Creative wedding clip to surprise my wife-to-be
April 17, 2017 2:45 AM Subscribe
We're getting married! In exactly one month! My gal loves creative surprises and I want to screen a few-minute clip at our wedding that will have her smiling, laughing, and thinking I'm the best (kidding. sort of). Problem: I don't have a good enough idea.
I'm hobbyist-handy with video editing programs and not too scared to take this on.
We live in Israel, where this is popular, although googling has led me to believe it's not as popular in the states.
We're also queer (I'm a queer butch and she's a bi femme) so our wedding will be somewhere between conventional and crazy.
So go crazy!
Ideas I have that aren't creative enough, but can definitely be elaborated upon:
- interviewing people in our life about her (maybe around a specific theme/question?)
- having friends recreate a "day in her life"
- honestly these aren't good enough please help me
We live in Israel, where this is popular, although googling has led me to believe it's not as popular in the states.
We're also queer (I'm a queer butch and she's a bi femme) so our wedding will be somewhere between conventional and crazy.
So go crazy!
Ideas I have that aren't creative enough, but can definitely be elaborated upon:
- interviewing people in our life about her (maybe around a specific theme/question?)
- having friends recreate a "day in her life"
- honestly these aren't good enough please help me
Before my wedding, my dad got a bunch of my childhood photos, and a bunch of childhood photos of my bride-to-be, and found ways to match them up. Some of the matches were obvious ("As you can see from these two photos, they both loved dogs") and some required creative thinking ("They both wore red shirts when climbing a tree on vacation.") The idea was to prove that we had so much in common that we were destined to eventually meet and be together. It was very sweet and was also a lovely way of making my family feel like they had known my wife since she was little, and vice versa.
On a different note, I once did a birthday video for a friend's husband where I just interviewed a bunch of his friends and co-workers, asking open-ended questions like "How did you meet"? or "What's an anecdote that comes to mind if you want to give people an idea of what he's like?" or "How is he different from other people you know?" I didn't go in with a specific agenda, but after I had spoken to enough people, some very clear themes emerged. You'd be surprised at how effective it is just to edit together half a dozen people saying variations on "He doesn't talk until he has something intelligent to say," or whatever the characteristic is.
Mazel tov and siman tov!
posted by yankeefog at 4:14 AM on April 17, 2017 [6 favorites]
On a different note, I once did a birthday video for a friend's husband where I just interviewed a bunch of his friends and co-workers, asking open-ended questions like "How did you meet"? or "What's an anecdote that comes to mind if you want to give people an idea of what he's like?" or "How is he different from other people you know?" I didn't go in with a specific agenda, but after I had spoken to enough people, some very clear themes emerged. You'd be surprised at how effective it is just to edit together half a dozen people saying variations on "He doesn't talk until he has something intelligent to say," or whatever the characteristic is.
Mazel tov and siman tov!
posted by yankeefog at 4:14 AM on April 17, 2017 [6 favorites]
For about 10 years now, for every birthday my kids make me a movie that involves reenacting scenes from favorite films (my then-13-year-old in a bathrobe slicing garlic a la "Goodfellas," my teenage daughter dropping a coffee cup then frantically running around realizing too late who Kaiser Soze is, a "Reservoir Dogs" scene involving a chocolate Easter bunny's ears).
They take things I like and recreate the scenes. it's always great.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 5:17 AM on April 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
They take things I like and recreate the scenes. it's always great.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 5:17 AM on April 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
Does she have family/friends that are unable to attend? I went to a wedding where the groom was from another country. The best man secretly put a request out to his grandparents, friends, even coworkers who weren't able to travel to create a quick video of their well wishes, then edited them together thematically. It was really lovely.
posted by galvanized unicorn at 6:34 AM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by galvanized unicorn at 6:34 AM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
The "you're the best" feeling comes from seeing how well your partner knows and loves you and your foibles/obsessions.
So with that in mind, what things does she love? Is she a fan of Dr. Who?
What is she like?
posted by Omnomnom at 8:27 AM on April 17, 2017
So with that in mind, what things does she love? Is she a fan of Dr. Who?
What is she like?
posted by Omnomnom at 8:27 AM on April 17, 2017
My husband did something like this for our wedding five years ago, and honestly, some of our friends and relations still talk about how awesome it was. Because we're Movie People, he put together clips from films we'd seen together in the previous three years of our courtship--in chronological order, because he keeps a database of everything he watches. This worked for us because, again, Movie People. But I could imagine this working for anything that a couple shares, whether it's clips from movies, photos from travels together, animal videos that you've giggled at together, etc. What I loved most was the recognition that this thing we share has been such a central part of our relationship. (And I loved that by putting together the video, he had shared something special about our relationship with the people we love.)
Congratulations and best wishes for many, many years of happiness!
posted by 2or3things at 4:47 PM on April 17, 2017
Congratulations and best wishes for many, many years of happiness!
posted by 2or3things at 4:47 PM on April 17, 2017
You could do it Drunk History style. Get sauced, tell a favorite story about her or your relationship and recruit some friends to reenact it.
posted by gennessee at 7:20 PM on April 17, 2017
posted by gennessee at 7:20 PM on April 17, 2017
Response by poster: Awesome ideas so far :)
Omnomnom - she likes a lot of culturally-specific Israeli things, but to generalize: dancing, games, surprises, soap bubbles. She's 30-going-on-3 in a way. In other ways, she's an activist, an amazing cook, loves to have friends over (she has tonnes of friends), falls asleep at movies, hates dark chocolate with a passion, and indeed, giggles over silly cat videos with me when we're dead tired but want to stay up laughing together.
posted by alon at 10:56 AM on April 18, 2017
Omnomnom - she likes a lot of culturally-specific Israeli things, but to generalize: dancing, games, surprises, soap bubbles. She's 30-going-on-3 in a way. In other ways, she's an activist, an amazing cook, loves to have friends over (she has tonnes of friends), falls asleep at movies, hates dark chocolate with a passion, and indeed, giggles over silly cat videos with me when we're dead tired but want to stay up laughing together.
posted by alon at 10:56 AM on April 18, 2017
A few more ideas inspired by the specifics you've given us:
• Activism: Have friends and family members take action in the causes she cares most about-- by writing letters, or calling their representatives, or protesting, or whatever seems appropriate -- and videotape them doing it, and maybe intersperse that with clips of them talking about why these issues matter to them, or how your bride inspired them to get involved. If the activity generates something physical, you could present that to her after she's done watching the video. (Like, if you get every guest to write a letter to their Knesset member, you could give your bride a big bag full of sealed and stamped envelopes, and let her take them to the post office. Or if you went to a protest, you could bring one of the protest signs to the wedding and have all the guests sign it like a guestbook.)
• Games: you could record your loved ones asking trivia questions about you, your bride and/or your relationship. Maybe you provide the questions, or maybe each loved one provides their own question. When you show it at the wedding, you could pause the video after each question and throw a piece of candy to the first person who can answer it. Or if you do this when everybody is seated together at tables, you could have paper and pens on each table, and each table would work collaboratively. Then at the end, you'd collect the answers and give an extra bottle of champagne to the table that got the most answers right.
• Having friends over: you could generate a virtual social event. Get a bunch of people to play games or sit at a table and talk to the camera like it was your bride. This could be one long event, or a whole bunch of different events edited together. Introduce it by saying you filmed it so that you and your bride could have friends over whenever you wanted, even if people can't make it in person.
posted by yankeefog at 3:39 AM on April 19, 2017
• Activism: Have friends and family members take action in the causes she cares most about-- by writing letters, or calling their representatives, or protesting, or whatever seems appropriate -- and videotape them doing it, and maybe intersperse that with clips of them talking about why these issues matter to them, or how your bride inspired them to get involved. If the activity generates something physical, you could present that to her after she's done watching the video. (Like, if you get every guest to write a letter to their Knesset member, you could give your bride a big bag full of sealed and stamped envelopes, and let her take them to the post office. Or if you went to a protest, you could bring one of the protest signs to the wedding and have all the guests sign it like a guestbook.)
• Games: you could record your loved ones asking trivia questions about you, your bride and/or your relationship. Maybe you provide the questions, or maybe each loved one provides their own question. When you show it at the wedding, you could pause the video after each question and throw a piece of candy to the first person who can answer it. Or if you do this when everybody is seated together at tables, you could have paper and pens on each table, and each table would work collaboratively. Then at the end, you'd collect the answers and give an extra bottle of champagne to the table that got the most answers right.
• Having friends over: you could generate a virtual social event. Get a bunch of people to play games or sit at a table and talk to the camera like it was your bride. This could be one long event, or a whole bunch of different events edited together. Introduce it by saying you filmed it so that you and your bride could have friends over whenever you wanted, even if people can't make it in person.
posted by yankeefog at 3:39 AM on April 19, 2017
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posted by koahiatamadl at 3:39 AM on April 17, 2017