One of the first thing most newlywed couples do together is share a first dance at their reception.  For some, that’s a perfectly-executed, well-choreographed spin around the dance floor.  Sometimes the couple barely moves as their favorite song swells around them, but their joy is so obvious their guests are enchanted.  Then again, the couple may appear to be surprised by the whole prospect of dancing and their attempt at fancy footwork is little more than an awkward shuffle around the room.  Which of these couples will you be?

No Matter What!

At LeniCam, we see all of those couples and more.  We have one promise we make to all our brides, “No matter what happens – good or bad – on your wedding day, you’re going to love your wedding video.”  We can say that, because when we edit your video, if a First Dance is part of your celebration, we’re going to make you look great.  We may not be able to turn you into Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but we do know how to take rough footage and create a beautiful finished product.  We focus on what’s special and unique about your First Dance, not on your dance technique.

First Dance Not Mandatory

Though there were once hard and fast rules about weddings, nowadays pretty much anything goes.  If a First Dance is something you’ve looked forward to and you want to incorporate it into your wedding day, then by all means do it.  However, if you and your intended aren’t enthusiastic about a spotlight dance, then don’t.

Though the wedding rules are more flexible today, it’s still up to the bride and groom to make sure everyone knows what you want.  So, if you don’t want a First Dance, speak up.  During your planning, there will be several opportunities to make your wishes known.  For instance,  if you hire a wedding planner, tell her up front that you don’t want that to be a part of your day.  If you don’t have a wedding planner, then inform people like the coordinator at the reception venue, the DJ, band or Master of Ceremonies.  You’ll want your photographer and videographer to know, also.

Then stick to your guns.  If you plan to exclude the traditional dance from your schedule, you may run into resistance.  The pressure could come from a family member who loves the idea of the first dance or a DJ who doesn’t want to change his routine, but wherever the resistance comes from, remember it’s your wedding.  If you and your intended aren’t going to be comfortable dancing solo in front of your family and friends, then it shouldn’t be part of your day.

First Dance Can Be Just One of Many

If, on the other hand, dancing is one of the things you’re most excited about, then the First Dance is just part of the menu.  Some of our couples dance down the aisle after being declared man and wife and then waltz through the night.  Dances are a great way to include guests in a wedding video and it’s more visually exciting than capturing them sitting at a table.  Here’s some other dancing ideas:

• Follow up the First Dance of the bride and groom with spotlight dances with other important people.  Most often these dances are brides with their fathers or grooms with their mom, but grandparents, aunts and uncles or anyone you want to honor in that way can be included.
• Before the formal introduction of the bride and groom at the reception, include introductions of your wedding party members and have them dance into the room.
• Promenades or marches that include all your guests
• Group dances like Line Dancing, Cotton-eyed Joe and Conga Lines
• Ethnic and cultural dances like the Hora or a Money Dance

Another charming moment in many of our videos are the shots of kids dancing.  After being still and quiet at the ceremony, they love to let loose on the dance floor.

The Sounds (?) of Dance

While your wedding video is in our studio, we’ll not only be editing the footage our cameras have recorded, we’ll also be mixing the sounds picked up by microphones and audio feeds.  One of our favorite microphones is a wireless mic we attach to the groom’s lapel.  Though the groom is not required to keep the mic on all night, we’ve found that it enriches the video if he will.  That way we can capture intimate conversations between the bride and groom, jokes and laughter, as well as well wishes delivered by family and friends.

During the reception, if possible, we’ll get direct audio feed from the band or DJ, which will greatly enhance the sound quality of the video.  Direct feed also helps us capture toasts and speeches.  In addition, we’ll have mics attached to our camera to pick up ambient sounds.  These mics also capture voices when we get the chance to interview guests.

We often find that when our couples watch their video for the first time, it is the sounds of their wedding which are the most moving.  Many of our couples take advantage of the fact that we can provide alternate sound tracks on their video.  This allows the couple to save their most intimate conversations for themselves on their own video, without having the more private parts shared on the videos for their families and friends

Make the Romance Real

While some of our couples truly are virtuoso dancers, most of them are not.  If you’d like to include a First Dance in your reception but know your dancing skills need a little help, then you may want to take a few dance lessons.  Your goal will not be to win the mirror ball trophy on Dancing with the Stars, but to feel comfortable during the dance.  With as few as three or four dance lessons, a private instructor can fast track you to fabulous or if you have more time, you can join group lessons.

A private dance instructor can assess your skills and choreograph something to get you gracefully through your First Dance.  He can suggest songs that best fit your skills and many can edit the songs.  With a little editing your time in the spotlight can be a little shorter than the length of the average song on the radio and any difficult passages can be edited out.

With just a little planning, you can have the First Dance you see in your head:

The double doors of the reception venue  open and there you are with your beloved.  You guys look amazing.  You step together, as one, onto the dance floor.  The sweet sounds of your favorite song fill the air.  Your groom sweeps you around the dance floor and your guests are astonished at how beautifully you dance together.  dance,” Barry says.  Learning to look great during a First Dance is very different than preparing for a ballroom dance competition.  His First Dance Crash Course might be all that you need.  It’s three 90 minute lessons that he recommends you spread out over two weeks.

While you are thinking about lessons, remember that your dance instructor can also help you with any other dancing you will have on your special day.  We’ve seen some amazing Father/Daughter dances and choreographed promenades.

Capture It All on Video

Whether you dance the night away or don’t dance at all, we’d like to be your wedding videographers.  Email us at info@lenicam.com or call us at 972-378-0446 to begin the conversation.

A Sample of Wedding Traditions We’ve Captured on Video

Travel the World with LeniCam Video Productions

Wedding Videos in Dallas Cover the World

Is all this bad weather giving you cabin fever?  It’s certainly gotten us thinking about warmer climates.  Through the magic of video we’ve captured weddings featuring cultural and religious traditions from all over the world, including many from countries that enjoy warm weather all the time.

Along with vows and first dances, we’re also documenting unique wedding customs from around the globe.  People move to Dallas from every corner of the world.  When they marry we’re able to capture their traditions.

On this map of Africa we’ve circled the many nations we’ve highlighted in a wedding video, but Africa is just the beginning.  Traditions from Europe, the Middle East, India, provinces of China and countries in Latin America have also been featured in our wedding videos.

What About Your Wedding?

One thing we’ve learned is that every wedding is unique.  Even when an All-American girl marries the boy-next-door in their suburban church down the street, two completely unique individuals are joining their lives.  We’ve videoed the weddings of three sisters in one family.  Though the sisters have similar physical characteristics and their guest lists included many of the same people, we saw three very unique weddings.

Whether you are from Paris TX or Paris, France our job is the same – to capture your unique wedding day, preserving your memories for all of your marriage.  We use a documentary style in our videos, because as time passes, you’ll be looking for different things, as will others.  The first time you view your video, you might be most interested in how your wedding dress looked or if the bridesmaids’ dresses matched the groomsmen’s boutonnieres.  Family members will be looking for themselves on the dance floor and listening to toasts.  In years to come, your children will hang onto every word of your vows and looks for signs of affection between their parents.  In later years, it may be a smile or a gesture, overlooked in previous years, that means the most.

Experience Matters

You’ll find that LeniCam uses the very best equipment available to capture your wedding, but the most important thing we bring with us is experience.  We know your day will be unique, but because we’ve videoed so many weddings, we know what to look for and how to capture it.

We know from experience which churches in town will not allow a videographer near the altar during the vows and we know what to do so we can get the shots.  We’re familiar with a wide variety of wedding traditions.  We know how to record and edit audio from an outdoor wedding so background sounds won’t overwhelm the words of the vows.  We know how to fix the shots of a bride who forgot to throw out her chewing gum.

Most brides imagine many situations contingencies that could effect their wedding video, but we promise this to all of our couples, no matter what happens on your wedding day – good or bad – you’re going to love your video.  Whatever your wedding tradition or creation, we hope you’ll put us to the test.

LeniCam Video Productions – Wedding Videos Dallas

$1000 to Winning Bride

What’s been happening in your life since your wedding day?  New home?  New car?  Vacations?  New Baby?  Would $1000 help with that?  Then listen up!

Wedding Wire, one of the top wedding referral sites, is offering the chance to win a $1000 prize to brides who post reviews on their site.  If you’ve already reviewed LeniCam Video Productions, then we appreciate it, but if you haven’t then here’s a great reason to click over there and leave a review.  Your review counts as a entry in the contest.

Wedding Date Doesn’t Matter

Perhaps you are one of those brides who used Wedding Wire as a resource for your wedding.  If you did, then you know just how helpful it was to read reviews from real brides, grooms, family and wedding party members.  Or, maybe Wedding Wire wasn’t even around when you planned your wedding.  It doesn’t matter whether we filmed your wedding last week, last year or sometime 5-6 years ago.  The contest is open to all brides, whenever they got married.  We’ve been recording weddings for a dozen years – that’s a lot of brides!

Reviews Help Future Brides

We won’t try to hide it.  Reviews are a great boon to our business, but we’re not the only ones who benefit from them.  The internet has become very important to brides as they research wedding vendors and they’re getting more important all the time.  When you take time to share your honest review of a company, you’ve just made things easier for the next bride.

Did you like working with us?  Were we easy to get in touch with?  Did we do what we say we would?  How do you feel about your video?  Did we do something special or go the extra mile?  Did you find our services affordable?  These are the things other brides want to know.

We could spend our last penny on advertising or talk ourselves hoarse and it won’t matter as much as a real review from a real bride.  Think of it as a way of paying it forward or your good deed for the day.

Any Review Will Do

Though we’d be particularly pleased if you took the time to review us, this contest is sponsored by Wedding Wire, not us.  They’d like to hear what you have to say about all your wedding vendors! Every review written in February is another entry in the contest, so take some time to review other vendors, too.  Just think how great it would be to have an extra $1000!

Haley and Bradley at Irvings Hackberry Creek Country Club in Wedding Videos Dallas

Bradley stood at the end of the aisle, seriously contemplating what he was about to undertake.  Then his eyes fell on Haley and a smile lit up his face.  Haley and Bradley were married at Hackberry Creek Country Club in Irving.

Catching sight of Haley on her wedding day was enough to make anyone smile.  The lace bodice of her ball gown tucked into a wide satin sash and the pleated satin skirt billowed out below.  A full veil fell from her updo.  She carried a bouquet of mixed purple flowers highlighted with calla lilies, stephanotis and small green chrysanthemums.

The ceremony was lovely and heartfelt.  You can see the couple’s earnestness during the vows.  The couple participated in a sand-pouring ceremony to symbolize how their previously separate lives were now becoming one.

Once the ceremony was behind them, a lighter mood settled onto the newlywed man and wife.  They joked with one another during the formal photography session and were both radiantly happy as they strolled into the reception.

Their reception was a very tempting affair.  The wedding cake, topped with decorated cakeballs starred in a dessert bar complete with a chocolate fountain.  However, the dance floor seemed to be an even bigger temptation; it stayed busy all night long.  The bride and groom were in the center of things, oftentimes providing the musical entertainment themselves.

The final song was the Star Wars theme song.  The couple escaped through a shower of bubbles to their SUV which had been decorated with a number of Star Wars references.  Come to think of it, did you notice how much Haley resembled Princess Leia?

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions

The Force was certainly with Haley and Bradley on their wedding day.  Our videographer was glad our tripods have wheels as he followed the energetic couple.  One of our goals during the wedding was to be everywhere, recording everything and everyone all the time.  Another goal was to be virtually invisible.  That’s the reason we chose to use a professional grade HD videocameras.

We believe the bride and groom should be the stars of their day – especially on the actual wedding day.  Our larger cameras allow us to stay in the background and zoom in and out for our shots, while maintaining the highest of video quality.  A cameraperson using a DSLR would have had to stay close to the Haley and Bradley throughout the day.  Wherever the guests saw Haley and Bradley, they would have also been looking at the camera-person.  We wanted a better experience for everyone.

In a wedding video, sounds are as important as sounds.  So the video will sound as good as it looks, we use a variety of microphones and audio feeds.  We want every word to be crystal clear.

We Sweat the Small Stuff So You Don’t Have To

LeniCam Video Productions – Wedding Videos Dallas

 Margaret and Tony at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church inWedding Video Dallas

This wedding was seven years in the making.  First Margaret and Tony were friends.  Then they lived in different states for several years.  Finally, love conquered all.  Margaret and Tony were married in Dallas at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.  No wonder Margaret sang Etta James’ “At Last” to her husband at the reception.

The Greek Orthodox Church has a rich visual tradition and Holy Trinity reflects the best parts of it.  The beautiful church with its stunning iconography and amazing architecture was a gorgeous backdrop for the wedding.  The ceremony, rich in symbolic rituals, was extremely meaningful.

Still, the lovely bride was the star of the show.  Her brocade gown with sweetheart neckline and cap sleeves was covered in sparkling crystals.  The lace-trimmed, cathedral-length veil seemed to wrap her in magic.  Under her veil, large crystal ornaments held her hair in place and crystal earrings dangled from her ears.

Margaret and Tony were supported on their wedding day by a large group of friends and family, many of them were in the wedding party – ten bridesmaids and six groomsmen.  The bridesmaids wore long black dresses in a variety of styles, each with sparkling metallic pumps.  Margaret’s bouquet was made of white roses mixed with white tulips.  Each bridesmaid carried a bouquet of green orchids.

After the wedding, the wedding party posed for formal portraits by Caroline Jurgensen Photography.  You could tell everyone was happy and enjoying the honor of being a part of Margaret and Tony’s special day.

The reception was held in the social hall of the church which had been transformed into an elegant ballroom with gilt bamboo-style chairs, crisp white linens, large white floral arrangements and a live band playing scintillating Big Band Era dance music.  The name of the band was Downtown Fever and Margaret once sang with them.  She stopped the show when she joined them to belt out the classic torch song for her beloved Tony.

The beautiful wedding cake, which looked as if it had been wrapped in yards of lace climbed tall with five layers of cake and three layers of pink silk roses.  Whether they were cutting their cake or dancing their first dance, it was easy to tell how in love the couple is.  When the evening was over, Margaret and Tony strolled through a shower of pink rose petals to a Bentley convertible and drove away.

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions – Wedding Videos Dallas

Margaret and Tony’s wedding day was a feast for the senses, both sight and sound.  In order to convey that through video, our videographers had to be everywhere, all the time, from an hour and a half before the wedding to the moment the couple rode away in the convertible.  Because we use professional grade HD vidoecameras, we’re able to stay at the edge of the crowd and still get every detail of the bride’s happy face.  Because the couple hired two cameras for the wedding and reception, we were able to record more footage and produce a video which rivals a Hollywood production.

Along with our cameras we use a variety of microphones and audio feeds.  For instance, Margaret’s song sounds as good as it does on the video because we recorded it directly from the audio feed, rather than depending on the cameras microphone which is better suited for ambient sounds or conversations happening right in front of it.

The people at the church were very good to work with.  The priest showed us where to plug into their audio system so we could get a direct audio feed of everything he said.  They were happy to let us record the ceremony, but they had one rule – no one in the audience could see us.  So, we hid behind a big pillar and were able to see the ceremony even better than some of the audience could.

After the wedding we took all the audio and video footage back to our studio and spend weeks editing and mixing it all to create a unique video for Margaret and Tony, as well has the brief highlights video shown here.

We told the bride and groom that no matter what happened on their wedding day – good or bad – they would love their video.  During the ceremony, one of the bridesmaids fainted, but you’d never know it by looking at the video.  The couple loved the finished product and can enjoy in all their years together.

We Sweat the Small Stuff So You Don’t Have To

LeniCam Video Productions – Wedding Videos Dallas