I’ve rarely met a wedding film I’ve liked. Most of the time, they feel very cookie cutter, made by a hired professional videographer who likely has no personal connection to the couple. There are always sweeping aerial shots of the venue, details of getting ready, chronological events of the day, or maybe even snippets from speeches cut to some royalty-free song, but I don’t ever get emotional. But when I’m attending a wedding, I can feel the love between the couple, even if I’ve just met them. So why can’t the film make me feel the same way?

Most wedding films only document the day all its glossiness, rather than the love between the couple. (And hate to say it, but some bad ones kind of just feel like ads for the venue or vendors due to their focus on the aesthetic details.) The fact of the matter is that one day cannot tell the full love story of two people and the community that surrounds them. That story is built over years of partnership, commitment, growth, and lived experiences that has brought them to that day. I wanted my wedding film to reflect that, so I decided to make it myself.

Part I: The Wedding planning Vlog

My wedding was very DIY, and I wanted to tell that story through through a vlog. I think planning your own wedding and overseeing all the details is extremely meaningful, and I wanted to remember all the work that went into it and how much fun we had along the way. Vlogs capture the process behind it all, showcasing the many emotions that come with doing something so high-pressure from my own diary-like perspective. It highlights the mundane moments, the everyday activities, and genuine reactions that create an intimate connection between the viewer and creator. To me, vlogs are more authentic and personal, which I think makes for a better story. Ultimately, living life, through all its ups and downs, is what people relate to.

I’ve built the habit of recording my life and its daily moments on my phone, which over time, allows me to see themes and write stories with them. So I luckily had a lot of footage to work with. But that was a blessing and a curse as this vlog became one of the most complex videos I’ve ever edited. Even though wedding planning is naturally an easy story to tell, I had to gather and organize all the footage from varying sources, screen and structure them into mini-stories, and write a voiceover script that told the story with decent pacing to keep it entertaining. It follows a rough chronological order, grouping planning into months-long phases, then zooming into the last week, last day, last hours before the wedding started.

Watch it for yourself…

Part II: The Wedding Film

I never planned to have videographers in my planning budget in favor of just assembling guests’ clips from the wedding day itself. I always envisioned a vlog-type wedding film that I would direct and edit myself. However, I figured having some nice b-roll wouldn’t hurt, so I hired a videographer to come film the event and deliver raw footage. This way, my guests and I were able to enjoy my own wedding day, and ultimately, I would get to create the video (and nitpick at all the details) myself. But judging by how much time has eclipsed been between my wedding day and the publication of this post, I had my hands full. (And life got in the way!)

But I got over my perfectionism, gave myself a deadline, and got it done.

Editor’s notes

After the big day has come and gone, the only thing we have left to revisit are the photos and videos. The photos capture the glitz and glam, framed moments in time. But the job of the video is to take you right back to that day, feeling those same feelings as you relive that time in your life. Since this video was a labor of love, I have some things to say.

The flashback intro

The vision for the intro came to me on a long bus ride. The video was going to start with our vows, overlaid with clips from the course of our relationship. It took forever to find and assemble these clips, but I absolutely love that it nods to our entire relationship before getting into the wedding day itself. It’s a much more authentic depiction of our story and how we’ve grown together in the past decade. To me, that’s how love should be portrayed — as a progression, not just a single highlight moment.

The narrative flow

The emotional and narrative flow and structure of the rest of the film were the hardest to get right. I always start with music, because that’s the one thing I can’t create from scratch (yet). Music sets the mood for the scene I want to tell. From there I start sequencing and piecing together the scenes into the film, and cutting footage that matches the pace. I had hours and hours of footage to translate into a succinct story that captures the most important and visually appealing moments of the day.

A rough chronological order made sense, but I wanted to keep things varied and interesting. Since the story of the day was going to be told visually, I wanted quick cuts to keep things moving, to not bore people. The professional footage did a nice job of capturing the standard “big” moments of the day (the first look, ceremony, speeches, etc), but they ended up being too focused on just Simon and me looking too posed. I wanted candid. I wanted authenticity. I wanted to portray the intimacy of our relationships with guests and the liveliness of the atmosphere. So I used guests’ phone and vlog footage to supplement humor, personality, and a personal connection to the rest of the footage. Who cares if it’s pixelated, shaky, chaotic? It has feeling.

Lastly, the vows and speeches narrate and add substance to the visuals, voicing over the story quite literally, and bringing substance and a poignant piece into the mix.

The mood

On actual wedding day, the vibe started out emotional and formal, but then turned into a lively party, which matched our personality better anyway. I wanted the film to reflect that. I end the film on a vibrant beat, and continue that into more silliness in the ending credits, which was more or less just an excuse for me to include all the guest vlogs. Sure, a wedding can be documentary-style and glamorous, but don’t forget how real it is. The day-after clean up session is real. The guest messages are real. The silly humorous moments are real. The community and the love are real.

Improving at the art of filmmaking

Having a good film of yourself makes you feel like a main character in your own life. The aim was for our wedding film to be personal and cinematic, one of the few buzzwords I actually like. I’m endlessly inspired by the new generation of YouTubers who have raised the bar for personal storytelling, even if it’s just of day-to-day life. Their creative direction feels intentional, every transition and cut edited with thought and care to make not just a video but a film. The graphics and titles are hand-drawn and professional, unlike anything you’d find on iMovie. Music is high quality and complements the scene. Pacing slows down and speeds up at the perfect moments. They’re not afraid to let moments linger for emotions to build. Vlog footage is interwoven effortlessly, breaking down the fourth wall and blurring the line between “performance” and the real-life interaction. They tell intimate, moving stories that are deeply personal.

As I invest more into filmmaking as an art and hobby, I’m starting to develop an eye for these things, and learning to improve my skills with practice. Even though I’ve been using DaVinci Resolve for over a year now, I’ve had to learn how to color grade footage, mix audio, and add simple vfx to achieve the effects I wanted for this project, however hacky. Thank you to all the random Youtube tutorials out there 🙏

How’d I do?

My DIY Wedding: Our wedding film