Amy DeChristopher and her fiance Hunter Cain knew for a long time that they wanted to put together a video as the save the date for their upcoming wedding. With Hunter's film skills they knew it would come out great. And it would be more cost effective than using snail mail, especially because they both come from big families—her parents have 23 siblings combined, his eight.
What the couple did not know was how well the video would be received, not just by friends and family but by the national media, too.
"All of our family and friends absolutely love the video and have been posting it and sharing it all over the place," said Amy, who grew up in Peekskill. "We have gotten so much love and support since we sent it out and again when it went viral."
The video features two little kids reenacting Amy and Hunter's story, which began nearly six years ago. The couple emailed it to their families last month. Since then, it's been featured on ABC News, Glamour and The Huffington Post.
"We know the kids through longtime coworkers of ours," Amy said, adding that she and Hunter work at Brother Jimmy's BBQ in Manhattan, where they first met. "...We were talking about ideas for the video and Hunter randomly said 'What if we use kids?' And I was like 'That's brilliant!' Jake and Ivy are so freaking cute and were the exact age we were looking for, and they also know each other very well because their parents are best friends. So we knew they'd be comfortable with each other."
Once they picked their actors, Hunter—an Alabama-native who started a production company a couple of years ago—whipped up a short story line and got to work.
"It was not difficult for him to make but it did take a lot of patience and effort," Amy told Patch. "The only challenge I would say we ran into was that we decided to film in our New York City studio apartment. We had seven adults, two kids, a frog and camera equipment all squeezed in, so it got a little chaotic but the kids did such a great job and were so easy to work."
Amy said she is so proud of the video, and all of her soon-to-be husband's hard work.
"When we originally did the video we never thought it would get this much attention so we never thought about doing one for the wedding, but we might change our minds," she said. "Hunter did such a good job with this one I don't know how we would top it."
Amy and Hunter are set to marry in May.
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