English Countryside Wedding
AMERICAN WEDDING IN THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE
The Venue
Cowdray House is set in a stunning 16,500 acre estate in West Sussex, overlooking the beautiful South Downs National Parks, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The house, as it is seen today, dates back to 1875.
The couple opted to have their ceremony on the front lawn of the house with games out on the field and a morning dip in the lake out back.
Teaser film
Alex and MC’s Wedding Day Plans
As a British/American couple flying lots of their friends and family over from the States to the British countryside, Alex and MC wanted to make a long weekend of their wedding with lots of fun and games. The night before the couple was a pool party with DJ and BBQ and was all very stylishly put together by Jessie and her team at The Filthy Prawn.
This gave me and the photographer plenty of opportunities to get some great shots of the couple to incorporate into their film as we also had a mini portrait shoot before the sunset.
The wedding day started with a game of Rounders, but with all the energy and competitiveness of American Baseball, followed by a dip in the Cowdray House lake, which was vall very fun to shoot.
The couple then got ready for their wedding ceremony out on the front lawn, which was a very beautiful event with a string quartet and some readings and poems written by friends and family.
The drinks reception then took place at the back of the house, complete with bag piper, live music, food stands and an outside bar.
The candlelit dinner was in long rows (my favourite set up) in the historic part of the house and included some beautiful speeches, particularly those by Alex and MC which were some of the best I’ve heard this year.
The party was kicked off with a costume change by the couple and some roaming musicians leading everyone into the epic party room where I got some great shots for the climax of the couples film.
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 the fun factor, the coming together of friends and the party atmosphere was an important part of Alex and MC’s wedding so I made sure this part of the day had a great sequence in the film and I also decided to incorporate shots taken on at the Friday party into the dance sequence. The speeches were also so emotional and powerful and tried to include of much as these as possible into the film.
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.
