Punta Cana. Martine 197, originally uploaded by palm0014.
Panic time. Everything is happening today. Food eaten, pictures to be taken, multiple things to do.
What was my mission that day? Make sure to videotape every moment of the day. I pulled out my fancy schmancy outfit for the wedding, put it in the washroom with the hot water running, realized it didn’t change a thing, and then realized that there was an iron up in the bride’s room.
I got relegated to videotaping the women getting ready while Al got to head over to the guys room. No harm, no foul. I grabbed a few videotapes and a beer and headed to the room. Vero gave me some pointers of what she wanted videotaped as she had the idea of the wedding video brewing in her head. I got action shots of the girls fixing up their hair, ironing some clothes, etc. It was quite the tough job to just stand there and point the camera…probably the hardest job of the day. 😉
One funny moment came when Vero’s stepmother asked for a lit cigarette to be passed to her (which is a surprise since she doesn’t smoke) and I just happened to filming in her direction but I didn’t really realize what was happening until it came into the viewscreen and by that time the damage was done. I quickly panned the camera away from her while you could hear her screaming at me “Get that videocamera away from me!” Ha ha…we all had a good laugh.
It’s interesting to actually have all of this on videotape because it is so fresh in my mind. Unfortunately the hairdresser didn’t get the style that Anne-Marie wanted so her sisters went to work at making her hair beautiful (which they succeeded at). I can only imagine how horrible the feeling must be to know you have an hour to go until your wedding and realize that your hair is in disarray.
We then headed out of the room, onto the trolley that took us down to the wedding chapel. A crowd has already formed and I took my place near the steps where the party was going to take place. Filming an event like this is quite surreal…you don’t really have the time to allow yourself to exist in the moment. You’re capturing it so you’re more focussed on the angle of the shot, how the shot looks in the sunlight, is everyone in focus…so I basically lived out the entire ceremony in a virtual-screen world. I didn’t mind at all, but I can see why it’s probably more beneficial to hire someone to videotape your wedding as they are not invested in the process as much. Speaking about hiring someone to videotape your wedding, you should talk to Vero in case you want someone to tape your wedding this summer (blatant promotion here).
Smiles were had, rings were exchanged, Vero bawled like a baby (no joke! This was quite a surprise. Clearly she does not have the thick skin she thinks she has.), jokes were made by the band…it was a great wedding. The weather was great (maybe a little too great as the sun was in our eyes for all the pictures) and everyone looked top notch. We had pictures taken on the grass and I’m sure they will look great when we get a look at them.
After the wedding ceremony I relaxed for awhile as Vero and others had gone to the beach to take some more pictures. It had stormed while they were there so they had to take cover under some palm trees. I was comfortable in the hotel room having a beer and taking a snooze.
That night we headed to the Italian restaurant where the reception was taking place outside on the patio. It was a good setup and it was quite comfortable. The wedding party showed up and the videocamera was in full recording mode. It was a little dark on that patio so the video came out a little wonky but the only way to prevent that is to have a spotlight on the people.
I got to sit with some of Anne-Marie and Steve’s friends whom I didn’t get that much chance to talk to before that night. They turned out to be a great time. Speeches were made, laughs were had and crazy dances were done to get the couple to kiss. The waiters were quite crazy in their own right. They would come in dancing half the time and sneaking drinks of beer under the table so their manager couldn’t see them. I thought it was quite hilarious. I think at one point the waiter came in and danced with Vero’s grandmother at one point. I’ll have to check the pictures.
I don’t know what else to say other than the wedding went off great. After all the obligatory dances, some fun music came on and people got up to dance. The best part of the night was when out of nowhere a man appeared from the edge of the patio and jumped into the dance floor. At first we thought it was the guy from the night before at the karaoke bar but we realized it was Vero’s father dressed up in a chippendale outfit! It was quite hilarious as he danced around the area. He has quite the sense of humour which I love. Vero even mentioned that he was thinking of wearing that outfit for the entire day but Vero managed to talk him out of it.
Only a few songs were played before they had us leave the patio. Before leaving I recorded a bunch of good wishes to the wedded couple which will end up on the video. I also took some footage for my eventual “Palmer Edit” of the trip. Let’s just say that it will probably have a little more flair than Vero’s version!
We headed over to the discotheque for a few songs and after we grew tired of that, we headed back to hotel room for the night. A great wedding was had and I’m sure Anne-Marie and Steve as happy as they could be.