trade and JW Marriott New Orleans and then finished out the year with a fun New Year’s Eve wedding with Soraya + David at Saddle Woods Farm.
As you can see, we had quite the year! We’re so excited to see what 2016 brings and can’t wait to get started creating new and exciting cinematic wedding films!
For more moments from 2015 and beyond, follow us on Instagram.
OSMO is a handheld camera and 3-axis stabilization gimbal capable of stunning 4k resolution video. OSMO harnesses the power of DJI’s cutting-edge drone stabilization technology into the palms of your hands, enabling us to reimagine movement thanks to advanced technologies specifically designed to keep the camera flat no matter how you move it.
DJI introduces OSMO in the promo video below. Check it out!
We’re super excited to add the new DJI OSMO to our bag of toys, and even more thrilled that it helps us tell the story of your wedding day in a more epic and cinematic way!
Some of the questions we hear most frequently while filming a wedding are about our aerial camera: is that a drone? how high can it fly? can it see me if I do this? *waves hands frantically into the sky*
With all the curiosity, we thought it would be helpful to share some info about our aerial camera and how aerial cinematography can help us tell the story of your wedding day.
We recently added the Phantom 3 Professional to our toolkit. This quadrocopter continues the tradition of DJI’s Phantom series and is capable of shooting video in stunning 4K resolution and photos at a crisp 12 megapixels.
Here’s a fun video that DJI put together to showcase the new features of their new Phantom 3 series of drones.
For all the techies out there, the Phantom 3 Professional’s camera has an f/2.8 lens with a 94⁰ field of view, virtually eliminating the unwanted lens distortion common in other cameras not built to shoot from the air (ahem, we’re looking at you GoPro). Built from 9 separate elements that reduce weight and complexity without sacrificing image quality, this lens brings the brightest, truest colors to life.
When paired with DJI’s industry-standard gimbal stabilization technology, the camera is held perfectly stable. It captures smooth footage throughout the entire flight, and the camera and gimbal are fully controllable by the remote controller and dedicated DJI Pilot app. The Phantom 3 is capable of flights as high as 400 feet, and the integrated Lightbridge technology enables an incredibly long range of 1.2 miles and provides a live HD video stream from the camera to the pilot on the ground.
We’re super excited to add the new Phantom 3 Professional 4K quadrocopter to our bag of toys, and even more thrilled that it helps us tell the story of your wedding day in a more epic and cinematic way!
We’re excited to announce that With This Ring Wedding Films has been accepted into Style Me Pretty’s “Little Black Book!” This top wedding blog with over 17 million unique visitors per year features an exclusive collection of wedding vendors from across the country. Once a vendor applies for membership, the folks behind the scenes at SMP begin a stringent review process…including quality and consistency of work, client reviews, and website design.
As it turns out, vendors in the Cinematography category must go through an extra step of vetting: review by a council of cinematography industry pros that give the ultimate yay or nay on a vendor’s inclusion in the “Little Black Book.” And we passed with flying colors. Pretty neat!
Style Me Pretty is a fantastic resource for every step of your wedding planning adventure. Be sure to check out their Real Weddings feature – it’s regularly updated and full of stunning ideas!