Nostalgic Super 8 Wedding Video

November 26, 2022

When you think of watching your wedding film, what do you imagine the experience will be like? My guess is that you want to feel nostalgic warmth for all the beautiful moments from your wedding day. Nothing captures that as well as Super 8. In this post, I share some things you should know about adding a Super 8 wedding video to your coverage. I also share three (of many) reasons that Super8 is such a powerful choice for your wedding film.

Super 8 Wedding Video

A Super 8 wedding video is an incredible way to document your day, especially when paired with film wedding photography. This technology was invented in 1965 primarily for people making home movies. Unlike in the 1960s, videographers are now able to edit film digitally. This significantly streamlines the editing process.

Wedding videos created on Super 8 have the best aspects of home movies when it comes to the warmth and intimacy that they capture. Super 8 wedding video doesn’t have sound, so some people choose to set their wedding videos to music when they share them on different platforms. 

Super 8 vs Digital Wedding Videos

When you’re planning a wedding, you’re faced with a mountain of choices about the experience you want to create and the vendors you want to help you achieve it. If you want video coverage, you ultimately have to decide: Do you want a Super 8 or digital? Here are a few things to consider when making your choice.

First, you need to consider how much you care about sound. A Super 8 wedding video typically doesn’t capture sound. Not all digital wedding videographers focus on sound, but some do. They tend to have complex mic setups to catch your vows and toasts from start to finish. Some people find that they prefer Super 8 because it ends up being less intrusive.

Second, think about how much you need to have crisp, clear images. Digital wedding video can document a wedding day with all the clarity you’d expect from modern technology. Super 8 is grainier and less precise. What it lacks in precision, though, it more than makes up for in capturing the feeling of a wedding day. It’s atmospheric and lets you settle into the emotions of the day differently than you can with a straightforward digital video.

Reasons to Love Super 8 Wedding Video

It’s nostalgic.

Kodak Eastman invented Super 8 for home videos, and that intimacy really comes through in wedding videos. It feels like watching a memory of something that could have happened three months or thirty years ago. In that sense, a Super 8 wedding video has a dream-like quality that’s really whimsical. 

Even though Super 8 embraces a vintage aesthetic, it manages not to feel old-fashioned. These wedding films bridge the past and the present. Guests dressed in contemporary styles look just as magical as your parents’ friends would have in their bell bottoms and paisley print. 

It’s emotional. 

Like your celebration, a Super 8 wedding video portrays so much emotion. You could be eloping with just your partner or throwing an elaborate dinner party for all your favorite people. Whatever way you choose to celebrate your union, you want your wedding film to document all the layers of emotion in your exchanges. 

Super 8 is powerful because it preserves all the coziest feelings of a wedding day. That nostalgic quality brings out the warmth in all the moments of connection between you and your loved ones. It’s easy to imagine future generations finding your wedding film and sensing exactly how you felt at your ceremony and all the meaningful moments in between. 

It’s real.

As an experienced documentarian and wedding photographer, I appreciate how real Super 8 feels. You get what you get with film. There’s not much editing that I can do in post to change the look of a scene. By de-emphasizing production, it puts the focus on the genuine moments that are the best parts of a wedding day. 

Those “imperfections” also tend to be some of the best storytelling moments. In this Super 8 wedding video, for example, I documented a lot of the causal interactions between the couple and their guests. The laughter over their meal and excitement in conversations tell you more about their relationships than any posed portrait could. 

The clips featured here come from Shaun and Shana’s Maas Building wedding. You can see their full Super 8 wedding video here. You can also see a Super 8 film from a Bartram’s Garden wedding here.


Would you like me to document your wedding on Super 8? Let’s start the conversation. Get in touch!

Thank you to the vendors who made this day possible:

Videography: Jason Moody
Photography: Kelly Giarrocco
Venue: Maas Building
Planning: Philly DIY
Caterer: Yalla Yaya
Florals: Ashn Earth Florals
Rentals: Broyt

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