Vendor Spotlight: Swehland Productions

May 1, 2020 Vendor Spotlight: Swehland Productions

On today’s blog we’re going to shine a spotlight on one of our favorite friendors (get it, vendor friend?) – Shawn with Swehland Productions! Shawn and I have known each other for over 6 years and we first met when he was my video student at The Sheffield Institute for the Recording Arts. When he was in my class he did his first ever wedding film and now 6 years later he’s one of the top videographers in Maryland! We love working with Shawn!

Swehland Productions is one of our top vendor recommendations and that’s because what they do jives SO well with what we do! Shawn is truly a fly on the wall, observing the story unfolding around him – allowing him to craft each film in a way that’s truly unique to each couple.

Last year I had the honor of photographing Shawn’s wedding to his wife Kacie (you can see the photos here). He had a friend film the wedding for him, and then edited the video himself. I love this video so much because it reads as a love letter to Kacie.

And now for the fun stuff!

I sent Shawn a list of questions to accompany this blog post – so now you get to hear from him directly! Enjoy :)

How long have you been in business?

I got paid for my first wedding five years ago (while you were my teacher!). Been doing it full time for the last three years. All of my weddings have come from past clients, which is the biggest compliment I could receive. Word of mouth is amazing and we have never paid for advertising. Truly have the best clients!

How did you get into doing videography for weddings?

Well my dad is a wedding photographer and I have always enjoyed watching him work. Then I thought how cool would it be if I could bring those images to life. In 2014 my Dad and I shot our first wedding together. He was the photographer and I was the videographer. I had no idea what I was doing but I fell in love with it right away! So after leaving that wedding I knew I wanted to make this my career. Decided to go to a tech school and shadow a bunch of videographers and photographer (including yourself!) and now here we are!

What is it about weddings that you love most?

The in between moments. Such as Dad seeing his daughter in the dress for the first time, groom seeing his bride, mom helping put on the dress. The moments where you can just feel the love in the room. Most people only get to witness it once if they are lucky, we get to see it almost every weekend. It’s a real gift!

Describe your ideal client:

I really don’t have an ideal client. Each couple is different and that’s what I love! Being able to tell everyone’s unique story is amazing and I am so lucky to be able to do that.

What makes your work unique?

The storytelling. I think each wedding videographer brings something unique to the table. We believe that the storytelling is what comes first. Each couple is different so no two videos should be alike. We want to get to know you as couple and find out what makes you unique and really make sure your video fits your personality. Capturing the wedding is important but for us it’s most important that we capture the feeling and the story of the couple.

What is your favorite tv show/movie of the moment?

This will change every time you ask me. But right now I am missing basketball a lot. I will go with the best basketball movie ever made, Space jam!!

For fun, here are the videos of some weddings we’ve worked together from the last year and you can also click the couples’ name to see our photo story as well!

Anna and Scott at the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Museum

Roopa and Marc at Elkridge Furnace Inn

Check out more of Shawn’s work on his website!

Comments

comments