For years my mom has talked about getting her old 8mm film transferred to DVD so she could watch her old videos. For Christmas this year, Dad and I decided to finally get them transferred for her. Honestly I thought it would be a hassle, but after searching their home for the film and doing some research online we found a place less than an hour from home that specializes in this exact thing.
Being my nosey self paired with the fact that I wrap all of Dad’s Christmas gifts for mom, I had my hands on the final product and decided to watch the video before I wrapped the DVD. Just a few of the memories that were included on this tape are: Mom and Dad’s wedding, my Grandma and Grandpa’s anniversary party, camping trips, vacations, snow tubing, etc. The two that really stood out for me when I watched it was my parent’s wedding and my grandparent’s anniversary party.
My Grandpa died when I was very young (three maybe?) and my Grandma passed away last year. Getting to see the two of them together, surrounded by family and so stinkin’ happy made my heart swell when watching it. It was amazing to see them together and how much my grandpa made my grandma smile. It brought tears to my eyes being able to see them that way. I’m such a sap.
Getting to see my parent’s wedding was pretty awesome too. I’ve seen photos before, but photos then were pretty much all posed and formal shots. Nothing like today’s photo-journalistic style that I love so much. Without that a lot of the candid moments were lost. Watching the footage of their wedding day brought those moments back to life. It was crazy awesome to see my parents so young and in love. Not that they aren’t still in love to this day, but it’s definitely different seeing your parents 40 years younger before you were even born on their wedding day.
So what’s the point of all of this? Going into our wedding planning process the three most important things to us were/are: 1. Our marriage, 2. Making sure it’s a fun day not just for David and I, but for our family and friends as well, and 3. Preserving the memories. I’m sure it’s not a surprise to anyone that wedding photography was one of the main priorities of our day and something I absolutely refused to skimp on, but I also really wanted a wedding film. If you had asked me three or four years ago if I would want a wedding film I probably would have said no and that pictures would be enough for me. But then I started working part-time for a company (Bella Vista Productions) while I was building up my photography business to full time, and I got to see first hand the memories and moments captured, and not only that but the action of these things. The moment of them. People dancing, hearing the toasts and well wishes. As amazing as photography is, it can’t capture the words that were spoken. Seeing all of these things and much more edited together to create a wedding film left no doubt in my mind that I wanted our wedding day to be filmed. And seeing mom and dad’s wedding all these years later confirmed that it’s worth it. Being able to show our children and grandchildren this film in future years along with being able to watch it ourselves on our anniversaries and whenever we want is going to be priceless.
thegreenfieldlife.com 