Palais Royale Wedding, Toronto
When we first skyped with Linda and Mike back in January it was freezing cold here, but it was just another balmy day for them at their home in sunny Los Angeles. It was during that initial conversation that they divulged a secret to us and asked us if we could help them. We were intrigued and of course excited. Linda and Mike were planning their upcoming wedding celebration in Toronto, which would happen in a few months’ time, they were flying up from California to their hometown in order to profess their love to each other in front of family and friends. What almost everyone present that June day didn’t know was that Linda and Mike were actually already married. The summer before they had eloped, drove up the California coast and were wed on the beach with less than a handful of guests. It was really important to Linda and Mike that the handheld footage captured by their friend during that first ceremony be incorporated into their feature film that we would be producing from their wedding footage here in Toronto. They said that if we didn’t think it fit not to worry, but if they could possibly have just one wedding film that encompassed both weddings that would truly be their perfect wedding film. When we watched the shaky, often under-exposed footage from that day we immediately got goosebumps. It felt so real, raw and organic. It took you back to that place and time and it really made us feel like we had been there on the beach with them that day. It also fit so perfectly with the footage that we shot almost a year later. This highlight film is one of my very favourite pieces we’ve ever created because to me it really does meld together two events into one story. It is the wedding story of Linda and Mike. Two warm and wonderful people who said we do twice to each other, in two separate countries, during two ceremonies that couldn’t be any more different from each other. Yet, one constant remains and that is their love and promises to each other.