During the process of reading my review you may think to yourself, "Dang, they must've been friends or something because this review is badass!" Well, strangers of Yelp, you are incorrect! We were not associated with Dan prior to hiring him. Read on, won't you?
Paul, my gorgeous literally steaming hot husband, had dabbled in video production himself while in high school and college, and so going into this "task" of finding ourselves the BEST OF THE BEST Artist of all things Video Filming and Production. I myself have been to a couple cousins' weddings where they also had a wedding film, and I knew I wanted a film of my own when that time arrived! In short, both Paul and myself wanted a highly experienced videographer, because we understood that if you expect high quality, then you had better expect to do all the research you can in locating the right guy or gal!
We were referred to Dan and Matter Video by our wedding planner extraordinaire, Lindsay with Lindsay Lauren Events. She herself hired Dan to film her own wedding! To us that alone was a huge bonus for obvious reasons. We visited Matter Video's website many, many times, and I "followed" Matter Video on Instagram before we hired him. Turns out, Dan is exceptionally funny and light hearted- something of which was important to us, since we were to hang out together during the most important day of our lives and all!
Matter Video is based out of Dublin, and we live in Brentwood. So, with his very busy schedule and our typically busy schedule, Dan and I had our first meeting on the phone, where he explained his process, and where I asked many questions (of course). Within minute 10 of our 30 minute conversation I knew I wanted to book him for our January 2018 wedding. Payments were split in two, a contract was signed, and we were booked!
Three weeks before the wedding, we met with Dan in person at a local Starbucks, where he was quite the host! Paul has two boys from a previous marriage, I have one boy from a previous relationship, and we have one daughter together- our sleepy flower girl. During this meeting, we went through our plans with a fine toothed comb, and relayed to Dan the importance of including all four of our children into the video, since this day was just as much for them as it was for the two of us. Dan understood and had no problem at all incorporating all four kids into the film.
Fast forward to our wedding day- January 14, '18. Dan and his associate videographer, Shawn, arrived right on time to our gorgeous AirBnb "getting ready" location (for both the Bride and Groom- a legit mansion) in Pleasanton. Our wedding venue was in San Ramon, and they had no problem driving from one location to the other. Dan and Shawn would either film together (but from different angles), or be separated depending on the type of filming that needed to be completed.
They were both ever so patient with us and our kids. It was just so great. The wedding events went off without a hitch (videography wise), and that's really all that matters for this review! We received our complete wedding film exactly a month later (on Valentine's Day- awwww!), and I had to wait a full twelve hours until my husband got home from work before we would view it together. That was so difficult, let me tell ya! Upon viewing, both Paul and myself were full smiles and of course, tears from me. Our two song choices were PERFECT, and Dan did such a great job with his timing and production. I sent off our film link to our wedding party (while I was waiting for my husband to get home, lol!), and they absolutely loved it. Their responses ranged from, "I LOVE IT!"- to "IT'S LIKE A MOVIE!"- to "I WANT TO GO BACK!!". And yes, they used exclamation points and capital letters, to boot.
About two weeks after Valentine's Day, we received our raw footage in the mail in the form of a USB drive. It was so great to have this!!
Thank you Dan and Shawn for all of your hard work. I hope the sparklers weren't a literal pain for you. :) Everyone loved you: Our wedding party, our kids, our wedding guests, our other vendors (I adore your bromance with our coffee cart vendor, Story Coffee Co.!), and of course, Paul and myself.
Everyone, feel free to check out our wedding film for yourself at:
http://mattervideo.com/the-sopers-canyon-view-san-ramon-wedding-video/
Enjoy and good luck with your planning!
In Him,
Christina Soper read more