SWP Episode 013
2022 has been a busy, busy photo and video season for our team. Join the whole MJ&Co. Stories crew in an episode where they discuss their thoughts on the wedding season this past year (although, it is far from “officially” over) and reminisce on some of the unique experiences they shared.
We tell your stories. This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how we do that.
Transcription of the episode can be found below the photos.
TRANSCRIPT
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Matt: Hello, you are listening to the Sask Wedding Podcast. If you're a bride to be or just love weddings, we created this show just for you. I'm your host, Matt Ramage. I'm the owner of MJ&Co. Stories, a photography and film company based in Saskatoon. On today's episode, we have the whole MJ&Co. team, which I'm really proud
of, these guys are amazing and we wanted to do a bit of a fun podcast. It's the “2022 Year in Review”, almost.
Melissa: Fun-cast, if you will.
Crystal: Wow.
Chris: Mean wedding season.
Crystal: How cool
is that?
Matt: So we're sharing mics, I'm not because I'm the mc and we only have four. So Chris and Josiah are sharing, a Mike, Melissa, Darby, Sharon, a Mike, and then there's two left for me and Crystal.
So yeah. Okay. thanks for being here, everybody. quick introduction. I'm Matt Ramage. This is my wife, Crystal Ramage. We've been photographing weddings together since like you assisted me on my first wedding in 2008, right? Yeah. Way back
Josiah: when. Then I paused, focused on nursing children and children. I'm photographing
Melissa: again.
Matt: Yeah. Chris
Chris: Rempel. I'm Christopher Rempel. .
Matt: He's I'm Chris. One of our video leads here at the studio. Josiah Menez. Hi. He's another video lead. So these two dudes do the editing in the studio and lead our feature film teams on wedding day. And then at the end, I have Darby Rats laugh. Hello. Way too far from the mic.
Melissa: Hello.
Matt: We're getting used to sharing. I don't have enough headphones either, so we gotta have some faith that's picking it up. But yeah, get nice and close when you talk. And Darby's one of our photographers here at the studio. Her and Melissa can usually be found together, though me and Darby have photographed it together.
A good chunk this summer too, so
Melissa: yeah. Yeah, basically I've
Josiah: photographed as much with you as I have with Melissa this summer. I
Matt: think so. Good time. So who's better? Just kidding. Don't say, don't answer that. . and then Melissa, we are at the end. The end. Hello. Melissa is lead photographer. and yeah, so we're all here.
We're gonna do a year in review, so I have a few questions. . these are all real answers here. , that's good. Good. My way. Sorry, my way of describing this is really poor. So I've gone through and done some numbers of this, of the, what we did this year. and so we're just gonna go through them to have some fun and then yeah, we'll go from there.
Sound good? . So how many weddings do you think we photographed this year to date? This is
Melissa: a test. 2021. I was thinking 20 something.
Matt: 25, 26. Nice and close.
Melissa: 22. I said
Josiah: 20, but now I think it's more than that.
Matt: Our photo count is 27 done and four to go. Its close. So stuck at four. Yeah. So we'll have done 31 by midnight on New Year's Eve.
We'll have done 31 just photo. When I say photo, I mean if we did video too, that's still I'm counting those separate in these numbers. Wedding video has been a huge part of our, now you know, the photo, so maybe now you can guess the video. So that including keeps.
Yeah, including keepsake. And
Chris: were some of those photo with video that you just, the number, the numbers you just gave us, some of those were ones that had video with them, or those were just exclusively
Matt: photo web? No, those were a mix. Okay.
Chris: 21. Oh, stick with my
Josiah: answer. How many have you edited?
And I just kidding. I'm
Chris: gonna say 13.
Melissa: 13 is my new answer. As someone who didn't do the video, I'm making a totally wild guess, but I feel like 15,
Matt: I'm gonna say films a total. I'm gonna say 18.
Melissa: That was my guess too.
Matt: 18. We've done 20 wedding video so far, and three to go. Wow. Three to go still. So three. Yeah.
Cause you have four photo, you have your, you have a wedding this weekend, right? Yeah. Yeah. They're just photo, right? I added the numbers, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. we'll have done 23 wedding film packages for people at by the end of the year, and we've done and filmed 20 of those, which is crazy. I would've, before I got these numbers together, I was thinking like, Oh, about like half of our couples skid video.
No, it's two thirds, Yeah. Why does, why did this not add up? How many double header weekends we had did we have? So double headers, I'm counting as weekends with two or more weddings. Three including
Chris: weddings The same
Matt: day for three as well. Three or across multiple days. Three for the whole team.
Okay. What? How many weekends had two or more weddings? 3, 6, 4. Bold four.
You got one crystal? I said three. Okay. Seven different weekends. Did we actually do that? What? Yeah, so if we had one wedding and you had one wedding, Yeah. I'm counting that as a double header. But we also had a bunch of weekends where Yeah, there would've been three, I don't know how many weekends you did them with me.
But I don't think I'd usually, that's when he'd split me in Darby up header. If we did a Friday and Saturday, That's a double header.
Josiah: Cause I remember we did Friday, Saturday, and then you had another.
Matt: I didn't do any triples. There was going, maybe they did. There was some weekends where there was like three weekends or four weekends where there was three weddings totaled.
and the one weekend was like three feature photo weddings, which was like, yeah, those were like, there were like a, we had a 10 or not 10 page, but like this huge whiteboard list of how we split the gear in half, which I thought was pretty good. We still have. , that thing came in so handy with, Yeah, still on the board we have eight cameras, bajillion batteries, memory cards.
But you need to split it, right? So not, so no one's left like hanging. Everybody has backups. So yeah, those are the numbers, which is pretty crazy. and I think 15 of those weddings were features. Does that sound. I can't remember. I thought it was 12, maybe I got my numbers from, It's like the
Chris: editing of them.
So Yeah, it's it's skewed in my mind. I'm like, Yeah, I think I think there's eight. Sounds reasonable. But then if he has another half of it, then it could very well be. Yeah.
Matt: how many cold storage hard drives have we used since? The beginning of the year,
Chris: we are on number four, and each hard drive is eight terabytes.
That's 32 terabytes. So that's, And we're like, Wow. We're maybe halfway through
Melissa: that fourth one. We was like, maybe two last
Chris: year. yeah, we had one wedding that we were like, Oh, this was exponential growth. A terabyte. The one wedding was like a tera. But that was our fault. we took way too much footage.
Yep.
Matt: Awesome. so those are some of the numbers. I thought that was pretty interesting. we've done a lot already and then we have a bit to go. So we're we're on the down ramp being crystal finished off like a six weekend straight, , just the way it split. Maybe
Josiah: got a bit of a break.
Remembrance day. Weekends are next wedding. Yeah. So we have, and it's end of
Matt: September. Yeah. So we have a few weeks off, which is nice. I think our whole team has Thanksgiving weekend off, so we're all thrilled about that. We get a nice long weekend. It's weird. Yeah. No worky for the Turkey. It says in the calendar.
yeah. let's talk a little bit about just this year versus last year. any like thing that comes to mind, just like some major differences or things you noticed from Not everybody has to answer every question, but just some thoughts on last year was like the covid year or a covid year.
This year has been basically nothing.
Chris: Yeah. Less, Less. Covid restrictions would be a, like a very prominent aspect to that. But then that just made it go back to what was more normal from like 2019.
Melissa: Definitely bigger weddings this year. Yeah. ,
Chris: so people are feeling a little bit more like open and everyone wants
Melissa: to do the big party this year.
Big wedding party.
Matt: Yeah, all the people who wanted to wait out the the covid restrictions, then those weddings all got pushed this year. one thing I noticed just was like, the demand for this year was like, unreal, crazy.
Chris: How many did we have for that one date? Was it a July date or was we
Melissa: had I'm sure that we turned down probably like 10 couples for the July 16th, whatever it is about that.
Was just so popular and it was really sad to have to turn all those people down, but we were totally booked. Yeah.
Chris: And venues were booking up and so then you had these weird, like Wednesday or Friday's. Not Friday's, not weird, but like Wednesday or was there a Monday
Melissa: wedding or something?
Non-typical wedding day. Yeah. Dates. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. the most popular day of the week. Saturday, then Friday, and then sometimes Sundays. And then Sundays after. And I think we did one Sunday this year. . Yeah. No, Wednesday
Josiah: for Katrina. Didn't we do a Wednesday in
Matt: June? that was last year for Dan and Becky.
Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. Big memory. Other differences? Any other thoughts? Yeah, the big Weddings was a big one. Yeah. demand was crazy. The, even just the bookings we had for this year we're you understand how many bookings you're gonna have and when most of 'em come in.
But when we booked up for 2022, the calendar was so full, like before, well before Christmas. Like you still get a lot of people filling in the cracks like after Christmas and like holidays like that for the winter or sorry for that coming season. And this past year was like for 2022, it's like the demand was so high, we, we turned a lot of people down. I'm so glad we honored our rule of one weekend off a month. , keeping some sanity. which was really good. It's nice still to, when you've been doing it this long, it's like we have kids and Melissa's got kid. Kid. A kid. . I am a kid. Chris. Chris has a dog. This is a kid.
Chris: A dog. Yes. A dog. Completely equitable to a child.
Matt: . No, but you have these, you have a life outside of it. And it's if all you do is, I also have
Chris: a wife, I have a life, I have a life outside of work. , I wanna maintain that
Matt: relationship. Yeah. So it's good. Yeah. We got, we still got some holidays in this year, so Yeah.
Melissa: People had really good food this year at their weddings. really good
Chris: food. , did you find that people had not great food in like the previous couple years Cause of Covid? Or was it like, I think
Melissa: it's because everyone wanted the big party this year that they like they just went for it with everything.
Yeah. Like they went for the planner, they went for the big meal, they went for big venue, All of it. Yeah, this was the big year. But the food, one of my favorite things, not gonna lie. We
Matt: did a wedding with Proggy. Was Ukrainian. So good. What's Ukrainian? Grandma's, What you call 'em? Bubba? . It was
Melissa: catered by Bubba's, right?
I could,
Josiah: or it was their pierogis.
Chris: Oh, so good. Yeah. No, I'm, I just edited the video and so I'm trying to think. Taste of Ukraine. Yeah, that
Matt: was a Ukraine. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I was full. Amazing. And then I was like, I know it's not a good idea, , but I'm still gonna go grab one more play to Provi. with
Josiah: that di
Melissa: gravy.
Oh my gosh. There's always that one wedding a year. I think that we get so stuffed on food that like, Yeah, last year it was Smith and Sydney's wedding. They had so many courses that kept coming out and I remember. We were all sitting there and we were so full. And then the main chorus came and Matt was like, I can't eat this burger.
And
Matt: then he did. I did. Cause I've I can't let it, I can't let it sit here. It was too, it was like, yeah. Needed that burger bar burger. It was really good. yeah pretty good year. as even as far as like us getting stuff out the door. Working our butts off. We have a pretty good turnaround this year too, even with the demand being so high.
what's that? If you added that up, That is 23 plus 31. What's the math on that? 60? Sorry, I can't do math. 23 plus 3 54. Sorry. 54. 50. 54. Yeah. Okay, so you got 54. That's total like deliverables, So films and photo. . And the reason we split that up is just the way we work on it is yeah, we're working for one client for both of them, but they're also very, it takes different people to put those together and get them out the door.
So we switch the way we count those because it is, we charge for it because it is a separate thing and it is a separate sort of skillset that needs to happen to make that get ready. So 54 total like wedding projects. We're doing really good. When I went to counted, I looked at our Trello board and I was really proud of what's already completed, what's ready, and then the stuff that's done, it's like the list of completed just dwarfs.
there's only like a few that aren't done and we're like on track to finish a lot of it before even Thanksgiving weekend, which it's keeping our average down to five, five weeks or something like that, which is really cool, which I'm really proud of too. let's keep it moving on. So I thought we could spend a little bit of time maybe chatting about what clients did.
This year we saw, a couple abnormal years and then I would say that 2022 was very back to normal if you wanted it to be. and yeah, if you guys wanna just share, I got a little bit of a block here for it. So how much like any thoughts of what clients did write or favorite parts of.
People's ceremonies, weddings, anything this year. And it could be the food again, it doesn't matter to me. how about I'll kick it off. Breathing room was one lot of people. I wrote down two names, but Cody and Brooke and Jack. And Kelsey, there was a few other ones. There was actually like a good chunk.
they had one location. Weddings. . They didn't have, we didn't have to drive anywhere. We didn't have to. worry about that, Worry about transportation. I really like them because of that extra time for them to just relax. Like we got all of what we needed to get done. we actually had more time than we needed and then they were able to just hang out with their friends and family.
and like the one couple got to do a reveal of the. Reception room before, because they were just there already, Usually they don't get to see that. Yeah. so I stole another one of your things from the list that . that was one of the things I really liked. And I think even just thinking of events and the way you, why you have 'em, you have them to be with friends and family and guests, and it's really cool to see like these these events where people are, have so much time just to be with the people they love.
Jack and Kelsey had what did, what were they playing in the room? Oh yeah. Super Smash Video Brothers video games. Yeah, we playing Super Smash Brothers. That was fun, and it was like, that was fun for them to be able to do. And then , they did a first look and this was all at the barn at one's edge.
And we still had some time for Sunset photos and like the whole day was like, really nice. Went really and just able, it was very relaxed and I really like. I really like that for them. Like I was happy for them that they got that. And same with Cody and Brook. Theirs was just at the Ramey.
They got ready at the all hotel and the condos there. And I thought, same thing. It's like super nice that they just gotta walk across the street, and if they had to go do anything, like they could just go up in the hotel and then for photos we stayed around there cuz it's got, you got the traffic bridge, you got the courtyard at the river landing.
I don't know what they call that. It's like by between
Crystal: the rivers nutrient towers
Matt: area, hotel and RBC building. Really pretty, Oh, I don't know what that courtyard's called. I dunno what that's called. It just has
Chris: a river landing sign.
Melissa: Kinda the nutrient building.
Matt: Yeah. Yeah. . And it was like, it's really pretty.
me and Crystal and Chris were at that wedding and yeah, it was fun. It was good for us too. Like we, we weren't moving gear, we weren't driving parking. Like we were able to spend a lot of our time with them too. .
Melissa: Did you shoot anywhere that you haven't shot before?
Matt: yeah like in, in that area there?
Yeah. because we weren't driving, I wanted some variety and we gotta just use a few things right by there. when you're driving, you go to you just shoot like the main parts of that area. Like you don't have as much time to play around. Yeah, I would say that was neat.
We were able to sh because we were walking, we were able to photograph a lot of portraits, in between official sort of places. Lots of can . I mean we haven't seen the final photos yet cuz that was just a couple weeks ago. But really excited to see that. I don't know. Have we shot in any new, have you shot in any new places?
We
Melissa: shot at Riverside Gulf and Country Club. That was new. I've never shot there. It was really pretty. And their ceremony was like right along the riverbank, we got this beautiful sunset view and yeah, it was
Matt: cool. Oh, Macklin, It was really good. Macklin was new. Me and Josiah and Crystal went to that one that was, it's like on the west, it's on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan, but like pretty cool.
the church was this old, was it a Catholic church?
Josiah: I'm not a hundred percent sure if it was Catholic, but it was built by, Grandfather
Matt: of, was it the grooms? I think it might have even been a great grandfather. Great grandfather. Yeah. Yeah. Helped build the church and yeah, there's a bit of heritage there and that's pretty cool.
they all have wedding photos. Like when I look at our portfolio, it's like a very unique set. you and Crystal Rano and got a really cool shot right as they were leaving, they had this like red car. Yeah. Red convertible looked really cool with your, the film you made. I don't know. They drove off really quick though.
Like I was, It
Josiah: was very quick sprinting, I think I shot those photos as they were starting to
Melissa: drive away. Yeah. I was like, They did,
Matt: They were just out of there. Yeah. They were trying to avoid a receiving land and they sure did. They did. They
Josiah: got the heck out of there
Melissa: quick. Yeah. It's funny that it was
Matt: good though.
It was fun. I like these, like the out of town places you go and do some, like a brand new place and we're only going there the morning of. . I like the challenge of working with what you have, going back to basics, like where's the good light, what's storytelling? what matters to these people?
And it was really interesting, like some of, one of the places we picked was on this like road, Do you remember that road we went to? And then I told them Ama where we took photos and I told her, she was like, Oh yeah, that's a good place. Yeah, that would be a good place. I was like, Yeah. I was like, Yeah, those are probably the best photos from the day, but.
Yeah.
Chris: Chris, I was gonna say the sec, Chris I, Go ahead. Didn't shoot anywhere new specifically . Yeah, I'll just take over here. but probably second to what you were saying earlier about being in one location and having that breathing room the things that I enjoyed was some of the weddings where there was breathing room.
Built in to the schedule. And I don't know if that was, sometimes that's not on purpose. Sometimes you just finish what you're doing in the location that you are way quicker than you think you are gonna, and then you have extra time after. And we kind of work, or I guess Matt, you and Melissa work with the couple when you're planning a little bit of an itinerary of the day loosely the timing of those things.
But when, like for example we did a wedding with cold and Cheyenne that. these ladies and me and we, I left to go do something, but they went with the they went with a couple and they were just, we were done some photos and they were just gonna take some candids and so then they went for a drink.
Yeah. It went to the crazy cactus. Yeah. It's just We were downtown, we were like, I was going and setting up at the reception and they're capable of taking some video and so they did some video like and it wasn't that there was stuff to actually film more photograph, it was just that they had a chance to decompress.
It
Melissa: was nice for the couple, I think. Yeah. And the whole wedding party, cuz summer days are hot and everyone gets tired and so we had a chance to just go and like chill with them with the crazy cactus and. , we got to stop and have a quick refreshment and Yeah. Everyone just got to mellow out for a bit and then go to the reception.
So like a recharge
Chris: time. Yeah. and they're gonna, and they want to be, they wanna have high energy for the reception because you want to be excited when they're coming in for that grand entrance and whatever. And you don't wanna be just completely wasted from the
Melissa: sun. And that was actually the point where a lot of them were planning, like how they would do their grand entrance.
Yeah. Cause each like groomsman and bridesmaid was like, How can we do this epic entrance?
Chris: Yeah. anyways. Yeah. So I like, That's fun. I like that kind of breathing space in there too. And then that helps us as well, because then like you don't wanna show it, but then you're just, at the same time, you're Okay, I can catch my breath for a second.
like . Cause Josiah running to get a video of reality, a photo video. Yeah. Running. He's Oh yeah, I ran to get that photo of him. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm running the entire time. it's just like nonstop for the day. And if you're tired, They're for sure tired. Cuz the day's about them, they have so many eyes on them.
It's like It was
Melissa: a hot summer too. Yeah. Yeah. , A lot of people were really hot summer in the Yeah, exactly. Like a lot of our wedding days were. 30, 35 degree days with humidity and all those groomsmen in 'em, all wearing three piece suits. most of the girls usually would just wear like a dress and you'd have like your arms and legs exposed or whatever, but all those guys were in like navy black, full on polyester suits.
And I'm like, oh, he must be dying. .
Matt: . you have one written from earlier, Melissa, the reception. The reception. talking about things couples did, right? You think you Ace and Brandy. Ace and Brandy. Who else did you said?
Melissa: Oh yeah. Yeah. yeah, ASCE and Brandy was a cool wedding day because there started in the morning and like it was a.
It was a longer day than a normal wedding would be for us typically. so they had their ceremony in the bed gardens in the morning, and then they had a really nice lunch, which we got to be a part of. And then photos, all the typical stuff for the rest of the day. And then we actually had some spare time before once we were finished, our photos had some spare time for them to be able to go and view the whole reception venue.
With nobody in it. So it was really cool cuz they got to kinda see everything and see all the decor and and have a little private kind of intimate dance by themselves for a bit. And it was really nice. Yeah, it was good.
Matt: I like those little things that people do differently. Yeah. To their day. And it's I dunno, there's a lot of weddings have traditions and things they do just cuz just cause then a lot of the
Melissa: planners.
They don't really get the recognition from they get the, I guess they get it from the couple usually after, but they don't often get the chance to see, the couple really seeing everything for the first time and have a chance to talk to them about it. So that's also cool to see.
Matt: Yeah. Crystal, It was Crystal from rcp. Yeah, Crystal McCloud. And she, we've done that with her, with a few couples now, like I remember last year at the barn, the one. My names are all messed up. Covid wrecked my brain and my memory. . Yeah. For, I only remember this year, , Jillian and I think Thomas. Yeah, they, their wedding Crystal did that and then she did a reveal with them for that one.
Same way you, she did it with you cuz she did a semen, Brandy's wedding. and I think even Matt and Kayley, we may have, I think we did a reveal with them. I know we filmed it ahead of time. Matt Nel. They did a reveal. I don't think Crystal did their wedding. Oh no, Crystal did. Yeah. Matt and all did a reveal too.
Yeah. I don't remember Matt. Maybe they didn't. I Reremember Anyway. Yeah, we definitely Dar Darby wasn't there. She was on the tour. the limo bus. Yeah. I was living her
Darby: Best Life party bus. Very memorable for not only
Matt: myself, it was Chris and me set now. So anyway, anyway, it was really neat to see.
and then even besides that, Crystal. Likes to make sure we can get there and works with the couple to make sure there's time for us to get to these venues before guests are in the room in this space. pretty neat. we kind have this unwritten rule. If it looks expensive or it looks like a couple spent money on it, we take a picture of it.
cuz you know, everything gets touched, moved, and like within just a few hours five PM's cocktails, eight 30, they're taking down tables for. , at the front of the place for dances and stuff. But I might end it with one last little thing. Kaylee and Matt did this and also Yu and Havana.
Yana both of them had dancers. Cause Matt and Kaylee had Highland, she was a Highland dancer. so she grew up, I think in bc and they did high dancing. And so they invited a Highland dancing group. I don't exactly know how they knew each other, but they, I think they were friends or maybe it was like a younger class of hers or something.
I don't know. Anyway, they came, they, that was like a special treat for all the guests and for Matt and Kaylee, and then it was fun at the end, the bride got in there and started Thailand dancing, like river dance style, if you guys remember that. then the bride got in there and started dancing with them and they did a full photo video package, which was really cool that we were able to capture that for them.
And then same with Yu and Iana. they both, they had I think we talked about it on our video, only a podcast, but, you're having these really big days. You're bringing a lot of people together. That was probably the biggest wedding I've seen in the last four years. they had, a few hundred guests and they had a whole Ukrainian dancing team.
That was a big part of their day team. Yeah. I think it was multiple teams. Yeah. And it was a really good way to celebrate. And I was asking them, I think on their wedding day, I was like, Is this the first time you've all been together to celebrate since, before 20? What if whatever Covid was 20.
Yeah. 20 before covid. and they said, Yeah, this is it. And it was like, okay. and even for us it was really cool. Chris was running around on his like, All evening with a gamble, another camera, and a tripod. Crystal and I are helping out and also photographing, and I thought it was really cool.
At the end of the day we watched this, we just finished their films like last week, and so we watched their feature film, but also their keepsake, or sorry, their the long cut of the dancing or from the reception. It was really cool to see this thing that's not so common, like having everybody do in dancing.
We filmed it professionally, so it looks really. You gotta see everybody enjoying it. You gotta see everybody part of it. And the, these dance groups were like, their I think two of the dancers were the bride the grooms sisters, So these are their, these aren't just like random dances, dancers.
They're like, they're closest family and friends. And anyway, that was one of the things I liked the most about this year was just like people wanting to celebrate and then wanting to you. They chose us to capture those things, so Super cool. Super cool. do you guys have any other thoughts or anything,
Chris: Those are really cool ways to like, include people in your wedding and we've talked in the past about it, probably in our SK Modern Wedding Summit episode re-release episode, but Like you want to give people involved in your wedding, like things like that. Bring parts of your traditions or heritage or whatever into the reception and the ceremony where you can, and then have different people a part of that.
Don't have one person doing everything. Just choose a different person to mc every different part of the day and could be a little bit more in the planning. Area, maybe a little bit more work in that regard. But then you get more people involved with your day and it's And you don't have to worry about Oh, did I leave somebody out?
It's no, we had two groups of dancers. Like everyone gets a task. Yeah, you got like everybody involved. What more could you ask for,
Matt: it's awesome to see everybody this year just come together, celebrate, these co I think every couple we worked with really understood that this wasn't just about them celebrating, but like the people they were bringing together.
It was all about every it was the being together that I really saw stand out this year. So anyway, thank you everybody for listening. We really appreciate it. and cheers to 2022 being a great.
