The wedding of Michael and Janie Godwin is one of the most high-pressure and physically taxing in my five year career of shooting weddings. High-pressure because they came to me with a unique proposition that I had not expected to ever receive: They wanted me to shoot their wedding… as a music video. A music video complete with lip-synching and dancing, as well as the integration of the normal sequence of events. I was excited to try this because it was actually unique. No offense intended, of course, but a lot of couples come to me with stuff they say is “different from other weddings,” and most of the time it’s not at all, ha-ha. This was an opportunity to expand my horizons, attempt to put a new spin on a career that mostly follows a set routine, and offer something new to my clients.

 

That’s why it was high-pressure. The physically taxing part came on the day of shooting. Ten hours of shooting with multiple location changes, all culminating with a reception on Detroit’s famous Infinity Yacht.

Of course this prospect got me excited. I mean, why wouldn’t it? Four hours on the Detroit river with all that beautiful cityscape in the background? Holy crap, that would look amazing! What I never considered was the cramped space when attempting to shoot footage alongside not one but two photographers in addition to the myriad of guests in attendance. By the end of the night, I was completely exhausted and hobbled back to my car feeling like I wasn’t going to make it through the following day… when I had to drive to Rochester to shoot another wedding, of course.

 

I did make it through though. The editing of their music video, to The Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” took over 20 hours. Utilizing four hours of uncut footage, I had to tell their story in a way that made sense and didn’t feel jostling in less than five minutes. And there also had to be an actual performance incorporated here, with Michael and Janie mouthing the lyrics (hopefully in time to the actual song). It was hell. But if their reaction to the video was any indication, it was all worth it.

“It was better than I ever thought it would be,” Janie said afterwards. That’s exactly what I was going for. So here is their video. If you’d like to give this a shot, the package price is $1000 and includes all the HD features.