Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Alison and Leigh’s story is probably as romantic as you can get. They met while on a cruise in the Caribbean. The romantic setting and their great personalities made sure this would be a chance meeting they’d never forget. As luck would have it, they didn’t live to far apart back in the UK and a loving relationship blossomed. Since that sailing, they have enjoyed many more cruises and other travels together. Back in December, they finally tied the knot at Alison’s family church in Leicestershire. The reception was held at the charming Priest House Hotel in Derbyshire. A gorgeous setting for Alison and Leigh’s dream winter wedding. As we filmed their ‘True Fairytale’ a few weeks earlier, we had the privilege of really getting to know them quite well. And as we have a common passion for cruises and travelling, we really felt more like friends than as videographers.
Their wedding was certainly a reflection of their personalities: an unforgettable day in a romantic setting with a dash of music provided by a string quartet . With Alison being a classical violinist and music teacher, this was certainly the right choice for them. In the evening, the entertainment was a ceilidh, providing a perfect ending for a perfect day.
As Alison and Leigh are about to embark on yet another fantastic cruise, this time to the Far East, I thought it would be the right time to share this trailer with before they set off. Their full wedding video will be ready for them as they return home!

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WOW, what can I say!?! We just had 2 amazing days at the IOV Convention in Coventry.
Niels was on the wedding question time panel first thing on Wednesday morning, an hour and a half of questions to help our fellow videographers. We then had some time to go check out the exhibition, or so we thought. The moment we came out of the question time session, we were grabbed by BBC Radio Coventry for an interview going out live on the breakfast program regarding the MCPS Awards and our Trash the Dress clip. Afterwards we were also asked for another slightly more elaborate interview that would be broadcasted the next morning. Managed to get a quick bite to eat and then  it was time to give our seminar on Key Ingredients to Beautiful Films. The room was packed, people were even standing at the back. We were obviously very pleased with the turn out and from the reactions we received afterwards, it looked liked the attendants really enjoyed it too. After the seminar so many people kept chatting to us about the ideas we had given them. Time to go the Awards reception, met up with some very kind videographers, some of them we already knew from the professional video forums, so it was nice to put a face to the names. The awards ceremony itself had a little hick up, somehow they had managed to forget to bring the awards! Quite funny really! We had entered some of our work in 3 categories: the Musical Marriage Awards, the IOV Open Category and the IOV Best Wedding Day Film. I already knew we were short listed for the 2 latter competitions, so I would at least leave with a ‘highly commended’ award. Well, it turned quite good for us. We were a runner up in the Musical Marriage Award for our Trash the Dress clip, receiving a £100 cheque. In the Open Category, where there were entries from the whole videography industry with big budget productions, we were awarded 2nd place for our Showreel! Quite chuffed with that one. But the best was yet to come with the Best Wedding Day Film category: WE WON 1ST PLACE!!!  It was the first year that we entered any of our work into the awards and to have won 1st place, it was  fabulous! I don’t think I’ve ever been this popular! I also immediately texted a message to Claire and Brian, the stars of the winning wedding video, who very pleasantly surprised (just like me).
Day 2 of the convention, I was still on cloud 9. I was so surprised by the number of people congratulating us, I was so happy! We had to give our seminar again, it was fun to be introduced as the award winner. Yet again, after the seminar we had plenty of people come up to us to thank us for all information and ideas and congratulate us with the award. Niels finally managed to get a quick look around the exhibition and then it was my turn to sit on the question time panel which was actually a lot of fun, not quite as scary as I had imagined. After that we had to head back to home to Sheffield, had a quick take away and fell asleep.
Back to reality now, I have wedding videos to edit!

We’ve entered 2 short wedding clips into a competition, The MCPS Musical Marriage Award. To our surprise both our clips were short-listed for the award. The winner will be decided by popular vote. This is where we are hoping that you will come in and add your vote.

To vote you just need to visit the MCPS website, decide on your favourite clip, add your contact details and just submit your vote. No need to sign up for anything.

Our clips are the “Trash the Dress” and the “Emma & Gavin: Photoshoot” clip. We’ve featured both of these clips on this blog before. We loved both those clips and we received many raving comments about them, so we thought they might be worthy of an award. The Trash the Dress was a special after the wedding shoot done in Belgium back in May and required a brave bride to pose in a few somewhat unconventional places, including a muddy pond. Emma & Gavin’s wedding day photo shoot at Hassop Hall in Derbyshire was a bit less audacious, but was just as much fun, which can obviously be seen in the clip.

Obviously, we would be very grateful to receive your vote, but there might also be something in it for you as there is also a chance to with £100 worth of HMV vouchers. And if you really like our work, please pass this information on to all your friends and family too… ok, maybe that’s a bit of a cheeky request.

Voting closes on 13 October.

We will know the results on 15 October at the IOV Convention at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

It’s been quite a while since I posted on our blog, sorry! We have just been so busy with filming and editing this summer, I hardly seem to find the time to do anything else. Bear with me, once I get through the mountain of editing, there will be plenty to show on the blog.

Last month we did find a tiny bit of time to enter some of our work into the IOV Awards. The IOV is the Institute of Videography and every year they organise the IOV awards to celebrate the best in the industry. We never entered into any awards before, but this year we thought we’d take the plunge, so we sent in one of our wedding videos for the Wedding Video Category and our current showreel into the Open Category. Yesterday we got an email to say that both our entries have been short-listed and we are now finalists! Woohoo! We are especially pleased with our showreel in the Open Category as we are the only wedding related entry to make it into that final. The results aren’t revealed until the Awards Ceremony on 15 October at the annual IOV Convention. Incidentally, we will also be one of the seminar speakers at the convention. So now I have even more work on my plate, I’d better get back to it then.

We’ve just created a new group on Facebook: Friends of Ever After

We’d love for you to join us! It’s a great way of getting to know some other people who love Ever After Video Productions!

Well, it wasn’t really an “oops” it was fully intentional

We had been playing with the idea of doing a Trash the Dress for a while now and got the opportunity to do one back in Belgium. Not one for missing out on opportunities, so we went off last weekend and had loads of fun trashing that dress. This actually turned out to be more difficult than expected as this dress just didn’t want to get dirty: grass didn’t stain it, dirt and mud didn’t stick to it, it wasn’t until we submerged in a muddy pond that it finally got that trashed look.

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If you want to view this clip in HD, just click here (your computer does need to be powerful enough to be able to play it properly)

It will all become clear soon…

I thought I’d share a few tips with you that might come in handy on your wedding day.

1. Keep some lip gloss nearby at all times during the reception. A bridesmaid or your new husband will gladly carry it for you.

2. Don’t wear socks when you’re getting ready. When filming you putting your shoes on, it’s not nice to see marks. Same thing applies to wearing bras, don’t wear one if you have a strapless dress, it can take ages before strap marks disappear.

3. Cut the straps to hang your dress on a hanger out of your dress before you put it on. These straps have a tendency to creep up and don’t look great in photographs or on film.

4. Buy some foot spray and make sure someone takes it along for you on your wedding day. You’ll be standing a lot in those pretty wedding shoes and your feet will get tired. They will, however, feel much better after you’ve applied some foot spray.

5. As absurd as it may sound: get some safety pins! They come in handy more often than you’d think. But don’t worry, we buy a supply of safety pins every year to hand out at weddings in case you’d forget or can’t find them.

We celebrated Niels’ birthday this weekend. We had a meeting with clients down in Kent on Saturday and decided to combine this with a day off for Niels’ birthday. We visited Leeds Castle on Saturday afternoon, unfortunately the weather wasn’t that great. The good thing is that an entry ticket to Leeds Castle is valid for one year and as we’ve got a few weddings in that area this year, we’ll hopefully be able to visit when the weather is a bit nicer. But even in bad weather, this place won’t fail to impress you!

Leeds Castle

On Sunday, his birthday, we drove back up to Sheffield and visited Burghley House in Stamford along the way. This time the weather was perfect. The house itself wasn’t open to visit yet, but we spent the whole afternoon walking in the gardens of house and enjoying the scenery. Definitely worth another visit too!

Burghley House

The Birthday Boy!

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