Friday, May 19, 2006

video killed the radio star

or not. in any event, we've met with two videographers so far and have liked them both.

  • Valerie Barnes
    last Friday night we met with Valerie Barnes and saw a few wedding videos that she had done. i had already watched a few videos with wedding-planner-extraordinaire Farrell last month, and from that viewing, Valerie had made my (very) short list. with packages starting in the $4K range, she was definitely within budget and her work was very cohesive, subtle and the opposite of my bar/mat mitzvah video nightmares.
    "oh my god, you look amazing! and you did so awesome on your Haftorah!"

    the videos told a story and they were really cinematic and lovely. i was particularly fond of the possibility to have Super 8 footage taken as well as some Super 8/grainy effects that could be added to the digital video in the editing process.

i have to say, that meeting with various wedding vendors has become a lot less of a drag since we've been capping off the appointment-evenings with dinners with my parents. post-Valerie Barnes, we hit Bobby Van's (with the JadedBrother, to boot*). i skipped steak at BV's, though, since T and i already had Saturday night plans to hit the Strip House with the Née Whites, and had fish instead. (how responsible!) i will say this: if you get to the Strip House, do not miss the "Crisp Goose Fat Potatoes." my, oh, my, were they amazing. and my rare ribeye was also excellent.

  • Milk & Honey
    Wednesday night, my mom, dad and i went to M&H's office and met with Lauren, who was really enthusiastic and definitely seemed to be flexible as to my thoughts on video. i had seen a M&H video clip with Farrell, and the clip was amazing. a lot of interesting stuff with split screens, showing action/reaction shots and had a very cinematic feel. we watched the whole video at the appointment and not only did i love the video style, but the couple's wedding was a-ma-zing. (probably this is why they were featured in New York magazine's Weddings issue.)

    check out their wedding write-up. really!

    anyway, we also saw that M&H did plenty of indoor shooting, and saw one of their Met Club weddings. it's easy to get wowed watching someone else's outdoor wedding video, with sweeping landscapes, ocean views, etc. however, i always have to remind myself that my wedding is start-to-finish indoors. happily, M&H's indoor work was also lovely. M&H's price point is a bit higher than Valerie's, starting in the $5Ks.

    i have to say, that our post-M&H dinner was not as impressive as our post-Valerie dinner. we hit Black Duck, in the Park South Hotel, and the food was ok. (but it was no Bobby Van's!)

now we have to decide! since Thurston skipped the M&H appointment (stuck at work) this will be a me and my parents decision. which is always a tougher one to make since T and i have a better deciding system. my mom calls it "i defer to you, sweetheart." and, obvs, since i am somewhat of a control freak, the line belongs to T. he (like my dad) will go down in history as a "good sport."


* for better or for worse, T and i have been seeing a lot of my brother lately. not only does he live but two floors above us, but he has also been somehow convinced to join Thurston's supercool darts team, which plays every Monday night. plus, last Friday he already saw me for a Chinatown lunch (at New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe, which did not make it onto my lunch place round-up) so i was surprised he came to dinner at all...