Many of you that follow Clearly Classy on Facebook and or Twitter know that just recently one of our weddings was filmed for Lifetime's "I'm Getting Married!" to be aired this summer. The reason they wanted to film this particular wedding was due to the fact that it was a Muslim wedding. There are really two parts to this story.....the side that talks about the facts of this wedding and what made it so interesting, but also there is a story behind the filming...For this blog I want to tell you guys about what filming was like and when we get the pictures in I want to tell you about the wedding and the couple.
We started filming last Thursday. The first thing we had to do was a mock planning meeting with the bride, her mother, the maid of honor and myself. This meeting had actually taken place back in August, so it was slightly awkward having to act this part out again. We would be talking and the producer would stop and say "Johnell, can you react to that again, we need to get your face...." or "Stop, say that again Promise we need to have you talking about that...." This went on for 2 hours.
Next, we changed clothes and did another meeting (One we actually needed to have), as if it were two days before the wedding (which it was). This was much easier and natural. We talked about layout, set-up and the timeline. I answered questions and concerns, all information that we needed to discuss. This felt normal.
Finally, that evening, after hours of working on the meetings it was time for my on camera interview. It took them some time to set-up and then we began. So many questions, rapid fire. The producer would ask me a question, I had to include the question in my answer then answer the question. After a couple of fumbles I got the hang of it and we were rocking and rolling. They asked things like "What do you think about pre-arranged marriages?" , "What was going through your head when they were telling you about the needs of the wedding?" and "How would you feel if you were 19 and about to marry a man that you had never even touched?". Then they asked me to make some statements, one that I thought was really funny was "I am Texan, born and raised!" I think they really got a kick out of my Texan side. I'm sure my twang was endearing to them. I also had to talk about things that were in the past as if we were in the present tense, like "I met Promise and her mother Candi today and I think the meeting went well...." and then things as if they had already happened but hadn't, "The wedding went great today....."
At the wedding itself I was mic'd and had a sound person, producer and camera lady following me around. That was pretty nuts.....I would walk to one room to fix something and I could hear them scurrying right behind me to keep up....then I would go back and here they would come....I don't see how some of these people do this for months at a time....it seems like to me you would just go crazy.
All and all it definitely showed me a behind the scenes look at what really happens on some of these shows. I mean sure it was mostly reality, but for the show of course they need a nice tidy package for television and they made sure they had everything they needed, whether it was live action or acted out.
I don't get to see anything before it airs so I will keep you all posted on when that will be and hopefully it will turn out great!!!