We Accidentally Left Our Film Camera Behind at a Wedding. Here’s What Happened.

Sep 2

We bring film cameras to nearly every wedding we photograph, usually shooting a few rolls of 35mm alongside our digital coverage throughout the day. At Nicole and John’s late June wedding, we did exactly that: getting ready, their ceremony, cocktail hour, portraits, and the reception all made their way onto film. And then, at the end of the night, we realized we accidentally left one of our film cameras in the now-locked getting ready suite.

Thankfully, Nicole and John’s family found it. But before sending it back to us, they had a question: would we mind if they brought it to the afterparty and kept taking pictures?

Obviously, we said yes. So for the rest of the weekend, our camera got passed around between family and friends. They photographed late-night drinks and group selfies, people hanging around together, brunch the next morning, and plenty of moments we never would have seen otherwise. When we finally got the camera back and developed the film, the roll had turned into something we never could have planned.

The first part looked like our usual wedding film: the way we saw Nicole and John’s day while we were there photographing it. Then, suddenly, the perspective changed. The photos became a little messier and more unpredictable. There was more direct flash, blurry frames, funny expressions and compositions we never would have made ourselves. And we loved them.

There’s something especially fitting about all of this happening on film. Part of what we love about 35mm wedding photography is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. Some of our favorite film photographs feel more like something pulled from an old family photo album than a polished wedding gallery. They preserve how being there actually felt. In this case, we got the literal family-photo-album version.

We spend a wedding day documenting everything we can, but eventually we pack up our cameras and go home while the people we photographed keep celebrating. This time, completely by accident, one of our cameras stayed behind.

And we got to see what happened next.