Some love stories start with a plan. A setup, a swipe, a friend’s introduction. Wenxuan and John’s started with a mistake — the wrong digit in a phone number, given by accident in 2023.
Wenxuan & Johna wedding film
It started with a wrong phone number. Two years later, it became forever.
Some love stories start with a plan. A setup, a swipe, a friend's introduction. Wenxuan and John's started with a mistake — the wrong digit in a phone number, given by accident in 2023.
It should have ended there. Instead, it turned out to be the first thread in a much longer story. Not long after, Wenxuan discovered something strange: her maid of honor was John's teaching assistant. Through her, she began hearing about this student everyone described as kind and quietly impressive. Curiosity turned into conversation. Conversation turned into plans.
They started spending their weekends together, and then their holidays. They made a habit of trying a new restaurant almost every week — a habit, they'll tell you, that eventually got put on hold for a very different reason: the wedding diet. In December, they went from one holiday light display to the next, mostly remembering it now as the season they learned to survive standing outside in the cold, together, on purpose.
January 2024 — they made it official. June 2024 — they moved in together. Valentine's Day, 2025 — John asked, and Wenxuan said yes.
"He takes everything seriously and always tries to understand me." — Wenxuan, on John
John describes it more simply. When they're apart, he looks forward to being back with her — she brightens his day, he says, the way sunshine does. It's not a dramatic kind of love. It's the kind built on Tuesday dinners and bad-weather light shows and a hundred small decisions to keep choosing each other. That is the story we were asked to film.
Watch the Film
Wenxuan & John · Regency at Dominion Valley, Haymarket, Virginia
Wenxuan & John, thank you for trusting us with your day — from a wrong number, to a first look, to forever. We hope this brings you right back to the middle of it.
With love, Desmond & Vera — Fine Art Wedding Film
Inside the Day
For anyone planning a wedding of their own — especially at Regency at Dominion Valley, or with more than one culture and tradition in the room — here is how the day actually unfolded.
A Chinoiserie-Inspired Celebration
The wedding's visual language drew from Chinoiserie — the centuries-old, Asian-influenced decorative tradition that pairs elegant restraint with romantic detail. Rather than sitting on top of the day as decoration, it shaped it. Planner Lirio & Co and florist Joline Design Studio built the palette and the arrangements around that theme together, so that the florals, the tablescape, and the overall feeling of the day stayed refined without ever tipping into formal or stiff.
The Moment Wenxuan Was Waiting For
Ask Wenxuan what she was most excited about on her wedding day, and she doesn't hesitate: the first look. After a year of planning, fittings, and logistics, it comes down to a few seconds — a turn, a breath, a reaction that can't be rehearsed. Working alongside photographer Evey, we built our morning coverage around protecting that moment, not staging it.
Long, Personal Vows
The ceremony ran about 30 minutes, with no readings and no formal rituals — just two people and vows they wrote themselves. That simplicity gave the words room to breathe, and it's exactly the kind of moment a wedding film exists for: the ability to hear a voice again, years later, saying exactly what it meant to say on that day.
A Live Mariachi Band
Once the ceremony ended, the mood shifted fast — helped along by a live Mariachi band, arranged through Black Tie Entertainment, brought in for cocktail hour. It was an unexpected, high-energy choice that had nothing to do with tradition and everything to do with who Wenxuan and John actually are: a couple who wanted their wedding to feel like them, not like a template.
A Beauty and the Beast First Dance
For their first dance, the couple chose choreography inspired by Beauty and the Beast — one more layer of romance on a day that was never short of it. It sat comfortably next to an energetic groomsmen entrance, plenty of laughter, and a dance floor that filled up fast: romantic, but never precious about it.
The People Behind the Day
Wenxuan and John were specific about one thing going in: they didn't just want footage of themselves. They wanted their people — the laughter, the reactions during the vows, the parents watching from across the room, the friends dancing when they thought no one was filming. A wedding belongs to a couple, but it's carried by everyone who shows up for it.
The Details
- Couple
- Wenxuan Ma & John Landrove
- Ceremony & Reception
- Regency at Dominion Valley
- Location
- Haymarket, Virginia
- Guests
- Approximately 110
- Style
- Intimate & Romantic
- Design Inspiration
- Chinoiserie
- Ceremony Length
- Approximately 30 minutes
- First Dance
- Beauty and the Beast inspired
- Cocktail Hour
- Live Mariachi band
Planning a Wedding at Regency at Dominion Valley?
Wenxuan and John's day is a good example of what the venue can hold: something elegant and something personal, at the same time. Regency at Dominion Valley, tucked into Haymarket, Virginia, has become a go-to setting for couples across the Washington DC metro area — close enough for a Northern Virginia crowd, spacious enough for a celebration that includes a live band and a dance floor that doesn't quit.
If you're searching for a wedding videographer for this venue — or for a filmmaker who knows how to work with more than one culture, language, or family tradition in a single day — we'd love to talk. Fine Art Wedding Film shoots throughout Washington DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia, with a particular love for weddings, like Wenxuan and John's, that blend Chinoiserie elegance, live music, and personal storytelling into one film.
Wedding Vendors
- Wedding Videography
- Fine Art Wedding Film — @afineartweddingfilm
- Venue
- Regency at Dominion Valley, Haymarket, VA
- Wedding Planner
- Lirio & Co — @lirioco
- Photography
- Evey — @evey_photographer
- DJ & Entertainment
- Black Tie Entertainment — @blacktiedmv
- Florals
- Joline Design Studio — @joline_designstudio
- Hair & Makeup
- Cindy
- Cocktail Hour Music
- Live Mariachi Band
- Catering
- Regency at Dominion Valley
Fine Art Wedding Film
We're Desmond and Vera Denton, a husband-and-wife team filming weddings across Washington DC, Maryland, Northern Virginia, and beyond. We're drawn to the celebrations that blend cultures, families, and traditions into one day — because those are usually the ones with the best stories underneath them.
A wedding film shouldn't just show what happened. It should hold onto what it felt like to be there — the nerves before the first look, the voice behind the vows, the way a room sounds when everyone you love is in it at once.