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All around the word, brides dream about their big day and a Destination Wedding in Napa Valley is an ultimate fairytale for many couples. They envision saying "I do" on the beautiful hilltops of the world-renown wine country. For one couple, this fairytale came to life and we were honored to capture their most tender and silly moments on their wedding day. Chris and Anna traveled from Los Angeles, California for their July wedding in the Wine Country Inn & Restaurant Madrona Manor. Their family and wedding guests flew from all over the U.S. to celebrate their wedding day in a grand estate mansion surrounded by enchanted gardens nestled into a beautiful hilltop of the Napa Valley vineyards. Though I have photographed several weddings here before, Madrona Manor is still one of my favorite wedding venues to photograph for the natural and effortless beauty it offers....

San Francisco is a city full of beautiful, exotic photography spots and every time I have an engagement session planned in this city, I get very excited. One of my favorite locations on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean is Lands End which is on the northwest part of the island by Point Lobos. The sutro baths that once stood there (destroyed by a fire in 1966) are now monumental ruins perfect for a gorgeous engagement session. Raj & Simran have never been to the Lands End area and were very excited to pose in this beautiful San Francisco photography spot. Their Lands End engagement session lasted until the sun went down and we definitely used the beautiful San Francisco sunset skies to our advantage. I took out my Canon off-camera flash and created some creative lighting portraits positioning the couple on the rocks of the beach. The sky was very moody that evening because of the Napa Valley fires that were unfortunately happening not too far away. Usually, a foggy looking sunset doesn't get photographers too excited, but I used this hazy look to my advantage to create a soft, romantic look with the flash making the couple stand out a little. Here are the beautiful results from this Lands End engagement photo session....

We enjoy destination weddings and traveling to tell visual stories from different cultures. The Muslim Wedding of Afeef and Moniza in San Diego, California was no exception. The ceremony was beautiful and cultural, the cocktail hour had tacos (very different) and the reception had churros (not a wedding cake). We loved that touch of uniqueness that Afeef and Moniza applied to their wedding. Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina Hotel is a perfect place to get married. Our San Diego Wedding Cinematography team did an outstanding job capturing this beautiful wedding. Enjoy the Short Film....

Having audio from your wedding is just as important as having video from your wedding. It's nice to look at you wedding video and hear beautiful background music, but having clean audio from your vows, speeches and other events assisting the video, takes your wedding video to another level and makes it into a professional wedding film. The extra attention we put on audio at each and every wedding, really helps our wedding films be on another level. Find out how we capture audio on your wedding to create emotional, cinematic and touching wedding films. ...

Our challenge here was to take our Same Day Edits onto another level – have the Same Day Edit transition into shots that are in REALTIME during the First Dance at the Grand Island Mansion Wedding! We mixed live from our Drone in the sky, Crane camera, Close up camera and Stabilizer camera creating an amazing experience for the wedding couple and party. This was challenging, but we pulled it off seamlessly....

Ronak and Bani blew us away with their Indian/Hindu wedding! We filmed for 5 days in a row, capturing beautiful moments of the culture, the family, and the couple. We literally filmed 2 weddings in 1. Indian Wedding Cinematography is becoming more and more of our speciality. We love setting the bar high and I believe that this cinematic wedding video sets the bar high. Enjoy this short film of a beautiful Indian Wedding....

Have you ever had Apple Final Cut Pro X crash when it's being relinked? I have had that happen plenty of time. It's not pleasant, but most importantly, I as a wedding videographer, it wastes my time. I have a few editors that help me with my longer wedding documentary edits. I send them files and a project file, they edit the documentary edit, and I get the project back at the end. My job is now to check the project before exporting and uploading. But I've been running into issues of Final Cut Pro X crashing when I press relink. Here are a few things to note: We are both using the same exact footage. When relinking, the footage goes past the "validation" in FCPX successfully. BUT when I press "relink" - Final Cut Pro crashes. Restarting FCPX freezes it. And if I do have success, I am accompanied with some shots that are "black" and show up as "no data." This is the worst scenario. I have spent a lot of time trouble shooting this exact scenario and with trail and error, finally found a system (or workflow) that seems to have been working with FCPX 10.3.4 each and every time I run into this situation. The steps are simple. Watch the video if you want to be walked though the process, but like I said - it's simple. Open the FCPX project that requires relinking. Open the timeline that you need to relink. Select all of the footage (cmd+a) and copy it (cmd+c). Create a new Library. Let me repeat. Create a new Library (not an event). In the new FCPX Library, create a new project with the setting you need. Paste (cmd+v) on the new project (this will be pasting the copied timeline from the other un-relinked project). Once everything is on the timeline, you can now relink. Select the new FCPX Library, and go to File > Relink Files. You should have success (There are a few catches though, especially if you have multiple projects). This works really well with having one project.   My video does go a bit in...

Greg and Yvonne travelled from Louisiana for their Destination Wedding Elopement in Napa Valley. This amazing couple chose Domaine Chandon as their elopement location overlooking the hills of the Wine Country.  This lovely and beautiful couples met on a rainy night by accident. As Greg says in his vows "I wasn't looking for someone to mold the rest of my life, but you did. I wasn't looking for someone that could fit into my family, but you do. I wasn't looking for someone that I wanted to spend my life with, but you are that person." For Yvonne, Greg, is the love of her life and he made her believe in love again. This truly inspiring story captured in the hilltops in Napa Valley, is a tear jerker for sure. We arrived early to a mansion in Sonoma that the Bride and Groom were getting ready in. After spending some time capturing some preparation shots, we headed to Domaine Chandon to set up for the short ceremony. I flew the drone for a quick establishing shot of the rolling hills, set up audio and filmed some atmosphere shots of the venue and the ceremony. The location was amazing - 5 star. As we set up, we watched in awe as a Live Painting artist prepared her canvas for the elopement ceremony. With 6 wedding guests, Greg made his way to the front of the ceremony and Yvonne made her elegant entrance with the warm sun beaming behind her. The ceremony was quick, but I knew I had some amazing content for the elopement film. Both the officiant and the groom were mic'ed so I had clean audio from their ceremony vows and "I DOs". Right after the ceremony, the couple and their closest friends sat down to drink some wine and chat. I found an amazing opportunity to to capture some story as everyone congratulated the couples and expressed their feelings. Honestly, this was not planned but turned out to be some emotional and memorable content for the wedding elopement film....

“Open your eyes. It’s a beautiful life. It’s so beautiful.” The lyrics of the song express the wedding of Kelly & Owen perfectly. This wedding was beautiful at the Triple S Ranch (SSS Ranch). The bride, the venue, the gnarled walnut tree, the vows, the flowers - everything. I loved capturing every detail and I think we pulled it off well. I personally love Napa Valley and when we get a chance to film a wedding in the wine country, I get excited. Additionally, we LOVE working with couples that LOVE our work, especially when they express it to us. It secretly allows us to go into a higher gear when filming their wedding. Enjoy the story of the day that Kelly and Owen professed their love to each other....

It’s pretty amazing to see how wedding cinematography has evolved in the last few years. I’ve been filming wedding since 2005 and it’s very exciting to see the evolution of wedding art. Back in the days, things were simple - you took a camera and filmed as much as you can. This was the age of “wedding videography.” In 2008, we witnessed a HUGE change in the wedding industry with the release of the first Full Frame DSLR Canon 5D MK II that recorded video. A camera that immensely redefined filming weddings and created a new “breed” of videographers: Wedding Cinematographers, Wedding Filmmakers, Wedding Storytellers and so on. The quality of wedding videos improved dramatically, the stories improved and the wedding video industry in itself shot up. Take a look how we at Aperina Studios evolved and continued to create the best possible films for each of our couples....

Chris and Anna contacted us a few months before their wedding and told us that we were their first choice to book for wedding photography and wedding videography. We love couples that absolutely love our work and give us the 100% creative control over everything (well - just the Healdsburg wedding videography and wedding photography). We were able to capture their wedding freely and be inspired by the story that surrounded us through out the day. As we headed to Healdsburg, California in the morning to Madrona Manor, we loved the scenery and the rolling mountains of the valley. We arrived a bit early to start capturing some drone shots of the venue to build some nice opening shots for the film. The wedding itself was laid back and really fun. The decorations were amazing. Hearing the nephews speech at the reception, made every crack up. We built the film around their story. Enjoy the story of the day that Chris & Anna professed their love to each other....

Located in California's finest wine country, Napa Valley, Brix was a perfect location for Dan & Pamela's Wedding. The beautiful couple danced away in the sunset with gorgeous vineyards and gardens in the background. Me and my team loved filming the nature and spectacular views of the Mayacamas mountains. The heat was there to challenge us, but I love how we pulled off an amazing story of this couple. As a Napa Valley wedding videographer, I love to tell stories in these enchanted valleys....