Bring on 2021!

Hello!

We wanted to post this as an update to our couples, but also an update to those considering booking us for their wedding as well. We know the last 14 months have turned all of our lives upside down, (even if you weren’t also trying to plan a wedding throughout it all), but whether you’re getting married in 2021 due to a postponement or were always planning to get married this year, with weddings in Scotland now expanded to allow 50 guests, we think it’s safe to say we are starting to see a bit of light around the corner.

We would like to start off by thanking our couples that supported and encouraged us through 2020, and are very pleased to say we have been able to accommodate 95% of our postponements. As a small business (it’s just the 2 of us, plus our team of shooters!), we would not have been able to weather the storm that was 2020 without your help, but we are pleased to say we are now in a great position to really knock 2021 and beyond out of the park! From capital investments in our post-production process to an upgrade of our kit, we’re planning to be in an even better position to create some amazing films this year.

Here at Olive and Thistle, we usually cap the number of weddings we book per year, but this simply wasn't possible for 2021 as many couples were already booked in for 2021 at the start of the pandemic. Approximately 75% of our 2020 weddings postponed to this year, and in fact, we cut off taking most new 2021 bookings about halfway through 2020 in order to not be overwhelmed this year. While we do have a good-sized team in place to go out and film them, the post production would have bogged us down too much, and your films would have taken a lot longer to finish than we (or you!) would have liked.

We just wanted to let you know what we’re doing to handle all of this extra work, and how it may affect you, specifically in regards to delivery time and who will be there on the day.

Team Members filming your Day

Here at Olive and Thistle, we have a team of 8 strong filmmakers that have been with the company since its inception. All of our weddings are shot by two of these amazing and friendly shooters, and we also pride ourselves in the fact that we use the exact same gear and kit across all our team. Due to the sheer amount of weddings we are now filming this year, we cannot guarantee who on our team will film your day until 3 months before your wedding, but we can say that whomever will be there, you will be informed by email 3 months prior to your day, and be given an opportunity to set up a Zoom or Skype chat with them if you wish. Again, these are all filmmakers that have been with us since the start, so you can be confident that the quality of filmmaking will be as high as you expect of us. Also know that no matter who films your day, it always comes back to us for editing and post-production, which we believe makes our films the style that they are. Speaking of which...

Editing Your Day

As we’ve said, we will always edit your day, right here at our Olive and Thistle studio. In spite of the increased workload, we will not under any circumstances outsource the edit, post production, music choices, or delivery of your films to anyone else. In fact, as mentioned, we have made capital investments on our post production side of things here, which will optimize our processes in order to get you your films quicker than would have been possible in the past. That being said though, due to this commitment to keeping everything in-house, and due to the amount of weddings taking place this year, your delivery time may be affected.

Delivery times

Under normal circumstances, we typically deliver our films 12-16 weeks after your wedding, but we are now anticipating the possibility that it could be within 12-20 weeks, particularly for weddings taking place during the busy summer months. We really do hope you understand why this is the case. We don’t rush our films, we don’t outsource the edits, and we want you to be completely happy with your final films. This extended window for delivery won’t apply to all films being delivered, and if for some reason that window changes we will let you know on a case-by-case basis. That all being said, we will continue to honour our commitment of delivering your wee 30 second teaser film within 2 weeks of your wedding date.

If there’s anything about the above you may have concerns about, do get in touch right away and we’ll see what we can do to address them for you. The quickest way to reach us is by emailing us at hello@oliveandthistle.co.uk.

The whole team here at Olive & Thistle are looking forward to seeing you and being a part of your day, so on behalf of myself, Amanda, and our entire team, thanks so much again for choosing us to be a part of your journey - we look forward to being a part of it and making 2021 our best year yet!