Emerald Gate Films

My recent «headshot» photo session with Sandy could not have been more delightful. What pro! As a radio announcer, I am NOT comfortable in front of camera, but Sandy made the experience so much fun. The joy and passion she has for her work is evident by her contagious grin and laugh. She instantly made me relax and smile naturally for the camera. She had the proofs back to me within hours, and the final re-​touches back a day or two later. You can see the final result right here on Unilocal with my profile photo, she made me look fantastic! If you need a photographer for ANYTHING: a family portrait, baby pictures, senior class photo, wedding, videos, website, you name it, she’s THE ONE!

I decided to contact Emerald Gate Films for a corporate 20^th anniversary party. Sandy and her team were easy to work with, creative and produced an exceptional product. Sandy was able to take outstanding video that was full of detail. She was able to capture our anniversary party beautifully. Our finished DVD unquestionably turned out well, our entire team was very satisfied and impressed. I will surely use them again for any future media needs as well as refer them to friends and colleagues.

We got married on 4÷25÷15. Emerald Gate was awesome. They worked with us to customize a wedding package with a price that fit our budget. They were really flexible too — we wanted to make some changes about a week before the big day and Sandy let us add a second shooter to the package and additional hours for what we thought was an awesome deal. She also added some last minute DVDs/​Custom boxes to our order so we could gift them to a few extra family members after the wedding, which they all loved!
Within 6 or so weeks of the wedding, we received BEAUTIFUL, creative videos (8min & 50min) of our wedding and the DVD boxes the videos came in are awesome! We got SO many compliments on the video that was posted online, so we are not alone in our feelings about the quality of their work.
They showed up on the wedding day early ready to go, and were totally on top of our crazy schedule. The only issue we had was during our evening reception… my husband and I wanted the room lights to stay dimmed and they turned them on brighter a handful of times. It was a miscommunication and they of course stopped when we asked them to… we just couldn’t figure out who was turning them on for the first half of the reception.
We would absolutely hire Emerald Gate again. Sandy’s videos really speak for themselves. Having the memories on film from our wedding day, with all of our friends and family celebrating with us, is truly priceless. I’m so glad we chose to get a videographer and that we found Sandy & Emerald Gate. I will definitely be recommending them to others.

Where to begin? My fiancé and I fell in love with the video style on Emerald Gate’s website. After talking to Sandy over the phone, we fell in love with her personality, her vision, and her accommodations to video our wedding. Sandy and her team split up and began filming our wedding day from 8:30am until midnight. Sandy, with me in Petaluma and her team in San Francisco, then to Treasure Island where our reception took place. What’s more, is that Sandy and her team captured the most incredible moments… moments that we did not even realize her video team was around to witness.
Words cannot describe how thankful we are. So far, we have only seen our 2 minute highlight and even that is enough to make my husband and I re-​live the happiest day of our lives (and write this review!).
The only regret I have is not using Sandy and her team for photography as well. By far, Emerald Gate was one of the BEST wedding vendors we had for our big day.
From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!
If you want amazing videography that captures the most memorable days of your life, look no further. Emerald Gate is simply the best.

We loved working with Sandy and Emerald Gate Film. We are wedding planners from the bay area and we had a wonderful destination wedding in Maui that we worked together on. They worked our Bride and Groom’s budget and they were absolutely amazing to work with! They are professional and really care about the clients and listen to their needs and wants. They customize each package for their clients.
Everyone loved the video clip they created! Can’t wait to work with them again soon!

Sandy did our wedding video and we are beyond happy with the results. She had a quick turn around and she gave us a link to share with our friends and family, a movie video, and the raw footage video. The movie video was so awesome! She captured all the highlights of the day and all the special moments. Being the bride and the groom, our wedding day just flew by and we were so busy with being in many places at once, we really didn’t get to see the interaction of our guests, their reaction, and all the fun people were having. Sandy captured all those moments for us and we got to see the real feel of the wedding. Another point I really like about the way Sandy work is that she connected with our photographer before the wedding to strategically plan out how they would work together to get the best shots, and to be sure both activities ran smoothly. I thought that was great planning and it shows her experience. She had a lot of creative ideas and she got our vision right away. Most of all, we liked Sandy as a person from the first time we met her. She has the warmest smile and her happy energy is contagious. She was the first videographer we talked to and after our initial meeting, we canceled all other appointments, we knew we found the right person for us. We cannot thank Sandy enough for her great work, and so happy we found her for our wedding. One of the stress in planning a wedding is finding the right vendors for all that we needed and we had no stress with the video. So if you are planning your wedding, or any events for that matter, we highly recommend Sandy.

Please read if you want to be blown away by an amazing show of customer service and please view our wedding for film excellence.
Planning a wedding is usually stressful for the bride, not so much for the groom. Well that notion doesn’t apply when the groom works in the event planning/​catering industry. My beautiful bride Quisha let me handle the stressful things, because she knew that I would make her special day with me amazing. I knew most of the vendors for our wedding, but I met Sandy from my then fiancé’s sister in law. They went to high school but hadn’t spoken in years. That was good enough for me. Sandy and I met at Starbucks in Dublin and talked for at least two hours. I told her our story of us meeting in junior college, me proposing on the Brooklyn bridge because it was her favorite bridge, and of course we talked about my love for roses. Sandy shared her story and through her telling her story, I saw her passion. Sandy met with us whenever we needed, even on her birthday. I made sure she saw everything from the Bently Reserves Ball room to the Presidential Suite Quisha would be getting dressed at Le Meridien Hotel. She and I met again to go over a final review of our vision and she told me me not to worry, that she had my back no matter what. What she didn’t tell me was how amazing her first assistant Christie was. The day of the wedding came and I was uneasy. I knew Sandy was with Quisha but I didn’t know how I would be taken cared for. My little angel came in the form of Christie. I looked at her and said «game time». She nodded and said, «I got you groom». When I needed a certain shot she was there. When I was unsure about a certain look she took over. Most importantly when I needed to close my dressing door and pray, she dropped to her knees and prayed with me. I get chills remembering that moment because she put me above everything, and you cant pay for that passion. Finally I remember standing at the alter saying my vows and I can recall Christie in the wings filming, I knew she was there and I winked when I was done. She smiled because in that moment I knew she was concerned about me and I was letting her know that the groomzilla she just met, was ok. Thank you both and whoever reads this, view either the trailer or the feature to see what excellence in filming really is. 9÷14÷14 was the start of a new life with my wife and an amazing first meet with new family Sandy and Christie.

Absolutely loved working with them, they worked around our Maui budget and gave us exceptional service. Awesome from every «angle» They made my husband and I feel very important and customized images to whatever we liked. it was pretty cool that we received our hard copies as DVD Movies w/​the look of an awesome film. extremely friendly, personable, and willing to help me with whatever myself and husband wanted. Learned from these two very talented ladies from the referral from our photographer, we flew out our photographer and these two ladies and did not regret it one bit. The turn around took a little longer than expected but it was worth every minute and day of wait.
We also chose our own music which they customized to our liking in the video. Would I recommend them to others? HELL YES!

Sandy Just completed a photo session for my Daughter who came with a few challenges…1. she is 17months 2. she has medical equipment attached to her 3. She was totally off her NAP schedule, uncooperative and more interested in tearing up the set then giving up a smile!
Sandy was patient, professional and creative with our session. She was not taken back with the medical aspect and gave 110% even though we came in on a promotion special! I haven’t even seen the pictures but i have complete confidence just based her performance that they will be Stellar! Thank you Sandy! We will be back in for More sessions «on nap schedule though» you rock with that lens girl! oh yes another plus is that I as a special needs mama I appreciated the cleanliness of the establishment and i even peeped out the Disinfecting Wipes, you know they are used when they are at arms reach. and the hand sanitizer too. When dealing with public places Germs like to hang out but guess what Unilocalers… they are not hang out in your Pictures!.. if you go to Sandy. Thats all:)

Sandy did the video for our wedding and was fantastic! They were there on time and were so easy to deal with and helpful on what’s a very busy and stressful day.
The video done was incredible! We really couldn’t have asked for better.

Sandy you and your assistance where awesome, Both ladies where professional in every way from being on time and patience, As we all know weddings (8÷24÷13) can be a little hectic, but you both made this and incredible experience!!! The two of you where remarkable to work with, thank you,
Heaven
The wedding Planner

Worked with Sandy MANY MANY times and I look forward to working with her again. She’s pleasant, a joy and extremely talented. She kept the party going AND kept a very professional attitude towards myself AND my family.
A few years ago I was on the Oprah Network and Sandy filmed my World Première. It was a very upscale, atmosphere with an easy attire sort of evening. Sandy meet me their early and started to work. She was thorough an explained everything that she was doing. I found her work to be outstanding and extremely wonderful.
I would definitely hire Sandy again without hesitation or reservation. As Tina Tuner would say, she is «Simply the Best… better than ALL the rest!»

Sandy was able to take my visions and put them on film. She took the ideas in my head and made them a reality. She jump-​started my YouTube singing channel by creating an authentic looking first singing video of mine (Marco Valencia — Whatever My Love), which gained viewers. They were blown away by the styling and cinematography. Her editing had my audience wow’d and still, to this day, refer to that debut video on my YouTube Singing Page. If you are looking for that authentic visual style, not only is Sandy at Emerald Gate Films a great way to go, but she will work WITH you to create a joint effort amount to a masterpiece.

Sandy Martinez and her crew created the most amazing wedding film for us! I hired her after seeing some of her work posted on her webstie. I wanted something different than the traditional, cheesy wedding videos everyone else has. I wanted something upbeat, modern, and fun! Sandy delivered just that! This wedding video is one of the best investments I made. The day went so fast I didn’t remember much of what went on and felt like I missed out on so much. This film brought back the beauty of the day, and is by far the coolest wedding video ever! All of my friends and family have commented on the quality and uniqueness of the film. Honestly, I couldn’t be more grateful to Sandy for doing such an amazing job.