Alistair and Clare’s WEDDING VIDEO FEATURE

The Venue

Wilderness Reserve is a beautiful 8000 acre country estate deep in the Suffolk countryside. Among the beautiful cottages and walled gardens is Sibton Park, a 14 bedroom country house with an attached orangery. The whole house is well-designed and stylish, from the Chinese wallpaper in the drawing room to the grand dining room and bedrooms. The park has rowing boats, bikes and is a perfect slice of English countryside so I was very grateful to work here twice last year.

Both my weddings at Wilderness Reserve took this year took place in the main country house, so I was lucky enough to get full access to the jewel in the venues crown on two occasions.

Alistair and Clare’s Wedding Day Plans

Alistair and Clare are both YouTube content creators (Alistair as Ali-A is one of the most subscribed YouTubers in the UK) so I knew video would be important to them, so it was flattering to be chosen as their videographer for the day. You can see their longer film on the couples joint YouTube page here.

Their entire wedding took place at Wilderness Reserve utilising the main house, which is always a dream booking as it is a stunning place and gave me plenty of time to take some lovely shots of the venue and surrounding countryside.

I could tell from the moment I arrived, seeing the glass marquee being built outside the house and the spectacular flower arrangements being put together by Larry Walshe’s team in the Orangery (it was like a rainforest!) that this was going to be a breathtaking day.

Both Alistair and Clare got ready in the morning at the venue, allowing a chance for some nice shots with family and friends and when ready Clare descended the flower-adorned staircase with her father to enter the Orangery.

After a very personal ceremony conducted by Alistair’s father, with readings from both mothers, the couple and their guests made their way to the side of the house for drinks and canapés and we had a chance to go for a walk down to the lake and around to the front of the house for couple photos (and also a few with the couples dogs!).

They were then met by cheers and music from the sting quartet as they entered the bespoke glass marquee, also adorned with stunning foliage, for the wedding breakfast before some heartfelt and funny speeches from the couple and their family and friends.

While the couple and their guests enjoyed dinner the orangery was transformed into a stylish party space. The evening kicked off with the couples first dance before a pretty mind-blowing couple of sets from the do-accompanied live band The couple and their guests partied the night away, giving me plenty of opportunity to shoot some great dance footage.

Wedding Videography Approach

My main aim as a wedding videographer is to produce cinematic, yet authentic, mementos of a wedding day. I want them to be stylish, filled with all the emotions of the day while being infused with a classic cinema flair, which I always have in the back of my mind when choosing which lens to use in a certain moment, how to frame a shot, the sounds and music I will use to tell that part of the story and thinking always about the edit.

Me filming a wedding in Portugal with my minimalist set up.

I knew, as content creators themselves, that Alistair and Clare would want a video which not only captured the essence of their day to share with their many fans and followers on YouTube, but also heartfelt and authentic enough to be something they would share with their children one day, so I made sure their films were a blend of these two elements.

Once I have these all story telling elements in place I make sure my films are as cinematic as possible, and what I mean by that is I use every tool and technique at my disposal, from the filming style on the wedding day, to the editing and colour grading techniques afterwards, to create a piece of work that feels like a mini-movie, like a short piece of classic cinema, with a proper beginning middle and end, establishing people, place and story as elegantly as possible, woven together with music I choose carefully for each project.

Most importantly though, I use equipment and a filming style on the day that allows me to capture these moments without leaving a heavy footprint on the day- I use very minimal equipment, similar to a photographer, and avoid stage managing the day in any way because the most important element of making a great film is authentic moments and emotions and the only way to achieve these is allow them to happen naturally, unhindered by over posing/staging and manufacturing the events.

View My Wedding Video Portfolio