Here’s the awkward question we keep getting asked in quieter moments (usually after the second coffee):
Who is actually going to be there on the day?
Because the wedding-film corner of the internet is full of polished sites… and then, when the morning arrives, a different face holding the camera. Someone who got the brief late. Someone you’ve never spoken to.
I get messages most days from other companies hunting for anyone available to shoot a wedding they’ve already taken on. The brief, the date, the couple’s names — all ready to go, just no one actually free (or willing) to turn up. That is the quiet reality behind a lot of the shiny websites.
We are not that version of the story.
You get Shaun. The one who shows up with the cameras and then does his best to vanish into the edges of the room so the day can still feel like yours. He is not running a shot list of slow-motion walks. He is usually just present — quiet enough that the moment your dad’s voice catches is the moment that ends up in the film, even if you were too busy staying upright to notice it yourself.
And you get TJ in everything that happens before and after. The planning, the gentle (and occasionally less gentle) reminders about vows, the logistics, the emotional temperature-taking. She is not the second shooter. She does not hide behind another camera. She is the other half of the pair you have been talking to the whole time.
We keep the number of weddings low on purpose — around thirty a year — because that is the only way we still get to give a damn at the level we want to. Stack the calendar any higher and we would have to hand days off to other people. At that point the whole point of booking us disappears.
There will not be a “lead cinematographer” you meet for the first time on the morning. There will not be a surprise extra body pulled from a group chat. You get the same two slightly unhinged humans who once started under a lemon tree with tequila and a bag of chips and somehow turned it into a life of other people’s vows.
If you want a big crew, a crane, and someone whose sole job is holding a reflector all day, we are almost certainly not the right fit. That is genuinely fine — there are excellent larger teams out there who do that brilliantly.
(We do keep a trusted network of second shooters for the rare times it is needed, or if something unexpected happens, so you are still covered.)
But if the idea of two real people who already know your story — and who will still be the same two people on the day — makes your shoulders drop a little… then go watch a full film. Not the trailer. The actual thing.
Then come say hello. Coffee, virtual margarita, whatever’s going. We’re not precious.
Big love, Shaun and TJ
