Love Is Not a Preset

6 days ago
4 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

A Denver Wedding Videographer on Why the Best Moments Happen When the Camera Goes Down

Kendyl Spriggs spent a decade doing legal work inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Today he films weddings in the Colorado mountains. The path between those two things is not a straight line, and that's exactly what makes his work worth knowing about.

When Kendyl and his wife left Maryland for Colorado, they were chasing something specific: slower pace, open space, mountains. The legal career didn't survive the move. And after a layoff that he now describes as a turning point, Kendyl made a decision that a lot of people think about but rarely act on. He stopped putting his fate in someone else's hands.

He'd already started picking up a camera, tagging along on his wife's photography shoots to help out. What he found surprised him. He didn't have the temperament for photography — all that directing and posing. But video was different. A videographer gets to move through a wedding day rather than orchestrate it, absorbing the energy of a room instead of managing it.

His first real shoot was at the National Mall in D.C., not even a wedding, just a couple and some orchestrated scenes. The couple loved it. He loved it. Something clicked.

That was the beginning.

Since then, Kendyl has been building A Simple Kendyl Production quietly and deliberately. He shoots promotional work for local businesses and is currently working with the Denver Foundation to shed light on a scholarship that has been paying for kids' schools for 25 years and has developed relationships with partners across the film industry. That collaboration shows up in his wedding work in ways that are hard to pin down but easy to feel. There's a cinematic quality to his films that doesn't come from gear or presets. It comes from spending time around people who think about how stories move.

His editing style is warm, unhurried, and specific to each couple. Clients tend to find him after a long search and tell him the same thing: nothing else felt like this. That's a compliment he takes seriously, and it's also why he doesn't rush the process. He gives himself four to five months after a wedding to sit with the footage, experiment, and find the right shape for that particular film. Couples get a teaser while they wait.

"You're going to be married for a long time," he says. "What's five months compared to forever?"

What separates Kendyl from a lot of videographers working in the Denver area isn't technical. It's a philosophy he practices on the day itself.

He's worked alongside videographers who stay so locked into the camera that they lose track of the people on the other side of it. That's never been his approach. He reads the room. He follows the energy of the couple rather than imposing a shot list on their day. He works with a second shooter so the key moments are covered, which frees him to move and find the unexpected ones.

And sometimes, he puts the camera down entirely.

If emotions are running high and someone needs a moment, he steps back. If a bride or groom needs reassurance, he's present as a person first. It sounds simple. In practice, it requires the kind of confidence that comes from knowing what you're actually there to do.

"It's not about me," he says. "It's about them."

Kendyl is based in Longmont and works throughout the Denver metro area, the Front Range, and mountain venues in places like Estes Park. He'll tell you the landscape is part of why he loves what he does — the long drives to venues, the way Colorado light falls on a couple tucked into the mountains. The scenery isn't a backdrop to him. It's part of the story he's telling.

His wife, a photographer with her own established business, is both a collaborator and a grounding force. She introduced him to the tools that run his business. She helps with framing when they shoot together. She makes him better. They've also learned, through experience, that two creatives with strong visions need to communicate carefully or things get contentious. They've figured out when to work together and when to stay in their own lanes.

On the vendor side, Kendyl came up second-shooting for a photographer, so he has a natural feel for how to operate within a larger team. He's not the guy jockeying for position or stepping on the photographer's moment. He knows the whole team is what makes a wedding work, and he shows up accordingly.

Ask Kendyl what drives him and he'll give you an answer that's bigger than weddings. Since becoming a father, he's been thinking a lot about love as a practice. Not a feeling you wait to receive, but something you give without expecting anything back. He wants that to come through in his work.

He's also paying attention to what's happening in the world his clients are getting married in: costs are rising, life is harder, the pressure on couples is real. His response to that isn't to pull back. It's to give more. He tags every vendor who contributed to a wedding. He shoots promotional content for collaborators. He shows up for other people in the industry the way he wants to be shown up for.

It's a different way to run a business. But it fits the person he is.

If you're a couple planning a wedding in Colorado and looking for a videographer who will actually be present on your day, not just technically capturing it, Kendyl Spriggs is definitely worth a conversation. His films are warm, cinematic, and specific to you. They're also worth the wait.

And if you're a wedding professional in the Denver area, he's exactly the kind of collaborator you want on a team.

Kendyl Spriggs is a wedding videographer based in Longmont, Colorado, serving Denver, Boulder, Estes Park, and the greater Front Range.