What Filming Weddings Has Taught Me About Love (…So Far)
As a wedding videographer, I have the honor of witnessing some of the most intimate and emotional moments in people's lives. I’ve seen love in its grand, celebratory forms and in its quiet, deeply personal expressions. Over the years, capturing these stories has shaped my own views on love, marriage, and what truly makes a relationship thrive.
Love in All Its Forms: What I've Observed From My Front-Row Seat
No two love stories are the same, and if my years behind the camera have taught me anything, it’s that there is no one “right” way to do a relationship. Love is fluid. It bends, adapts, and reshapes itself to meet the moments life places before it. I’ve filmed couples who had to reimagine their wedding day due to unforeseen circumstances. Like those who replanned a large, traditional wedding into an intimate backyard celebration, or the couples who eloped during the stillness of a pandemic, FaceTiming loved ones from the other side of the world before saying their vows. Their resilience in the face of disappointment was a testament to the strength of their love.
There are moments that will stay with me forever. Like a groom who saw how much his bride loved the stained glass at their original venue and, knowing they couldn’t get married there, spent the time learning how to create stained glass art. He built a custom stained glass altar with his own hands, just like the one she had admired. That thoughtful, personal, and quietly powerful act of love reminded me that love isn’t just about grand gestures. It’s about truly seeing your partner and honoring what brings them joy.
There have been stories that have broken my heart and simultaneously made it swell with gratitude. The couples who stood at the altar with the weight of absence in their hearts, who lost loved ones before their wedding day but still found ways to carry and honor their memory into the celebration. I’ve seen a couple where one partner quite literally saved the other’s life, standing before their family and friends, simply grateful that they both got to be there. I’ve filmed many weddings where love transcended boundaries like race, religion, and culture. Couples from opposing places like Iraq and Iran, India and Pakistan, or interfaith marriages where families came together in celebration of something bigger than their differences.
Love is love is love. It does not conform, but rather expands. And witnessing it in all of its diverse, complex, and breathtaking forms has reinforced for me that at its core, love is about choosing to stand together.
Defining Lessons on Love
Every wedding I film reinforces these important truths about love:
Love is built on the foundation of those who came before us. It is a continuation. Every couple standing before me at the altar is not alone, but is there because of generations of love stories that came before them. Some of these love stories were simple, others complicated, some marked by struggle and resilience—but all of them paved the way for the moment two people stand together and say, "yes." The happiest couples I’ve witnessed are the ones who honor this lineage, who recognize that their love is both an inheritance and a gift.
There is no universal formula for love. No one size fits all. Each couple navigates their own path, blending tradition with individuality, carrying forward the values they cherish while carving out space for what feels true to them. Love is personal—it asks only for the willingness to grow, to apologize, to shift when needed, and to hold on even when the road is uneven. The beauty of love lies in its fluidity, in the way it shapes itself around the hearts of those who choose it.
Love is quiet. It does not always announce itself in grand displays or dramatic declarations. It lives in the small, unnoticed moments—the way one person gently tucks a loose strand of hair behind the other’s ear, the instinctive reach for a hand in a crowded room, the soft whisper of "I’m here" without needing to speak at all. It is in the familiarity of knowing their favorite comfort foods, in the silent understanding of when they need space or when they just really need a hug right now. Love is not loud but it is patient, steady, and consistent. It flourishes in the spaces where empathy and kindness dwell. It’s about seeing and seeking to understand someone because they matter.
Love is all around you. Your wedding day (and your life) isn’t just about the two of you, but about the web of love and support that surrounds you. It’s in the friends who flew across the country to celebrate, the family members who cried during your vows, the mentors and elders who have poured wisdom into your journey. It’s even in the clouds and the flowers and the breeze blowing through the trees. Even as life speeds up, there is power in pausing to acknowledge that support, to be grateful for the collective love that cradles your own. Be grateful for it, nurture it, and let it remind you of why you chose each other.
And when the inevitable storms come, as they always do, please remember this:
Sometimes, the most loving thing you can do is go to bed angry. Not every argument needs to be resolved by midnight. Rest can soften the edges of a disagreement, offering new eyes and gentler hearts by morning.
You are not adversaries—you are allies. It is not you against each other; it is both of you against the problem. Approach conflict hand in hand, not toe to toe.
Love is not only about joy. It is about making space for every emotion. For elation, sorrow, frustration, hope. True love is standing beside one another, not just when life feels light and easy, but when it feels heavy and hard. It is a promise to hold space for the ever evolving versions of each other.
What Matters Most
I often wonder — have you thought about the kind of love story you’re writing? Not just the "how we met" or the perfect wedding day, but the deeper, softer story. The one about what you’ll build together, how you’ll grow side by side, and what your love will give back to each other and to the world?
Being a wedding videographer has given me a front-row seat to some of life’s most profound moments. It has deepened my appreciation for the quiet, enduring nature of love, and it has shown me that every couple, in their own way, is writing a story that will ripple through time. Love is not perfect, but it is powerful. It is not always easy, but it is always worth it.
And at the end of the day, when the vows are spoken, the cake is cut, and the dance floor is empty, what remains is just love. Day in and day out, for the rest of our lives.
A photo from my own wedding. That’s my Grandpa “snow man” in the background.
