Today is really fun…we have asked one of our Boston-based Little Black Book cinematographers, GENERATIONS videostories, to guest blog for us! Naomi and Jack are the force behind Generations and are sharing a behind-the-lens perspective on the weddings that they have shot!
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People often ask me when we started GENERATIONS videostories; and why, after multiple careers including teaching English and counseling individuals and couples, I wound up making wedding films. My partner Jack had been a videographer for a while, mostly in the corporate world, but also doing the occasional wedding for friends and family. In May 2004, a photographer friend invited us to share a table with her at Boston’s first gay wedding expo, co-sponsored by The Lenox Hotel and Bloomingdale’s. We arrived at the show excited about the impending Supreme Judicial Court Decision and thrilled to be supporting the many gay and lesbian couples who would now be able to tie the knot just like other couples in love.
During the week preceding the expo, Jack and I had come up with the name GENERATIONS videostories to distinguish our company as creating wedding films that focused on the generations of people present at a wedding celebration as well as those who would, in the future, have the chance to get to know a bit about their grandparents, great-grandparents, and family friends who celebrated at the wedding.
Chad and Kevin’s wedding was a wonderful mix of cultures and styles. It was absolutely amazing to be filming a wedding designed by one of the truly great wedding planner/designers! I wasn’t quite sure how a Tibetan Buddhist ceremony was going to work with a group of Mariachi players and teenage gymnasts at the BayClub in Mattapoisett… but, suffice it to say, Chad and Kevin pulled it off. All of Kevin and Chad’s female friends were given floral bouquets, and their best friends were all part of a Nepalese silk scarf ritual during the ceremony itself. Harp and flute played as guests entered the private home that was the site of the ceremony, and a luxury bus transported the wedding party to the the Bay Club for the stunning reception. Guests were serenaded by the happy sounds of the Mariachi band; the wedding, held on Cinquo de Mayo, was in honor of Kevin’s profession as a teacher of the Spanish language.
I asked Chad about the red tulips spilling all over the Bay Club reception and was told that after his first date with Kevin, this wonderfully romantic man showed his immediate interest by sending over 100 red tulips. Needless to say, Kevin was smitten. At the wedding reception, Chad continued to charm by grabbing the band’s mic and singing Dolly Parton’s Islands in the Stream to him.