They had a plan. It involved getting married. Getting there was the problem.

Director Ron Vignone’s feature debut “Say I Do” is a smartly and handsomely made independent film that intimately captures those nervous moments prior to saying the words that unite man and wife. Unusually, this film utilizes the same gut-churning techniques employed popularly in “The Blair Witch Project” to tell its personal story. But where “Blair Witch” went for ambiguous horror and left its audience reaching for Pepto Bismol, “Say I Do” steadies the ship achieving much more palatable results.

The story centers on Ben (Ben Koldyke) and Sydney (Pamela Moore Somers) who are about to embark on the journey that is marriage. Vignone starts his tale in hotel suites where the two parties are dressing for the wedding ceremony. Ben hangs with his fellow dudes drinking a little and expressing a bit of the shakes. We learn early that his friend, Michael (Samuel Bliss Cooper), is the man with the camera commissioned to capture the entire event. At first, the camera is very shaky indicative of home movie footage. Either I got used to this approach and my sensitivity to it got less or the Director of Photography (Christopher C. Pearson) gradually eases back from shaky-cam as the story unfolds. Nevertheless, the early scenes have a genuine quality needed to sell the events that follow. Immediately, I really believed that Ben and Sydney were getting married and this was just their wedding video—a private documentary.

After readying themselves at the hotel the happy couple depart together in a limousine. They are accompanied by Michael and one of the bridesmaids, Patricia (Rebecca Rosenak). Their destination is a ranch in the desert where the rest of the wedding party, family, friends, and the preacher wait to seal the deal. Ben has other plans that take them somewhere else, somewhere that may result in the end of his relationship with Sydney, or worse. In “Say I Do,” we are treated to a wedding adventure, painfully captured by the eager wedding videographer.

I suppose that the whole idea of “wedding videographer” is a relatively new invention. There was a time, not so long ago, when such a thing didn’t exist. I mean photos alone were taken at your run of the mill wedding. Today, however, no one would think of not preserving the entire monumental experience on videotape to be remembered long after that saved slice of cake had been abandoned in the back of the freezer (all covered with frost just waiting to be consumed at the right time).

“Say I Do” intelligently places its characters in a situation that breathes realism. Later, I learned that much of the dialogue was improvised by the actors. Of course, this is a big risk because actors may not want to say things that make their character unsympathetic (footnote here: I can’t take credit for this idea that was put into my head by veteran director John Hancock who I spoke with earlier this month, according to him, everything should be scripted). Vignone manages to keep it real and the dialogue is very natural but interesting and tight.

For example, a key argument between Ben and Sydney could not have been scripted, I don’t think. The two actors play off one another as though they themselves independent of the film are having a lover’s quarrel. The things they say to one another will be familiar to anyone who has fought with his or her mate. These fights can be called “common tragedies” taking place everyday and, sometimes, pulling two lovers apart forever. “Say I Do” could be therapeutic for a struggling couple because one is able to see a real fight and can recognize the faults in each of the parties. Maybe I should listen more? Maybe I should say more? Maybe I should hug her? Maybe I shouldn’t have said that?

“Say I Do” isn’t all heavy with emotional baggage. The limousine driver, David (David BelAyche), has funny but uncomfortable moments as his frustration reaches a fever pitch. But, like all of us, he has a story to tell, a sad story in a way but one that may hold the key to Ben and Sydney’s happiness. David is an odd little Frenchmen who is more than just a limo driver.

Unlike “The Blair Witch Project,” “Say I Do’s” sometimes shaky-cam mockumentary approach is more than a gimmick. It is a personal method of filmmaking that wouldn’t work for larger stories, but here it sets the right tone. Even the cameraman is involved in the story and suffers the consequences of his prying eye.

I think that Vignone is trying to tell us that you can only plan for so much. And it is how you react to the unforeseen that makes you who you are and dictates the course you must take. “Say I Do” reminds us how important it is to have the right person by your side when the hard choices have to be made.

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003