NORTH CAROLINA
EAST COAST
SELECT DESTINATIONS
DANIEL and MARIA YATES
Husband and wife cinematographer and storyteller team
Daniel is the owner and lead filmmaker of YAF. Together with his wife Maria, who joined after her move from Mozambique in 2018, the duo has become one of North Carolina's luxury videographer teams. Now based in Raleigh, they routinely travel the state and beyond documenting weddings for purpose driven couples. Their style and approach is multifaceted: both documentary and cinematic, detailed but authentic, story-driven, and unique to every couple. They are loved not only for their genuine personalities but also for the way they capture every moment effortlessly and piece it together in a high end fashion.
Dan and Maria are diverse in more ways than one. Together and individually they have traveled to Ireland, Sweden, Mexico, Jamaica, Inhaca Island, Russia, South Africa, and more. Maria is fluent in Portuguese and Russian. They continue to film American western weddings, Middle Eastern and South Asian weddings and events, and occasionally Portuguese or Russian centric weddings throughout the year.
Their heart is for the couples they serve and work with, which is the key element to creating their unique experience.
Meet your videographers
Our Values
CONNECTION
Connection is what brings us together;
your story, our care, your vision, our craft,
and all the conversations or plans in between. It's important to us that our couples are sincere about having us bring their wedding to life for all the years to come.
TRUST
Trust allows us to do our best work, knowing who you are and what is needed to provide the best experience. It's important to us to take care of our couples, and for them to trust that we will protect their wedding day moments and needs.
COMMITMENT
As Yours Always Films proposes, we are here from first contact until final delivery and beyond. We take communication and planning with our couples seriously. We only serve a handful of clients and do not double book, so our time is not divided.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
Terminology
Cinematic Wedding Films
Telling your story through beautiful imagery, powerful music and vocals, crafted together in an artistic, movie-like fashion that flows with audio from your wedding. It allows you to experience together all the emotions, excitement, moments, and details again from the day. Because these are our main product, we proudly spend most of our time producing them.
Documentaries
The ceremony, toasts, rehearsal dinner, dances, henna ceremony, or special event, edited in chronological order, and perfect for reliving the moment together or with friends or family. These are made custom per event.
Highlight / Music Video
If you like the idea of having a 1-3 minute powerful compilation of the best moments from the day to share with others on social media, a highlight video is ideal for just that. These can be tailored to you and edited to a certain style or genre.
Raw Footage
The culled, unedited clips minus the ceremony, toasts, and main events. Consider these the raw, unedited bloopers.
Eloping? Proposing?
We do Video AND Photo
We love true, wild romance and an adventurous spirit. Whether it's just the few of us on a hike, a small ceremony at a gorgeous location, or a secret and epic proposal, we are here to help plan and document a truly personal and celebratory experience. Ideal for elopements, proposals, and engagement/couple sessions. Weekdays are most available.
If you don't have your wedding quite envisioned, don't worry.
We will guide you through the process and create the perfect quote for you.
Our Story
Hello! We are Daniel and Maria, a husband and wife creative duo. We are a married international couple, and we love wild romance. The kind that makes you cry tears of joy when you see each other walking down the isle or when you finally see each other after a year of long distance. We get our energy and inspiration from nature, traveling, inspirational movies, philosophical conversations, Carmel Frappuccinos and good food, each other, and most importantly, God. We enjoy our Blue Ridge Mountain and coastline adventures and try to make a romantic trip out of every wedding weekend. One thing we feel the most called to is working with and blessing other couples. With YAF, we are proud to have the opportunity to work with about 20 amazing couples a year. As you will find, we absolutely love what we do. Here's just one bride of many who knows it.
“We used Yours Always Films for our big day and it was one of the best decisions we made! From our first coffee date to our big day, Daniel was so personable and motivated to give us something special to remember the best day by. He definitely delivered. I watch our video all the time. The memories with friends, family, and my husband on that day are all frozen in time because of that video. His attention to detail is amazing! He is creative and works well with the photographer. If you’re looking for amazing work, Yours Always Films is for you! You will not regret it!” - Paige
I, Daniel, am from Indiana, and Maria is from Maputo, Mozambique and speaks fluent Portuguese and Russian. After meeting each other online, I flew around the world to meet her and her family and proposed to her on the beach. During our year-and-a-half long-distance engagement, and until we united in the states in 2019, I created videos for us to hold onto all the memories we made. They literally held us together through the distance. Since then, I've been telling stories of other couples because of how powerful it was for us. So powerful that it means the world to you when it's all you have to remember something in such a real, emotional, exciting, visually stimulating, and heartfelt way. Now we share this art together. We value marriage and the meaning behind it, and believe in strengthening and deepening relationships. We believe we found our calling, and therefore, we give it our all.
Our Roots
Daniel is most rooted in his lifelong talent in creating. He grew up drawing and playing music. He spent his high school years writing and recording in the basement, performing for concerts, and leading worship services at church and small groups. His love for creating spread to a love for people, culture, and his future wife of whom he wrote about in his songs and journals. Before graduating high school, he bought a camera and took it everywhere he went. Friends started to know him for his music and photography. He felt a whole new excitement surface when he shot his first wedding in 2010, but never thought it could become a vocation. During his pursuit of a more "realistic" career in marriage and family counseling, Daniel met and fell in love with Maria, of whom inspired his investment and pursuit of both worlds to creatively capturing and recreating romance stories such as his own to strengthen marriages. He named the business Yours Always, as a salutation he used at the end of his letters to his future wife.
Maria grew up in Mozambique as well as Perm, Russia and spent most of her time dancing and studying numbers. Her life was rooted in these two outlets: connecting with others through expression and honesty and understanding predictability. Her pursuit of her mathematics career led her around the eastern hemisphere. She found fulfillment within her diverse friend group and through supporting them in their relationships, like her mother had always done for her. Not until they met on a Christian dating website did she get to see her own romance story unfold. Her character, marital reverence, and heart for worship is what attracted Daniel. Since then, she has fallen in love with the journey, beauty, culture, connections, and experiences she gets to create with all our couples. Today, she tutors math and is the financial planner behind YAF.
Our Mission
With a heart and drive for emotional connection, visual storytelling, and purpose driven marriage, our mission is to eternally bless marriages in a timeless, personal way. Our goal is to truly capture the heart, essence, and excitement of your wedding in such a way that will forever bring your marriage back to its roots. Contact us today if you want us to be a part of your wedding vision.
Yours Always, Daniel and Maria
