I’m just going to be up front with this. Your wedding day is going to be in the Top 3 greatest days of your life. Don’t debate me on this, it just is. Even though having great photos to show a particular moment are great it is always good to have videos that really showcase who you were in that moment in time. So we just wanted to put together a quick list of things that brides should consider when booking their wedding videographer.
Turnaround Time. A wedding is a special moment in time for everyone involved, from the bride, the groom, parents, guests and everyone else in between. One thing about the moment though is when you’re out of that moment it’s back to the real world. That means back to work, back to bills and back to everyday responsibilities. So it’s good to have a wedding videographer that has a quick turnaround that will allow you to stay in that moment for a little while longer. The average turnaround for wedding videos is roughly about 8 weeks. So if you can find someone who can get your videos back to you quicker than that or at least give you a teaser or something to watch then you are winning.
Lighting. At every wedding you want to make sure the mood is perfect in the venue. As we all know setting the mood has to do with lighting and that usually means the darker the better. For videographers that’s not always the best environment to shoot videos in. WE NEED LIGHTS. So make sure your wedding videographer has some type of lights so that your wedding videos don’t look like a deleted scene from The Dark Knight.
Audio. A major part of the wedding day is saying your vows as well as remembering all of the wild things the best man and maid of honor had to say about you during the toasts. To make sure that is perfect you want to make sure that your wedding videographer has some type of audio setup to be able to record these moments. Typically during the ceremony the groom and the officiant would be recorded with some type of lav mic and then during the toasts either there will be an audio recorder plugged into the DJ booth or having the toast givers directly mic’d up. Don't miss out on these moments just because your videographer wasn't prepared to record the audio.
Social Media Clips. We are just in a day and age now where if it’s not posted on social media, it didn’t happen. Usually with videographers you will get either a 6-10 minute highlight video or your whole wedding ceremony and reception. With those options unless you post the long video on your page, it doesn’t really show off your wedding day in the most epic way possible. So if this is something that is important to you (it's not important to all people) then make sure your wedding videographer has a package that includes some type of social media clips.
Video style. This is something basic but it is very important. Every videographer has their own signature style and look. So before booking please go through their portfolio to see if you actually like their style. There is nothing worse than a bride or groom booking you to shoot their wedding and then wanting you to shoot it like someone else. Please do your research on this.
Great location. Some videographers believe we can tell a story in any situation but it is 1000 times better when you tell a story in a great atmosphere or venue. So if you want your videos to come out epic then you want to make sure your venue looks great. You can’t go cheap on the venue and then expect beautiful videos. It just doesn’t work out that way.
So these are just a handful of things that new brides to be should consider when booking the wedding videographer who will document your biggest day ever.
