I remember visiting the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco a few years ago and imagining how awesome it would be to film a wedding there. The historical architecture and quaint scenery had such a romantic touch. So imagine my eagerness when Amrit (an awesome wedding planner) connected us with Harman and Sonia and told us that the wedding will be at the Fairmont Hotel. I scheduled a call with the couple and made sure that we were the wedding cinematography and wedding photography team to film this beautiful Indian wedding in the lovely city of San Francisco.

Though we have filmed numerous Sikh Indian Weddings before and have an outstanding wedding cinematography portfolio under our belt, we still approach every wedding with intentional creativity and attentiveness. Many times before, we have included the reception Grand Entrance into the Same Day Edit, and that on it’s own is very complex. However, I wanted to test our limits a bit further and for this wedding, we wanted to include the First Dance in the video as well. While I was planning it all out beforehand, the pre-filming butterflies and jitters set in. I knew this addition would demand a high-level of coordination and skill but I trusted in my team’s ability.

As I looked at the reception itinerary, I found out that I have only 12 minutes to edit the First Dance into the Same Day Edit before the video was set to play. Luckily, several speeches were scheduled to happen throughout the reception and the wedding planner shifted those speeches around to give me about 22 minutes before go time. Secretly, I was hoping those speakers to give a longer speech but with speeches, the length is usually unpredictable. It turned out, I only got 18 minutes to edit the film, but fortunately, that was plenty of time to work our magic out onto the screen. Not only was I able to include the Grand Entrance but I also edited in the First Dance flawlessly.

One of the most humbling and inspiring moments for our team is watching the couple and guests enjoy the timeless memories we captured just moments before. Seeing the endless smiles, and sometimes even sweet tears, from the family members, reminds me why I challenge our team with Same Day Edits. Both the bride and groom were beaming as they watched the film our team put together.

I want to note that the video you see above is slightly extended to include a bit more of the reception dancing. We include this extended version on our blog to give the couple a more complete feel of their wedding day celebration. However, I want to underline that the Same Day Edits we show at the reception on the big screen is extremely close to what we post online on our blog. We work hard on the day of the wedding to produce a unique and color-graded masterpiece with superb quality and perfect sound. That is what sets us apart from other wedding videographers because we are able to produce a high-quality Same Day Edit before the reception is even over.

The video that is embedded below is the exact version we showed at the reception, no strings attached. Nothing was adjusted or altered.