The other day I was raving about my photographers (Lensa Productions), well now I have some of the video (from Lumitone Productions)!
http://www.lumitone.com/mikemolly.mov

It's the short, montage video (about three minutes).

We almost didn't get videography, but I'm so glad that we did. If you're on the fence about getting video done, and can at all afford it, I highly recommend it.

I haven't seen the full video yet (they're still working on that), but I'm so happy with what we have so far. In addition to seeing this little montage, we also had the bonus of having a 5-7 minute long montage that was produced and shown on the very night of the wedding, at the reception. It's a new thing that they're doing for clients and we got to be their (free) guinea pigs. The clips they assembled (to music) in the midst of the wedding was as/more nicely edited than many I've seen for actual finished products.

Of course I can't give my final recommendation until I have the actual DVD in my hands. But based on everything so far, I definitely heart lumintone! (And if you tell them that a bride (me or whomever) recommended you they give a discount!) Their editing skills are really their strongest suit, I think.

Anyway, I had such awesome vendors-- and they almost all came from other bride's recommendations, so I had to pass along my happiness about them (as with Lensa for photography or Kesia/Love in Blooms for Flowers-- all three were just excellent, and while there are some a little cheaper, they're all more affordable than a lot on these boards).

UPDATE: I've now received the final, edited version of the DVD and it looks great. They give 2 DVDs. One is the full wedding ceremony, with little editing, and the other is a 40 (or so) minute video of the whole day-- from getting ready, to the ceremony, to toasts, to dancing, etc. It's set to 6 or 7 songs (selected by us) and it's just excellent. Everything blends so seamlessly and they use a number of really interesting film techniques/editing styles.

I'm still waiting to get our official copies (with nice cover, etc.), and they've been perhaps a tiny bit slow on that front (tomorrow will be my 4-month anniversary). The copy I have is the one they sent us to make sure that we don't want any changes or anything before they finish it off. (They're great about offering to change things or add things in if anything is not to our liking, though that wasn't really a problem for us).

We'll even be getting copies of the DVD in Blu-Ray (High Definition). This was not a particular priority of mine in selecting them, as I don't even have an HDTV yet. But looking toward the future, it is cool to have (and as of yet not a lot of videographers provide) HD as a basic option these days.

So, again: highly recommended!

I love my flowers! They were gorgeous. You have to look at the pictures. And Kesia was wonderful to work with—for the things I had a specific vision of, she delivered them exactly—and yet for other things that I was initially unsure about what I wanted, Kesia’s suggestions were just perfect. Kesia provided my bouquet (red roses), the bridesmaids bouquets (in sunset colors), nosegays for the Moms, corsages for the grandmas, and bouts for all of the men. She also decorated our cake (which was beautiful), our sign in table, and provided rose petals for our candle centerpieces. She was generous and flexible with some last minute changes—one bridesmaid suddenly had to be gone due to a family emergency and she instead used those flowers for a beautiful floral arrangement and to add to the decoration of the head tables and unity candle tables. (We hadn’t even contracted her for the head table, as we had initially planned on a sweet heart table—and she came up with beautiful decorations, while not changing our budget at all). Oh she also did the cool hanging ball of roses and organza over our ceremony. I can’t tell you how many people came up to me to compliment the flowers. And Kesia’s prices are also amazing (she works from her home studio, thus bringing down the costs).

We were a little unsure how to go about the officiant hunt. Indeed the whole idea of "hunting" for an officiant seemed a bit, well, unseemly. We're both former Catholics and aren't getting married at a church. We vaguely knew what we were looking for-- trying to strike a balance of secular but not areligious, spiritual but not new-agey, light-hearted yet still somehow solemn. We clicked instantly with Mary Alice-- Michael and I can both be a bit shy or at least reserved when meeting new people, but she immediately drew us out of our shells. Her warmth and vivacity will bring a great character to the ceremony, I think. Mary Alice gave us lots of materials to work with to choose readings, vows, etc. and was also completely open to our own additions and selections. She was so warm and caring, throughout the day people kept asking us if she was a family member, where we got her from etc. I’m so very happy that she officiated our wedding.

The pictures of Madison's on its website, in Here Comes the Guide, etc., don't do it justice. We were mildly interested in it when first looking, but once we visited we knew it was the place. We instantly fell in love with the art deco architecture and the view through the wall of windows, overlooking Lake Merritt (and at night its necklace of lights) is just lovely—in the daytime pictures it almost looks like we were outside at the lake and the view was just as beautiful at night. The manager Angel was great to work with—doing a lot of the DOC type activities-- and the food was delicious. I highly recommend this venue.

Two caveats, one minor, one major. The only criticism I can think of at all was parking was slightly annoying. They have valet parking for about 30 cars and beyond that it was street parking. But, since we used shuttles from the hotels this wasn’t too much of a problem—certainly not even big enough to lower the grade to an A-. More importantly: I don’t know if they will be continuing to hold events in the future. For years the hotel itself hasn’t been a regular hotel—it’s been an extended-stay (executive) hotel. But, starting in the fall, it is going to be a retirement community/assisted living for LGBT senior citizens (pretty cool, if you ask me!). I don’t know whether or not Madison’s itself will be a part of that, or if they’ll still have events. So, I’d call them to check it out.

Our photographers just posted the online gallery of pictures for the wedding (amazing turn around time: just over two weeks), and I’m quite pleased. Adi and Tika, the husband and wife team at Lensa Productions, were a pleasure to work with on the day of. Having them both there worked nicely—they could be each other’s assistant for things like the photo session/portraits, while they could split up to get different angles at the ceremony, and while getting ready Tika was upstairs with us girls, while Adi was photographing the guys. We were a little nervous about Adi being perhaps too reserved to corral all of our rowdy family, but the two of them had just the right balance of getting things done without being at all pushy. We wanted a balance between photojournalistic/candid shots, but also some portraity (though not stuffy) ones and I think that they did that nicely. They were also quite flexible in designing a package of coverage, photos, etc. that matched our needs and our budget—and added in a number of nice extras. (Dealing with vendors willing to negotiate is a real plus—and even their published prices is quite a bit lower than some in the Bay Area). We haven’t yet received the prints, album, etc. so this grade is subject to revision, but I feel pretty confident in the choice.