Morocco Wedding – Marrakech Wedding Videographer

What made you choose Fawaky Villas as your venues?

What we always knew we wanted was a venue that was intimate and had beautiful gardens where we could have an outdoor ceremony and dinner. There are many styles of venues in Marrakech, and we looked at a few different places before picking Fawakay Villas. It was just stunning, an oasis just outside hectic Marrakech old town. We had experienced a few busy hot days in the old town and arriving at Fawakay for the first time during our recce was a welcome relief, it was paradise. Also, Dawn (the owner) fed us with wine during Ramadan and we were super grateful for it. We loved the owners of Fawakay, and that was a core reason why we booked the venue. Dawn and Francis ( the owners) made us feel welcome in their home/ hotel, and I knew immediately we would be able to work well together. Organising a wedding in another country can be hard and knowing you can work well with your supplier is a super vital decision to make.

What made you choose Juno wedding Films to document your day

I was looking for a videographer for a long time. It was something that was super important to us because the film will be with us forever. It will fill gaps in our memory when we are old and it will help us reminisce the best day of our lives when we forget. Picking the style of videography was the first step; it was between a truly cinematic style which followed our day or a more playful music video style. I ultimately decided that a cinematic style suited our location and weekend better. I wanted a film that didn’t just follow our day but also reflected the sounds, smell and colour of our location, Marrakech. Finding a videographer was definitely harder than finding a photographer. I trawled through wedding blogs but video’s were not as popular as photos on ‘real wedding’ blog posts, and I felt like I was hitting a brick wall as I couldn’t find anyone that I really liked. A lot of films were quite cheesy; like getting ready shots filled out with speeches etc. I realised quite quickly during this process to what I didn’t want. I found Dan when I was searching for Marrakech wedding videographer and luckily he did one in Marrakech the year before and his SEO was coming up dividends. When I saw a video of a Marrakech’s wedding he filmed, I knew our videographer, the film was just so beautiful, it reflected what I wanted in my video; sounds, smell, colours and a beautiful love story. I then watched his other wedding videos on his site and sobbed my way through it. I contacted him immediately. The correspondence was excellent; he was friendly and professional, and I knew he was a good guy. Talent and a nice personality sealed the deal, and we chose Dan to document the day.

What do you guys do?, what is important in life to you? How do you spend your days?

Ben works at JP Morgan and manages a global team of client service representatives in the Prime Brokerage department. He has been with JPM for 12 years, and his loyalty at work is reflected in his commitment at home (9 years together) and at rugby (11 years at London Welsh). I think we are both fairly driven and want to be successful at work as it is a means of facilitating a comfortable and happy home life. We both work incredibly hard, but if we could, would happily retire at 40! Friends and family are incredibly important, and we try and spend as much time with our close friends as possible. It is important to really enjoy the time you spend together as those special moments happen less frequently the older you get. Like all Brits, we love spending lazy days down the pub, raving it up at music festivals and bathing in every moment the sun is out in one of London’s parks. I run a bath and body brand called Verdant Alchemy. I quit my ad job, launched a brand and planned a wedding in the same year. Sometimes I do wonder how I actually did it. There were definitely moments where I felt overwhelmed by everything that was going on. I had to make so many life and work decisions that wedding stuff took a back seat. In hindsight, I probably should have booked a wedding planner but it didn’ really cross my mind. However, I am happy and proud of how everything turned out over the wedding weekend. I luckily made a lot of the big planning decisions early on. The location, wedding venue, Friday night venue, dress, videographer and photographer were chosen within two months of getting engaged. Everything else was booked about three weeks before the big day; food and flowers were arranged about three weeks prior. The bridesmaid dresses were bought the weekend before (cutting it fine was an understatement considering we had a year to plan the wedding).

The proposal, how did it happen, what is the story?

From Ben – If you ask Viv, she would probably say it was long overdue having put up with me for 8 years previous. I had actually been planning it for around a year, but obviously didn’t let on. In hindsight this probably added to her anxiety of not being married, but I love to surprise her every day, and figured she had waited this long, what was another few weeks/months? We had planned an epic trip to HK, S Korea & Philippines and knew the time had come, but having planned it for so long, was waiting for the perfect moment; a number presented themselves in the Philippines, but it never quite seemed right. On the last day, having not found the perfect moment, things were getting desperate. We went on a snorkelling trip and saw loads of tropical fish, and to top it off we swam with turtles – it was magical! Back on dry land, I tried to play it cool, and suggested we lay on the hammocks outside out villas (which were stunning), and I summoned up the courage to get down on one knee and ask my love to marry me. Spoiler alert, she said yes, and I couldn’t be happier.

What kind of experience did you want for your guests from your wedding?

We had one key objective for the wedding, and that was to ensure our closest friends and family had a relaxed and fun time celebrating our marriage. We are pretty chilled people and our day needed not to be too formal and stuffy, I wanted a bohemian glam vibe where our guests were well fed, watered and had a right old rave-up at the end. We wanted them to experience the full Marrakech experience when they were over at the weekend. So the Friday night before the wedding, we hired out the rooftop of El Fenn in the Old Town for an alfresco rooftop dinner for 70 people looking over the city, and it was epic. On Sunday after the wedding, we hosted a BBQ and pool party at our wedding venue. This was a chance for everyone to have a chill and it was an opportunity for Ben and I to properly catch up with everyone as a wedding day can be a total whirlwind.

Venue: El Fenn

Venue: Fawakay Villas

Photographer: Fern Edwards Photogrpahy

Dress: Poppy Perspective

Videographer: Juno Wedding Films