film photography

super 8

We did our vow renewal/wedding reshoot after we had a rather unfortunate experience with our wedding photographer. We were missing wedding photos of big moments, huge portions of the requested family groupings were missing, and the overall quality was really bad… and all that was to say that we hired someone that we genuinely thought was good at what they did. Now after that whole conniption one of our amazing industry friends and fellow wedding photographer, Katie, suggested that we do a vow renewal and recaptured some of the big moments that we missed out on. Keep reading to see a sneak peek from our day and to see our Super 8 vow renewal film!

How We Met

Javi and I met at MassArt! I was doing an Instagram takeover for the school’s social media account which Javi happened to run at the time. During my takeover, he saw some of the art I posted and liked It. Javi at the time was working as a barista and commentated on a piece that I made that had a coffee cup in it and he was like “That’s cute”. He literally slid into my DMs art style. The story then goes like this: I asked Javi to a coffee shop to discuss our “artistic practices” and then the night before I texted him, “This is a date right?” We picked the cutest coffee shop in JP called Espresso Yourself. I was 30 minutes early and he was 20 minutes late haha and the rest is history. We never stopped seeing each other and our next date was at the movies. We then we started spending an insane amount of time together in the darkroom developing film, Super 8 and 16mm film. Good times haha! I can still smell the chemicals up my nose.

Our Super 8 vow renewal film was shot at one of my bridesmaid’s amazing condo in the heart of Jamaica Plain, which is a suburb of Boston. Javi and I lived in JP for three years together and I lived there for a total of five years. Jamaica Plain holds a very special place in my heart. Jamaica Plain holds so many amazing memories from our first date to everything in between. Our original wedding date was November 11, 2022, and the vow renewal was on March 11, 2023, which was four months after our wedding.

Director’s Cut

My sister Amanda (the one in the red dress) flew in from Miami for the vow renewal. Cristal, in the blue dress, is the one who owns the condo. She is also the mom of our flower girl, Maya. Anne, my best lady, is just amazing and was everyone’s cheerleader that day. Jac also came but they were taking care of Cristal’s cats the whole time as they are quite the animal lover!

As for the details from our vow renewal, we got Mochinut as a fun sweet treat as that is one of our favorite things to eat. For the florals, I met the florist, who had driven down from NH, at the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum the morning of the vow renewal so that I could get all of the amazing florals from her!

My makeup artist, Margo, is one of my dear friends. She is seriously BEYOND talented, and we did the same makeup look as the wedding day. I always knew that I wanted an alternative light makeup look. I had no foundation on and a heavy focus on the eyes. I don’t really wear makeup so I told her minimal coverage with alternative eye makeup. The goal was to make me look like a star haha!

Special thank you to our officiant, Tuttie, who is Javi’s best friend! And one last shout out— thank you to our photographer, Katie Elaine Photo. While we are so sad to not have quality photos from our original wedding, we’re so thankful to have had Katie document our vow renewal.

A HUGE part of our original day was Super 8. Javi and I took turns filming each other and while we weren’t filming each other we had Javi’s best lady film the parts of us together. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it to the reshoot, but we knew that we needed to have Super 8 incorporated in our reshoot as it is the thing that we look back on and hold on to dearly from that day.

Super 8 holds such raw and unfiltered emotion to it. There is no going back to edit the exit signs out or remove the spinach between your teeth. It is just so real and true and there is just something so authentic to that experience that I feel like a lot of people really love about Super 8. REAL human interaction. Real human moments. It’s all about how you are choosing to remember your day! Do you want it all to feel like a big production or do more down to earth? At the end of the day, neither of those is incorrect but if you are looking for a more down-to-earth, realistic depiction of your day then Super 8 with a flare of nostalgia is a great fit for you babe.