Some films begin with a plan. This one began with a camera test.
Over the past few years, I've been spending more time behind the camera, experimenting with anamorphic lenses and trying to develop my own approach to shooting.
During that time, I found myself filming little moments in the lives of my friends Shirin and Charlie. Nothing particularly elaborate or planned. Just everyday moments that caught my attention.
On one spontaneous outing in Bedford, I even put a microphone on Shirin while testing out some camera equipment. I had no idea that the conversations and footage I captured that day would eventually find their way into a wedding film.
Finding the story
When Shirin and Charlie got married in the summer of 2026, I had the opportunity to film their wedding.
But as I started putting the footage together, I kept returning to those earlier recordings.
There was something lovely about seeing the couple as they were before the wedding. Shirin's infectious personality, Charlie quietly getting on with things at the farm, and all the little details that made their relationship feel like theirs.
Rather than making a conventional wedding video, I wanted to weave these moments into the wedding day and approach the whole thing more like a short documentary.
The challenge was finding a way for footage captured years apart, under completely different circumstances, to feel like part of the same story.
The moments in between
One of the things I enjoy most about filmmaking is discovering that something seemingly insignificant can become meaningful later.
A passing remark, an unexpected expression, a moment of humour. Things you couldn't necessarily plan or recreate.
That's what made this film particularly rewarding to edit. The older footage wasn't originally shot with a wedding film in mind, yet it ended up giving the finished piece much of its personality.
And sometimes, when you're lucky, a line recorded years earlier turns out to be the perfect ending.
A different kind of wedding film
Road to Matrimony is a five-minute British-Persian wedding film, but more than anything, it's a little portrait of two people I've been fortunate enough to know and film over the years.
Making it reminded me why I'm drawn to documentary-style storytelling: the opportunity to find something personal, funny and emotionally honest in ordinary life.
I'm really proud of how this one came together.
And to Shirin and Charlie, thank you for letting me tell a little bit of your story.
Watch Road to Matrimony below.