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Welcome Hey, welcome to my blog!  I'm glad you found me.  I'm a Kansas City based photographer & videographer and I love capturing real, authentic moments.  From weddings to non-profit folks like Food for the Hungry, my life is filled with working with great people.  Feel free to look around and learn more about me, then let me know how I can be a part of capturing what's important to you.
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Results tagged “Kansas City Wedding Videography” from Mike Varel's Blog - wedding photojournalism + cinematic wedding films - Kansas City + worldwide

117
05.11.10
The first four months of the year were absolutely crazy.
and fun.

Vegas Sign ACM's.jpg

From Guatemala to Canada, Florida, West Virginia and Las Vegas, the slow part of my year was anything but.

The Vegas trip was crazy. Landed, filmed till late, slept, filmed all day till 5 pm and went back to my hotel to edit till about midnight. I waited for approval on the final video for the ACM Awards and flew out the next morning.

I got to see some great people out there and film the show for the troops at Nellis Airforce base, which was pretty great. Dierks Bentley, Montgomery Gentry and a whole bunch of great artists and musicians played for a few hours until I realized the shuttle with Josh had left me behind :0)

I caught the next one and talked with Matt Sayles who is an amazing AP photographer that does celebrity/event work. Matt, good luck finding a wedding photographer! (he's friends with some of the world's best photojournalists)

I also shot a beautiful wedding in Charlottesville, West Viginia at a vineyard that was a scene out of a movie. I'll share what I can with you on that soon.
BrownWeddingStill.jpg 

My nephew Casey Jay turned 1. Him and Grady may be my favorite thing to photograph...

Casey's 1st birthday.jpg

For now, wedding season is in full swing. I think the next 6 or 7 weeks in a row before one weekend off and back into another 6 or 7. So far this year is mostly in kansas city with a couple stops in st. louis too, but I'm thinking another beach wedding needs to happen.

I think I may have a couple dates open in the fall yet, but most of the year is already booked. I'm hoping all the concerts I want to see aren't falling on Saturday nights. Last year Keith Urban was playing the Sprint Center and I was 3 blocks away filming. Talk about bummed. But it was a great wedding :0)

In the meantime I have to tell you about Amy Seeley. She's all over my blog in my videos, but if you haven't heard her other music it's time to stop and do that now.

AmySeeley-EightBelles Cover Art.jpg
photo by Jesh De Rox

She has an unbelievable voice and her piano playing is just gorgeous. Lyrically she has a way of taking you on a journey and arranging words in ways that make me smile.

I'm also wrapping up work on a video for Food for the Hungry here in the next few weeks with some awesome motion graphics from Matt White and writing from Rick Mundy with Kansas City Creative. I'm excited to work with those guys more helping non-profit organizations to tell their stories and have more of an impact in the world.

The next several blog posts will be wedding films and a few photo weddings as well. Let me know if I can help in any way for your wedding, even if I'm already booked, I know some incredible folks in town.



(1) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend
Rachel Moore:

I bought her album on your suggestion - loved it! Thanks for sharing!!

(07.19.10)
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116
Katelin told me a couple days before her wedding, "I'm going on my last run as a single girl". Feeling that was part of the story of their day, I went along for it. When I say "went along" I mean, I drove along. Seriously, I coudn't keep up with her. I tried. hard.

For best results, push play, then pause and allow the video to buffer fully before pushing play again.

Music: Amy Seeley, "Walk to the Park" from the amazing record, Eight Belles

Licensed through With Etiquette



I'm really looking forward to the 2010 wedding season and all the stories yet to be told. If you're getting married this year please contact me quickly as 3/4 of my open dates are already booked.
(5) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend
James Fry:

Gosh. I love it. So much story in such a short preview!

(05.04.10)
Jason Domingues:

You nailed this Mike, Great job!

(05.04.10)
Aaron Hawes:

Very cool... just an awesome preview.

(05.04.10)
Katelin Reddick:

Mike, you are the best!! I'm beyond pumped to see the video (and so are like 80 of my friends). You're on the list of vendors for many of my guests who aren't married yet...

(05.11.10)
becca spears:

love it mike

(08.11.10)
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105
I first met Meg at Focus Seminars. We quickly became friends and stayed in touch even when she went back to work in Chicago.
 
I got phone calls and emails telling me about how she met Joe at church and how amazing he was. Then the day came when I got the call. They were engaged and she wanted me to shoot her wedding pictures.
I was so excited for them and to finally meet Joe, but I really felt like I wasn't Meg's photographer. I knew I could do it, but what I wanted for her was better than I could do.
I sent her to my friends at Wirken Photography. I really wanted Becca to shoot the photos for them, and if I was asked to do video I'd love it, but would've been happy to just be in attendance.

In the end, Tyler shot the engagement photos, Becca and Jewel got to shoot the wedding and Ryan and I went along for the video. It was one of my favorite weddings of all time for so many reasons. One, it was Meg & Joe, and I love them - for another, it was Chicago and their wedding was gorgeous. I had also met Meg's mom and sister at Focus, so it was awesome to be a part of the family for the day.  The ceremony was amazing at the Moody Bible Church and the reception was by far the best I've been to. The band Sway performed all night and I've never heard better - the dance floor was packed!

The entire day ran so smoothly and I loved the detailed & professional service from Kristin at Big City Bride.

Thank you Meg & Joe for letting me into your world, on your most special day. I was truly honored to be there and capture all of those moments for you. It was one of the hardest edits for me to do because I wanted it to be a 4 hour video. You guys are wonderful & I hope you enjoy this short piece before you get the full length piece... which may be 4 hours.



The music in this video is by Amy Seeley - she's amazing, swing by her website and check out her stuff or grab her record off iTunes. Music was licensed through WithEtiquette.com

Details:
Wedding Planning: Big City Bride
Church: Moody Bible Church
Reception: Germania Place
Band: Sway


For the technical folks out there:
You may see a visual difference in this video compared to the rest that I've done or posted here - Canon released a new camera and it arrived literally the week of the wedding. I shot this entire piece with the 7D, hand held with a 20mm and a 50mm lense. I didn't have time to buy anything else for it. Since that wedding I've shot and produced several other projects with it and all 2010 weddings will have the same visual quality, plus a few new tricks.

For those of you that were left hanging at the end of the video wanting to see more; all of my videos cover the whole day. This is just the opening piece, followed by a full-length ceremony shot with multiple cameras as well as the whole reception edited to music as well. Contact me today so I can get your day on my calendar, 2010 weddings are filling up fast!
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Damian Gerstner:

Mike, nicely done! I've seen Meg's pictures from the Honeymoon, but nothing from the wedding. You are so talented, and I really enjoy looking through your work. Who knows, 20 years from now, I may want you to do my daughter's wedding!

(03.14.10)
Damian Gerstner:

Mike,

Thanks for sharing your work. I had seen Meg's photos from the Honeymoon, but none from the wedding. It looks like it was a wonderful time. I love the work that you do - you are so talented. Who knows, perhaps in 20 years, I'll need you for my daughter.

Damian.

(03.14.10)
Meg Piercy:

Oh my goodness Mike, wow, I hate to admit this, but I hadnt seen it since it went on your blog, just when it was password protected, so I didnt know I could point people to it! You are one of the greatest guys I know Mike and you do incredible work. Thank you for your kind words, amazing work and for your constant encouragement. You are truly a blesisng to everyone you come in contact with. May God continue to bless you as you bless so many others :)

(03.29.10)
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81
It's always fun for me when a couple is so in love they live in their own little world together and communicate without speaking.  That is Leah and Pete.  A couple weeks before their wedding I shot their engagement pictures and saw how they are around each other.  I gave them little or no direction for each shot because it was too much fun to just watch them [be] together.  They would almost forget I was there and the smiles, laughter and moments would happen as I clicked the shutter.
I knew their wedding would be just as fun to shoot. Their families, friends and bridal party were all such a blast to be around all day. Leah's flower girl was so excited about her role that for months leading up to the wedding she would tell anyone that came over "do you want to see my dress? I'm going to be the flower girl in my Aunt Leah's wedding!"


Leah+Pete Wedding 14.jpg

July 11th was their day to make it official. Ryan and I arrived early at the Loretto and documented their entire day with photos and video. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day.  You'll notice about half way down a shot of the flower girl leaving the ring bearer behind. The picture that follows was his disappointment with her not following directions.

If you are a friend or family member from the wedding, click here and you can see the rest.


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aaron:

best ring bearer ever. every shot of him is legendary.

(08.06.09)
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79
I've been playing around with adding more and more audio into my edits lately.  I usually use audio from the vows in the Wedding Day Montage at the end of my wedding videos, but I've been playing with adding it into the getting ready & first sight portions of the video too.

Andy + Melissa are such a fun couple and have excellent taste in music.  In fact, their music choices inspired a completely different edit than I normally do.  That's a tip for those of you looking to have wedding videography - your music really changes the feel of your video.  If you look back a post or two in my blog to Jeff & Brooke's you can see how a slower song feels compared to this one.  Different portions of the video need faster or slower music though too, in my opinion.

So - here's just the very first few minutes of Andy & Melissa's wedding video.  It was all the shots we did of them getting ready and preparing to see each other for the first time that day.
The photography was done by the FABULOUS Jessica Roark at Epaga Foto - www.epagafoto.com - I may post more on this wedding later, but here's a glimpse -



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Matthew Carlson:

Hey man loooks good!! What kind of camera are you using these days??

(07.16.09)
Jen Mills:

mike - that was amazing. i love the detail - the editing - the story you told for them - love the voice clips - love it, love it, love it! you got it for them for the REST OF THEIR LIVES - when marriage gets ugly and dinner is burnt and they are tired - they can watch and remember and be inspired again!

(07.19.09)
Luke Sickman:

Man you were blessed with wonderful lighting that day! Vid is awesome!

(07.23.09)
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76
This video is from last fall but since I've got a new blog that allows me to put them up, you all will be seeing some favorites from the past and some from this season as well.
This is one of the most gorgeous weddings I shot last year - Brooke & Jeff are such an awesome couple and so much fun to film all day.  We worked along side RPM Entertainment who did a fantastic job on their photography.  I really love their work & they were so much fun to hang out with that day.
It was freezing all day, but we still got some great footage with the ceremony at Redemptorist and the reception at Union Station.


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Meg Robinson:

Mike,
That is incredible! You are so good at what you do. I can't wait to have you do the videography for my wedding in October. It will be such fun :)

(07.05.09)
Jen Mills:

That WAS a beautiful wedding - I bet they love having it on video - a priceless treasure to have - we LOVE ours!

(07.11.09)
Mike Loesch:

That is a phenomenal example of wedding videography!

(12.16.09)
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