Anna and Ben’s Wedding on Dallas Wedding Videography

Lovely Afternoon Ceremony and Reception at Dallas Arboretum

Anna and Ben chose the beautiful Dallas Arboretum for their May wedding. The bright sunshine-filled day melted away into a warm Texas night full of music and laughter as family and friends celebrated the joyous occasion.

The graceful bride was a former Miss Texarkana. In her sleek trumpet gown was lovelier than the blooms in the glorious garden. Her strapless satin gown with its straight neckline hugged her sleek profile. Her tiny waist was highlighted by a satin ribbon with a crystal buckle. The tulle veil, trimmed in scalloped lace, fell to the same length as the cathedral train of her gown. She carried a large bouquet of pastel peonies.

Anna and her bridal party waited for the ceremony in the shade of a graceful arbor. As she approached her groom, she passed the reflecting infinity pool in A Women’s Garden, where it seemed the statue of the contemplative female turned to admire the bride. Across the lawn, Ben waited with the minister and the base of cascading fountains. Live strings were playing.

The emotional impact of the vows ruffled the bride, who had seemed so serene just moments before. She tripped over words and struggled to remember phrases, until she turned to Ben, who was sending her encouragement with his smile.

When the ceremony was over both the bride and groom relaxed, playfully bantering back and forth as the photographer put them through their paces. Then everyone congregated in a nearby courtyard, next to the Loggia for the energetic reception with live band and photo booth.

The wedding cake was a multi-tiered confection, surrounded by real peonies, trimmed with pink ribbon and topped off with hand-crafted sugar peonies. After cutting the cake and feeding each other a bite, the couple moved to the dance floor for their first dance and dances with their parents. After the formal spotlight dances were through, the band, Tenacity, warmed up the crowd and everyone came to the dance floor. Laura Schhindler of L’events (link) produced an outstanding event.

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions

Anna and Ben’s outdoor wedding was a lot of fun and we had to utilize many of our videography skills. Take the bright sunshine for instance. While it made for a splendid wedding, it also created a situation in which Anna could have disappear into a shiny white blur – if our videographers hadn’t known exactly how to record the scene. Then after the sunset, there was the opposite problem and without the proper lighting, instead of happy figures rocking out to the sounds of the band, all that viewers would be able to see is dark shadows. During this video we can appreciate Anna’s warm smile, during the ceremony and on the dance floor.

We also had to take special care to get the audio right. Since the couple stood right in front of the cascading fountains during the ceremony, the words of their vows could have been lost in the sounds of water. We put a wireless microphone onto the groom to get every precious word of their vows, as well as the light-hearted banter during the photos.

Two sets of microphones were used to capture the sounds of the live strings. On the video there is no hint of the wind or the water.

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

LeniCam Video Productions – Dallas Wedding Videography

A Country Wedding on a Family Farm in videos Wedding Dallas

Brooke and Eland – A Wedding in the Country

The chapel’s ceiling was a blue sky.  The floor a carpet of green grass.  Guests sat on hay bales, shading their eyes with fans.  Brooke and Eland were married on Brooke’s family farm outside Gainesville, Texas.

Brooke took great pains to comply with bridal traditions.  Her something old was her grandma’s diamond necklace.  For something new, she and her fiancé bought matching green cowboy boots. Stud earrings fulfilled the need for something blue.  In her boot was a penny from her father marked with the year she was born.  She looked lovely in her strapless, drop-waisted ball gown with a sweetheart neckline and ruffled skirt.

Since Green is Eland’s last name, Brooke chose the color green for her wedding.  Along with his green boots, Eland wore a bright green shirt.  The green grass was complimented by balls of green flowers hanging at the end of each row of hay bales.  In Brooke’s bouquet of calla lilies the foliage stood out green against the white flowers and her white dress.

With a nod to their farmland heritage Brooke and Eland participated in a knot tying ceremony during their vows.  Each of them took a length of rope and they tied the pieces together.  The minister explained the ropes represented the couple’s lives before the ceremony and that from now on, the ropes would act as one and could not be separated.

After a flurry of photographs everyone moseyed over to the reception where a pair of beautiful cakes waited.  The groom’s cake was chocolate and the wedding cake stood three layers tall.  Each layer of the wedding cake was covered in lacy patterns of white icing and calla lilies cascaded down the side.

The couple cut the first piece of their cake together.  When Brooke picked up the first piece to feed to Eland, a look of mischief crossed her face.  Eland realized he was in trouble, so he began to run.  The couple’s laughter assured everyone that the food fight was all in fun.  Soon the couple was dancing on the green lawn.

As the day drew to a close, Brooke and Eland ran through showers of birdseed tossed at them from their guests.  Then they climbed into a pick-up truck and rode off into the sunset.

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions

We love outdoor weddings like Brooke and Eland’s, even if they require us to work a little harder.  We know all the lighting adjustments we’ll make during the filming and all the sound editing in the studio will result in a memorable wedding video.  And since outdoor venues are always more spread out than indoor venues, we also get a lot of good exercise.

At an indoor wedding, the lights may be too bright or too low, but once we’ve adjusted our cameras to compensate for the situation, we know we’ll have great footage.  At this outdoor wedding we were adjusting for the lighting all the time.  The sun was at one position when we set up our equipment, and when the ceremony started, it had moved.  Then there are segments where the bride and groom move from one place to another, passing through both open and shaded areas.  Our settings had to change as they moved from light to dark and then back into the light.  Faces can also be hard to capture in sunlight, but our many years of experience have taught us just how to get great quality shots, even in situations which seem impossible.

This outdoor wedding has many distracting noises recorded on the original footage, like traffic and animal noises.  One of the ways we overcame these was by putting a wireless microphone on the groom and the officiant.  The microphones on the cameras picked up the ambient noises.  By editing and mixing all the tracks we created a natural feel to the video while focusing on the words of the ceremony.

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

LeniCam Video Productions – Videos Wedding Dallas 

Mary and Matthew – The Cooper Aerobics Center in Wedding Video Dallas TX

The bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome, but the father stole the show.  During the reception he sang the bride a lullaby – a Beatles song for which he wrote new lyrics.  Mary married Matthew along the creek at the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, with the blessing and love of her very special father.

Mary looked lovely in her ivory satin dress with sleek contemporary styling.  Devoid of distracting decorations, the full skirt fit onto a corset bodice with a sweetheart neckline.  Sheer illusion was attached to the bodice to form cap sleeves and continued down to her waist with satin covered buttons.  The stunning gown was made by Mary’s  mom.

Before he sang the lullaby with the live band, Jurassic Rock, the father told his guests when Mary was six years old she’d told him she wanted to get married in a field.  He made her childhood wish come true in a wedding day full of entertainments.  Under the reception marquee, guests were treated to a delicious buffet meal.  They could record memories of the wedding day in a photo booth complete with props or sit for a portrait by a caricaturist. Croquet and a bean bag toss were also available. Even the six year old Mary would have approved.

After their incredible day, Mary and Matthew strolled away hand in hand along the creek, with the lights of the evening reflecting into the water.  With one final wave they said good-bye to their guests and headed into their new life together.

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions

Mary and Matthew’s wedding was spread out over several acres of the Cooper Aerobics Center.  Being everywhere and capturing all the sights and sounds while remaining invisible to the guests and participants in the outdoor setting required a lot of fancy footwork , technology and experience.  We wanted to capture all of Mary’s field of dreams.

When we came back to our studio and reviewed the video and audio we recorded that day, we knew we wanted Mary’s father’s song to be at the core of it.  We edited and mixed the footage, weaving the song in between all the special moments of the day.  Another editing trick we used was to insert the groom’s vows with Mary’s vows so that it seems they are repeating them to one another without the clergy’s prompting.

We tell our brides that no matter what happens on their wedding day, good and bad, they are going to love their wedding video.  Mary and Matthew’s wedding day was full of good things, giving us a lot of special moments to choose from when making their video and when we were done, they loved it.

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

LeniCam Video Productions – Wedding Video from Cooper Aerobics Center

Jaclyn and Blake’s Wedding and Reception at Home in Sanger, Texas 

The scene was all country.  Wooden benches set out in rows before a natural arbor of vines and flowers.  Immediately behind the arbor lay a glistening stock pond and in the distance white fences divided green pastures.  Jaclyn and Blake were married at the home of the bride’s parents in Sanger, Texas.

The beautiful bride in her lace covered wedding gown and her bridesmaids in deep eggplant one-shouldered dresses would have graced the aisle of any cathedral.  They looked particularly lovely walking among the trees of the expansive ranch.  A pair of flower-girls in handkerchief-styled dresses rounded out the bridal party.

The groomsmen wore white-button down shirts, blue jeans and boots.  The groom added a black cowboy hat and western-styled jacket to his ensemble.  A young ring-bearer wore the same thing as the groomsmen, but he topped it off with a straw cowboy hat.

The spring day was glorious with lots of sunshine and gentle breezes.  Jaclyn made a dramatic entrance in a vintage pick-up truck driven by her father. The couple vowed their love to one another and sealed the deal with a passionate kiss.  Then they hopped into the pickup and drove up to the house, where a large white marquee covered the patio outside Jaclyn’s parent’s house.  Beautiful horses frolicking in a nearby pen completed the perfect country western scene.

Lots of two-stepping mixed with lots of homemade pies made for a great evening.  Also on hand, for folks with a sweet tooth, was an elegant multi-tiered wedding cake topped with flowers and covered in a paisley design.  When the couple shared the first piece of their cake Blake tried to get a taste of Jaclyn’s fingers with his bite and ended up with icing and crumbs all around his grinning mouth.  Before the bride had her taste, she warned the smirking groom that he had better be nice.

When it was time for the garter toss, Jaclyn lifted her dress and showed off her custom made boots with her new initial – not the footwear you’d expect under her lacy gown.  Soon it was time for the bride and groom to make their departure, so they danced off into the dark and into their new life together.

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions – Dallas Wedding Videographers

We love outdoor weddings, especially when the weather cooperates like it did on Jaclyn and Blake’s special day.  The bright Texas sun was one of the highlights of the ceremony, forcing us to compensate for its intensity – otherwise the bride would have been nothing but a white blur.  Later in the evening after the sun went down, we turned on the lights of our cameras and adjusted our lenses to capture faces in the low light.

One of the most charming things about this video is the banter between the bride and groom throughout the day.  The sight of them riding away from the ceremony in the pickup truck is absolutely bucolic, but being able to hear them complain about the bumps is delightful.

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

Here’s what Jaclyn’s mom had to say about our video on Wedding Wire.  “ My daughter was not sure she wanted a video of her wedding. I contacted John and went ahead and had him video the day. The finished product is great. The newlyweds are now so glad they have the video. The day to them was a blur. The video is a great reminder of all that happened and everyone that was there. John and his partner were very professional and captured the day in all its greatness.”

Video Wedding Dallas Captures Jackie and Trey’s Poolside Wedding at Parents’ Home with Tent Reception 

“You look after my treasure,” Dad said as he handed Jackie over to Trey.  The love glowing from Trey’s eyes assured Jackie her groom also considered her a treasure.  Jackie and Trey were married poolside at her parent’s estate in Rockwall, Texas with Dallas Wedding Videography.

The lovely bride wore a lace-over-satin fit-and-flare gown with a V-Neck bodice, lace cap-sleeves and keyhole back.  Her unique headpiece, of feathers, beads and lace, was worn on the side of her coiffure.  She carried a large bouquet of peach and white roses.

The groom, in his tan suit and ostrich skin cowboy boots, waited in an open field for his bride to arrive for their First Look.  She slipped up behind him with her train over her arm as the groom explained all the reasons he loved her.

The wedding party approached the ceremony site across a bridge spanning the swimming pool.  The bridesmaids, carrying bouquets of mixed white flowers, wore peach-colored gowns in a variety of lengths and styles.   The flower girl was so tiny she had to be carried down the aisle.

As the bride and groom shared vows they’d written for one another, emotion overtook the bride and only a quick unauthorized kiss saved her from breaking into tears.  The recessional back across the bridge was a happy parade.  Then a golf cart carried the couple from poolside, across a field, to the reception’s large white party tent.

Inside the tent, the photographer gathered all the guests, who were dressed in white, for a group picture taken from atop a ladder.  The delicious buffet gave a nod to both Johannesburg and Baton Rouge, cities important to the bride and groom and many of the guests.  The Jambalaya was prepared by the groom and a favorite guitarist had been flown in from Atlanta.

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions

At Jackie and Trey’s wedding, LeniCam wore more than one hat.  We helped the bride with her audio needs, along with our videography services.  We were able to do that, because over the many years we’ve been in business, we’ve accumulated a large inventory of equipment, in order to facilitate the wide variety of events we cover.

Though many venues and vendors provide their own audio equipment, Jackie’s parents’ home wasn’t wired for sound.  By providing speakers and a sound mixer, in addition to the microphones and cameras we usually take to weddings, we were able to save Jackie and Trey money; because the add-on fee was much less expensive than contracting with a separate service provider.

There was an added bonus for Jackie and Trey beyond the cost savings.  Because we controlled the audio output at the wedding and reception, we were able to produce a video with better sound.

We sweat the small stuff so you don’t have to!

LeniCam Video Productions – Video Wedding Dallas