(You can turn HD off on the bottom right corner of video if it is slowing your computer down)
I couldn’t wait to film and edit this wedding! As soon as Amber contacted us and told us her and Justin’s story, I just knew this was going to be a fun wedding. Amber lived in South Africa as a missionary and met Justin while she was there. Not only is Justin cool because of his South African accent, but he is a very talented and successful recording artist. Upon talking to Justin about my idea to film him singing one of his songs to use for the highlights video, he told about the song featured in this video, titled “You”. He wrote it secretly for Amber and she wouldn’t even know about it until their first dance! We had fun keeping the filming of “You” a secret until NOW! I loved how it turned out, especially how cool it is that he is sitting on the steps of the chapel. Very intimate, and very honest. Their ceremony was very God centered and their reception was a blast! I love parties at the Pewter Rose Bistro in Charlotte. Very eclectic, and they know how to set up an inviting reception environment with style. We also enjoyed working with Darrin at D&J Photography. We hope to team up with him again soon. Enjoy your wedding highlights video Amber and Justin, and thanks for allowing us to combine our creative outlets with yours. The song is absolutely beautiful! Leave your comments people! And if you are interested in more of Justin’s work, you can check out his music on his website and on itunes.
P.S. The butterfly was totally random! It wouldn’t leave us alone, so we decided to try to use him to our advantage. Turned out to be a big asset to the video! I think it goes great with the lyrics if you listen closely.
I don’t think I have ever seen a more excited bride and groom on their wedding day! Every part of the day was”hyped”, almost as if it were a college basketball game. And naturally, Ansley and Andrew were OK with that, seeing as how both of them played College Basketball and definitely set the record as our tallest couple filmed to date. We loved it! You can totally see their excitement shine through in the video. Their entrance at the reception was to the Chicago Bulls Theme Song . It was hard not to put down my camera and give them a chest bump when they walked by. It was so exciting to be there, and you could tell everyone around them was excited and happy for them both too. It was our first time working with Amanda Caldwell Photography and she was an absolute blast to work together with! We look forward to teaming up with her again, and her pictures are stunning! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect summer after noon on Birkdale Country Club’s Golf Course. Thanks Ansley & Andrew for letting us celebrate with you. You really make our job fun. Leave your comments people!
Last week, Matt ran his 2nd Half Marathon! Every November, Wilmington holds a 13 mile Battleship Run to raise money for the USS North Carolina proudly perched in downtown Wilmington. It honors the veterans who served among the ship during World War II. Here are some pictures of Matt in action. Luckily he didn’t have a wedding to film that day! But all this is training for the running around he’ll be doing for 2009 weddings! (For a full album you can go HERE)
Here is another glimpse into Katie and Blake’s wedding day. I love it when brides, grooms, and all their guests let loose and have a real dance party! It makes for great video too. “Shout” is an all time classic at receptions, and to me, it never gets old because everyone always loves it and gets involved. We hope you enjoy seeing how much fun Katie and Blake had at their reception party.
Not a lot of brides understand the value of having the time before your ceremony filmed. Having all of your friends, family and bridesmaids together is a crazy whirlwind of emotions before you walk down the isle, but its worth it! With 2 videographers, most likely one being a guy and the other a woman, we are able to split up and get the groom’s perspective on the time before his wedding. Katie got ready across the street from her wedding chapel at the City Club at de Rosset and it was gorgeous. Enjoy this video direct from their Wedding DVD that illustrates all the fun, laughter, excitement and commotion that is worth capturing on film, especially when her dad sees her for the first time! Priceless!
One of Katie and Blake’s favorite shows (as well as our favorite show here at the Davis home), is “The Office”. The love it so much that they hired wedding cake artist Alison’s Cakery out of Wilmington, NC to create a truly unique cake for their rehearsal dinner. I threw together a quick montage in honor of my love for this cake and all the tiny details. Can’t wait for the new Office episode tomorrow night!
Check us out in the newest issue of the Bride’s Book! It has already hit news stands, as well as your local Barnes and Noble, Harris Teeter, and other large retailers. We are listed under the 2008 Reader’s Choice Award section because you all put us there! Thanks! Also check out these useful articles in the trendy mag.
ECO-FLORAL - Ways to make your wedding flowers green too.
HEADPIECES - New ways to show off your locks.
TRASH THE DRESS - Is it worth keeping the dress after the wedding?
REPORT FROM THE RUNWAY: CHAPELS - Tiny Chapels are back.
What an awesome party! You can check out the details of Vicky’s Sweet 16 party in the video below. Enjoy! Thanks for allowing us to film your incredible event Vicky!
We received this email from a mother of the bride in September. Not only are we humbled by her words, but we feel others could benefit from hearing how much more valuable a good video can be after the wedding. Its easy not find it important before hand with all the planning going on, but what would all that planning, the flowers, the food and the people be without a video to capture it all? Enjoy her note.
“You both do such amazing work. When Leslie was budgeting her wedding, she told me that “after all was said and done”, the video and photographs of her wedding day would be the most important thing to her so we cut back in some areas so we could spend more in others. Leslie works in marketing, so she was able to get most of her printed materials (invitations, koozies, programs, etc…) produced either free or extremely inexpensively. She made her own reception centerpieces and after finding “THE” wedding gown in a store, she went online and found the same dress “slightly used” for significantly less than we would have paid to buy it new. Did anyone know the difference? I highly doubt it. Her focus was to put our money into the video and photography, so she was pretty picky. But that’s Leslie. When it comes to creativity, she’s always been picky. (I love that child.) The fact that Life Stage was her final choice spoke volumes to me. I knew you had to be something exceptional. I, too, will be/am SO excited to relive the wedding day through your eyes.
I have to say that one of the things I found fascinating is how you two could be “everywhere” yet always so inconspicuous. How you can be so discreet when you’re trying to capture every important moment? I remember watching you both in action…and then I don’t remember being aware you were even there. (Perhaps it was the wine????!)”
Jamie came on with us about a month ago and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have her here. The Life Stage team you’ve come to love has just gotten even better! Read below to learn more about her.
Full Name: Jamie Lynn Williams
Your Role at Life Stage: Business Development Coordinator- My role at Life Stage is to introduce our valuable services to clients: brides, families and business’ alike. Our goal is to provide a quality service that captures some of the most important moments of a person’s life. My goal is to ensure our clients have a thoughtfully, personalized experience with Life Stage.
3 All Time Favorite Musical Artists: CCR, BB King and the Steve Miller Band
Favorite Place to visit: My grandparent’s home- Morningstar Farms. They have animals of every kind including peacocks roaming around the property. Their house smells wonderfully like my grandpa’s pipe and there is always a glass of sweet tea waiting for me!
Favorite Restaurant: Indochine, I love eating in the beautiful Thai huts outside
Guilty Pleasure? This is embarrassing but I love TV marathons of any kind, doesn’t matter what show it is (to some degree), if it’s on one episode after another I like to indulge.
When I’m Not Working…I am taking care of my four boys! Adam, Bronx, Atlas and Loki…the last 3 being our big puppy dogs whom we love!
I like…sunshine, fabulous thrift store finds, the first cool day of fall, & Tennessee Vols football!!
I dislike…onions, spiders and people who drive 10 miles under the speed limit
Why do You like being a part of this team? I like being a part of this team because it’s effortless to get up and come to work every morning because I love the work we do and the people I am fortunate enough to work with. There’s nothing in the world like enjoying your job!
We are looking for a highly motivated, self-starter, positive, and innovative individual to run and polish our business’ PR. There will be set tasks to be completed and also freedom to input your own ideas to our existing plan.
The individual we are looking for will be able to efficiently complete the following:
Write & create Press Releases
Contribute to our Wedding Blog
Create & write bridal newsletter
Create & write corporate newsletter
Attend weekly staff meetings
Create a blog for YourBestSalesPerson.com
Contribute to this blog
Social networking: Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, Twitter…
Also, this is a position that will be carried out from home and you will be responsible to manage your own work schedule. Once a week you will be required to come into the studio for a staff meeting (these meeting run from 1 hour- 2 hours).
It was a pleasure to meet everyone that came by to see us at the Cape Fear Bridal Show! We have heard from so many of you and are excited to go forward with filming your wedding! If you haven’t contacted us yet about your upcoming wedding, you better hurry! For others, we will see you at the Carolina Wedding Bridal Show in Wilmington on Jan. 11th & Charlotte on January 25th. Again, congrats on your engagement and we are grateful to even be considered guests at your wedding!
**Please NOTE - This is the 1st video on our blog that is embedded in FULL HD! However, if it loads too slowly on your computer you can click the right of the video window to turn HD off.What a pleasure it was too hang out with Sarah & Derrick all day at their wedding. We got there early to film the craziness and excitement of getting ready. New Bern is such a quaint and beautiful town about 2 hours up the coast from Wilmington, and the Marina where the reception was held was absolutely gorgeous with the sun setting right at dinner. It was the first time we had ever had a wedding where the bride’s father actually led the band all night. It was a good ole time with violins, harmonicas and singing to classic songs. Thanks Sarah & Derrick for choosing us to be a part of your wedding day. Everyone be sure to leave them some comment love!
We did a beautiful wedding up in Asheville, NC a few weeks ago, and wanted to share just how entertaining most of our receptions are down in the “South”. These are some very musically talented GUESTS of the bride and groom, and the band decided to let them up on stage to open up the final set of the evening. They did a great rendition of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. The bongo drummer is the brother of the groom and the best man! It was so fun to be in the middle of it all! Jewel and Matt, we hope this video excites you about your entire wedding video, we got some amazing footage of the entire night. Enjoy.
Honestly, when you hire us to film your wedding, we make it a priority to have fun at your party. I’m sorry, call us selfish ;). Just wanted to share with everyone this shot that I adore because it truly captures how we feel about our incredible job of documenting your most important day. This is Karen Walker’s 90 year old grandmother. Karen is one of our bride’s from September and I have never seen a more feisty and energetic 90 year old woman! I just had to dance with her! Also note her son, the Father of the Bride in the background…I gave him my camera! (Luckily brides, we have insurance…) Hope you enjoy getting to know us a little bit. We have fun at your wedding because it shines through in the quality of your video. With Lifestage, you aren’t just hiring a videographer, you’re hiring a friend.
We love mountain weddings! This wedding took place at Leatherwood Mountain Resort. The weather and mood of the day was just how you see it, horses grazing, cats napping, beautiful flowers, all the sweet tea you can drink, all protected by the Appalachian Mountains. But this video tops them all for a different reason. Patrick and Stephanie illustrated the most genuine wedding ceremony we had ever seen. The message was simple, but powerful, and you’ll hear alot of it in the video. Melissa and I love going to weddings because it fortifies our marriage every time we get to hear vows. But this ceremony and wedding celebration resonated with us for a long time. Jill Schwarzkopf took some amazing pictures and it was really fun and easy to work with her. We hope you enjoy the video as much as we had creating it.
Music by Dave Barnes - Buy Song Here
We have had a lot of feedback from interested brides and grooms about an alternative package option in addition to our work sampled on our website. We wanted to get the word out about our “Documentary” package available to couples in 2009. We sympathize with wedding budgets and understand everyone has one. We also know that we aren’t the cheapest videographers on the block in terms of prices. That’s where this package comes in. It’s not “basic” by any sense of the word, but it is considered more affordable to couples that simply want a professional video of their wedding day without all the frills. At $1995, it covers the wedding day up to 6 hours, which is plenty of time to get all the ceremony and reception events and traditions recorded. So, it serves as a “documentary” of your day, following the major events that you will love to see over and over again, complete with 2 cameras and pristine audio of your ceremony and reception. It does not include a highlights video (although it can be added on) and doesn’t allow for our creative camerawork and editing that our couples have come to love in our “Signature” wedding films. But some people don’t want a big, detailed video, and that’s ok. This package is for you. We still encourage you to shop around and see we still beat the style and quality of any other videographers around, and we would love to show you a sample of our documentary package to prove it. Thanks for checking us out, and congratulations on this exciting time in your lives! Planning is half the fun, right?!
Sometimes we like to share just how excited some of our brides and grooms get about their new wedding video from Life Stage. In actuality, Millie & Willis didn’t care too much for a wedding video at first, but really appreciated its true value after the wedding festivities had come and gone. Here is what they had to say.
“MATT AND MELISSA!!!!!!!!! We just finished watching our video and LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! It really is the best thing ever!! I could watch it all night long! And the DVD cover is so cute and clever! You two are never going to have a free weekend once word gets out about you two!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!
Love, Millie and Willis”
Our local Wilmington, NC ABC news affiliate recently produced a video segment on me related to a recent phenomenon with the presidential race. Exciting stuff! Check it out!
I have watched this 20 times, and cannot stop laughing. Brides and Grooms, please take notes on the proper way to safeguard your wedding ceremony from embarrassing accidents.
thanks for following me on twitter!
