Sarah & Nick: A Greek Orthodox Wedding in Pittsburgh's Oakland | Wedding Videography
Updated: Sep 15
Two people said the same thing that night, and neither of them planned it.
Sarah's father said it during his toast. Nick's brother said it again an hour later, standing up as best man with a glass in his hand. Different families, different sides of the room, same sentence in slightly different words: everyone knew, from the very first time they saw those two together, that this was already settled.
That is a rare thing to catch on camera. Not the sentiment, which is common enough at weddings, but the fact of two people arriving at it independently and saying it out loud on the same night. When I heard the second toast land, I knew where the film was going to end.
The morning at The Oaklander
Everything about this day happened within a few blocks of itself, which is a gift when you are shooting wedding videography. Sarah and her people got ready at The Oaklander, and the light in those rooms did most of my work for me. There is a particular quality to a hotel morning before anyone has put anything on: robes, someone's phone playing music nobody chose, the planner moving through with a timeline that has already shifted by ten minutes and nobody minding.
JL Makeup Studio worked without hurry, which I noticed because it is unusual. Nobody was rushed, so nobody looked rushed, and that shows up in a film whether or not you can name why.
St. Nicholas
Nick is Greek and his family is Greek in the way that means it is not a detail, it is the frame around everything else. So the ceremony was at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Dithridge Street, and it was a full sacrament, not an abbreviated version of one.
If you have never been to a Greek Orthodox wedding, the shape of it is worth knowing. There are no vows in the way most American ceremonies have vows. Nobody says "I do." Instead the couple is crowned. Two stefana, joined by a single ribbon, are placed on their heads and exchanged three times, and from that moment they are understood to be crowned as the heads of a new household. They drink from a common cup. Then the priest leads them around the altar table three times in what is called the Dance of Isaiah, and those are formally their first steps as a married couple.
I love filming this ceremony, and I will tell you why in plain terms. Most modern ceremonies are built around words, so the camera has to follow speech. This one is built around motion and objects, and motion and objects are what film is actually good at. The crowns. The ribbon. The turning. You do not have to explain any of it for a viewer to feel that something old is happening.
Carnegie Music Hall
The reception was a short walk away at Carnegie Music Hall, and the room did something for the first dance that I could not have arranged if I had tried.
Sarah and Nick had choreographed their first dance to a Bruno Mars song, Risk It All, and rehearsed it enough that it read as easy, which is the whole trick. But the thing that made it a moment was the balcony. Their guests were up above, leaning on the rail, looking down into the space while the two of them worked through the routine on the floor below. It turned a first dance into something closer to a performance in a theater, which, given where we were standing, felt exactly right.
From above, that shot is one of my favorite frames of the year. Marble, columns, a wall of people looking down, and two very small figures at the center of it.
Then the room turned over completely.
Greek dancing first, the circle opening up and pulling people into it whether or not they knew the steps. Sarah's family is Filipino, and the two traditions took turns until they stopped taking turns and it was simply everyone. DJ Hypnotyza read that room correctly, which is not a small thing when you are asked to move between two musical traditions and a dance floor of guests who may only know one of them.
This is the part of a wedding I care most about as a filmmaker. Not the choreography, which is beautiful, but the dancing that nobody choreographed. It is the only part of the day that cannot be planned, and it is almost always where the film finds its heart.
The toasts
Four speeches: both fathers, Nick's brother as best man, and Sarah's sister as maid of honor.
I mention the count because four is more than most couples allow, and it says something about who they wanted heard. Both dads spoke. Both siblings spoke. Nobody was trimmed for the timeline. And in two of those four, that same line about knowing at first sight.
Vendors
Wedding Videography: AConti Media
Wedding Planner: Tiffany and Design
Photography: Empowering You
Florals: The Farmer's Daughter
Hair & Makeup: JL Makeup Studio
Cake: Culinaire
DJ: DJ Hypnotyza
Ceremony: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Pittsburgh
Reception: Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland
Getting Ready: The Oaklander Hotel
I film a small number of weddings a year in Pittsburgh and beyond, mostly for couples whose day carries something specific to their family. If that sounds like yours, I would like to hear about it.
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