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To the Bride & Groom to be:
The year is 2048. This evening you celebrate your 50th
wedding anniversary. You are still as much in love with
each other as you were the day you wed. Your friends,
children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have
gathered from all over the country to honor you and to
reminisce. How wonderful the years have been to your
marriage. How quickly they have passed.
Your five children have spent months in preparation for
this event. The rented ballroom is beautifully
decorated. Photographs and memorabilia of your life
together are displayed throughout the room. After dinner
and a toast, the highlight of the evening is presented
on a large high definition screen. It is your wedding
video, which years ago had been transferred permanently
from tape to computer disc.
Your guests are awed as they view your stunning dress as
you walked down the isle with your father, the tear
streaming down your cheek as you took your lifelong vows
together with your handsome groom, and the first of many
married kisses together. How young you both looked. Many
of your guests are overcome with emotion as they view
you and your wedding party- then in their youth or in
their prime: Your parents, swinging to a 1950's tune on
the dance floor at your reception, Aunts, uncles, and
members of the wedding party sending best wishes in
personal interviews, your bridesmaid sister lunging
successfully for your bouquet. Your guests roar with
laughter as your new husband proudly confides to his
best man that you will have no children, at least not
right away. The sights and sounds captured on your
wedding day are priceless. This is the first time many
of your guests have seen the production that you have
enjoyed many times over the years.
As the disc ends you turn to your husband, sitting close
to you in the darkened room and whisper, "honey, I'm so
glad we chose to get a quality video of our wedding
day." Your husband gently replies, "Yes, dear, but I'm
even more fortunate to have chosen you."
The year is 1998. I'm exhausted as I stand in front of
my wedding booth on the last day of a three day wedding
show at Sunrise Mall. I am encouraged that some brides
have stopped and shown interest in having a
professionally produced wedding video, but many pass our
booth and the booths of our video competitors' with
hardly a glance. A number of brides that do stop balk at
our prices, not realizing the endless hours of shooting
and editing and thousands of dollars in equipment
necessary to produce excellent quality wedding video.
Most will rely on 'Uncle Charlie's' questionable video
skills to capture the most important day of their life.
Other brides will hire a low-end videographer as an
afterthought after spending the rest of their wedding
budget on 'more important' vendors.
The booths to my right and to my left are jammed with
brides eagerly shopping for a Florist, a Baker, a Disc
Jockey or a Photographer. An elderly couple stops at my
booth and watches intently for several minutes. "We
really wish our wedding many years ago was recorded, and
with this quality," say the saddened couple. "All we
have left is just a few photos and the memories."
The show is nearly over. The last group of Brides rush
hurriedly pass my booth to visit other vendors. And I
can't help but wonder as I shut down the weddings
displayed on my monitors- how will they be celebrating
the year 2048?
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