Wedding Blog
Do I REALLY need a videographer? On the one hand, they are more often then not cheesy and there is like, zero, room in le budget for this. On the other hand, there is this:
Ashley & Miguel Trailer from Joe Simon Productions on Vimeo.
What’s a girl to do?! Tell me, did you have a videographer, or better yet, a cinematographer for your wedding?
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I just posted about this the other day! For us, it meant the world to have a family member videotape the key moments in our day, as we simply didn’t have the extra $$$$ and he did it for free. Hiring a professional would of course yield fabulous results, but it is perfectly fine to have a responsible friend or family member (or starving college student who needs some experience, for that matter) capture your day if all you’re looking for is a record of the things that were said and the way the day went. Just my two cents 
Yeah, it would be nice to have one of those same-day edits like Milkshake, but it’s also nice to pay the mortgage, pay the light bill and be able to eat real food (not Top Ramen) after the wedding. I have a secret- My uncle is doing our video and then Im going to have it professionally edited. Saves TONS of money!
That video was depressing. It seemed like in movies when they show flashbacks to when someone was still alive.
I will say I was in the No videographer group prior to our wedding. I said no biggie I will have lots of pictures and really how often am I going to watch it plus I figured one of our family members would be able to record it for us.
Unfortunatly when the day came since the church we were getting married in was pretty dark (didnt look that way to my eyes but it did to the camera) we had zero viewable footage of our wedding. I told my husband later that I really wished we had paid the extra couple hundred bucks and just had a proffesional record it since I of course missed the entrances of all our wedding party and much of the ceremony is a blur to me now because I was so “in the moment”.
I dont think you need somebody for the reception portion but for the ceremony it would have been really nice to have. Thats just my 2 cents though :).
Hire a videographer! I can’t imagine not having my wedding video. My husband and I watch it all the time, and it is so fun to show our new friends the 15-minute recap that was included on the DVD. People ask about our wedding and we can show pictures (that we LOVE), but there’s nothing better than reliving it… Hearing our friends and families voices, watching them dance. My husband’s grandmother is not in good health now, and to see her so happy on video 2 years ago is just so amazing. Even if you don’t hire a top-notch professional, I advise every bride and groom I know to find someway to video tape. You won’t regret it!!!
I had the same question (and didn’t budget for one either) and asked a bunch of my married friends- those that didn’t have a video wished they did and those that had them said they don’t watch them all that often but like having one. I decided to get one but only had them there to film the ceremony and a part of the reception- no interviews, no solo time- just enough to capture the moments that sometimes slip by on your wedding day but are oh so important to revisit (i.e. our vows, first dance, etc). I pretty much went ala carte and didn’t buy one of the fancy packages- maybe a route you can go to not spend a fortune.
We asked a friend’s girlfriend to help video tape. We purchased the camera at Costco (easy return policy!) and the girlfriend taped the ceremony and a bunch of people got their hands on the camera for the reception to help capture all of the moments. The friend is supposed to be editing it together but I’m not sure what is happening with that (4 months later). I still love watching all of the individually video clips, speeches, ceremony, etc. I wouldn’t know what I was missing if I didn’t have it but I am glad I have something. Even if it isn’t professionally done.
ok that video just made me cry. it was beautiful!! i felt like i was watching a movie or something. i really think you should have a videographer on your wedding day. it’ll capture all the things that pictures can’t really say with words. my vote is for you to have one at your wedding.
100% find some way to get someone (hired or friend) to video your wedding. My cousin is a videographer and did it as part of our wedding gift. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have that on video and listen to our vows, catch little moments that we didn’t see, or hear people congratulating us that passed away shortly after the wedding. It’s so sentimental and personal to hear voices and see movement.
Just think — if you could hear your favorite grandparents give their vows, how important would that be to you?
Okay, so I am totally and completely biased, but I really do think you should have it taped (or filmed). I have brides and grooms that I see a year or more after their wedding and they tell me their video is more important to them than their photos. And here’s a stat for ya: 52% of brides want video before their wedding, and after the wedding 75% of those who get video say it’s one of the most important purchases they made. (Those are numbers from a study that WEVA conducted.) We had our wedding videotaped, and truly every time we watch is it has more significance and emotion than before. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in 25 years when we watch it with our kids and grandkids.
BTW, Joe is doing my sister’s wedding!
Omg. That was seriously gorgeous. You felt as though in parts of it you were really there. The scene where he comes up on the arbor makes you feel like you’re walking toward it yourself. They seem so perfect. The love he catches is amazing.
I am an encore bride. I went thru a horrible divorce four years ago (he cheated). And then I lost my father shortly thereafter. I have the most amazing photo of my father and I right before I married my x (dad joked “hey let’s run for it..the limo’s already out front) and also of us dancing. He looked so happy and little did I know.
I have had all but that part of my wedding cut out. Had a video guy do that for me so there’s none of my old wedding, just me and some good scenes of me and my girlfriends and relatives and I had this done for my son, so he would be able to see and hear his grandfather and remember him as a handsome, lovely, warm and kind man.
I am glad I had it video’d. When I remarry I will also. My grandfather will be the one giving me away btw.
Geez. Now I’m tearing up.
We weren’t planning to have a videographer because we figured we’d never watch it. Luckily, I won a free same-day edit video.
I have to say….I’ve watched our video SO many times already and get emotional everytime. I saw parts of the wedding that I wasn’t there for but were captured on film. Because the same day edit didnt capture the WHOLE day, one of my biggest regrets was not having a videographer.
my two cents
Having a videographer was very important to me. I wanted the memory to show my children someday! We didn’t have the money for it though, but I searched around on Craigslist and found one for $200.
Joe is FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC! He is a true pro, and knows how to capture a day perfectly on video - A bit of direction as needed, but the rest is all natural interactions between the two of you.
I am super picky, and felt that I would rather have an amazing photographer, then a sub-par photographer AND videographer. I would rather have amazing photos that I can look at everyday than watch a video every once in a while. Both my Uncle and Father-in-Law took videos of the wedding, both from different angles, so we are able to relive our wedding.
I am planning on using clips from both of their videos and using some of my photos to make a video. If you have friends/family take videos, then you can use software on your computer to edit them together to make a montage like the one you posted. Spend the money on something you will see all the time, not something you will only pull out for company…
Get the video! We did not have one as we thought that we’d just get a great photographer. Well, the wedding ended up being *amazing* and now we only have mediocre pictures and no video which is sad since I really wish that I could enjoy it all again. At the time I was really too out of it to fully appreciate the great music and message and some parts you can’t see even if you are there.
we hired Anton Lorimer of Lorimerworks…his videos are incredible…i didn’t want a video either until i saw the Wilcox wedding….blew me away….
http://www.lorimerworks.com
We had a friend videotape our wedding. He was a wedding videographer a long time ago, but we just had him record the key moments and give us the raw footage. If you can’t find room in your budget for a videographer (like us), I think at the least, its good to designate a friend (or two!) to record your wedding on a camcorder so your kids have some moving record of your wedding
Wow! I just watched the Wilcox Wedding and I so want that type of video.
I had decided to invest in our photographer and drop the videographer up until 1 month before the wedding. I was going to have a friend set up a tripod so that we would have our vows recorded. Then I received an email from a totally amazing Chicago videographer that she had had a cancellation on my date and she would cut me a deal. She was the only one I had really considered previously because her stuff is awesome. I booked her and now I cannot wait to see it! I am so happy that I have it recorded. It is a hard decision to make, but I think having something- even if the lighting sucks and all you can hear are your voices- is better than nothing.
Videography - 1st thing cut from budget
1st thing regretted after the day!!!
Also PROFESSIONAL!!! makes a big difference!!! Seriously!! Do not make the mistake of just going by price.. if you can afford to trust your memories to someone who REALLY knows how to edit! - DO IT!!! : )))
You will NEVER regret that decision!
i would just go with a friend, or see if your church or wherever can make you an audio copy. I don’t mind that we don’t have video, but I do wish we had some way to hear our friends read scripture or hear our vows again. We had to pay for a sound guy anyways, so the CD would have been free if I would have asked… oops.
i absolutely did not want a videographer because everything i had seen was so sub-par, even from the “best” in my city.
till i saw the work from still motion from across the country and had to fly them in. and they did a fantastic job: http://stillmotionblog.com/?p=527
but they’re a very rare breed!
Cried my frikkin eyes out over that video. I am waay too emotional about weddings right now!
We can’t afford it either, as we put all our money into our photographer, but my Dad’s friend who is always attached to his video camera anyway, is going to film.
NEED? no….it’s not a necessity, but if you can find a way to cut on some other things I think you should seriously consider it. I was totally against videography from the start. Even the videos from the best people in my area that cost $10,000 (yes!) I didn’t like at all. I thought it was all cheesy, overdone, too much slow motion, fake, etc.
But then I stumbled across a relatively unknown company in my area who were really doing films with a different edge to them. It was the only time I looked at film and though “wow, I’m impressed.”
B/c they were smaller and newer the prices were much more reasonable then the big famous companies in my area.
In the end they ended up being one of my favorite vendors and I love my video. It was important to me to not have a super lovely dovey romaticy video of the day…I wanted it captured as it was and the video really captures the spirit of the day and I’m so happy we found the money for them.
So call me a reformed video hater! Granted I still think most of them suck, but my advice is to find the little guy…find the upstart company with creative ideas and skip the megastars. You’ll get a great video at a lower price.
If you want to see how it all turned out go to http://monachetti.com/blog/?p=24
My other absolute faves of their work is the wedding of Amy and Casey. Its AMAZING - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRTWVU16FBk
And the wedding of Shannon and Matt -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knJ0TijuPuY
I posted the following on craigslist:
“Before you email me, I am not interested in paying more than $500. This gig includes food and HUGE networking opportunities with those in the music industry.
I’m looking for someone to do something for our Nov 14th wedding. This is a non traditional wedding so I want a non traditional wedding video. READ THIS: I don’t want a sappy slide show. I can do that myself.
Here’s the basic info:
time from 5:30pm - 12:00am - downtown toronto
only really need video shot from:
* 5:45pm - 630pm (music and ceremony) - probably only camera on the tripod for cermony. Don’t want it to be intrusive
* about 5 min between 6:45pm - 7:45 (capture musician at cocktail hour)
* toasts and speeches every 15 min from 8:15pm - 9:45pm
* father daughter dance, son/mother dance, first dance : 9:50pm - 10:05pm
* snippets from the variety of bands playing from 10:05 - midnight. Only snippets (3 bands will be performing)
Afterwards, we’re looking for a 15-20 min rock-like video (fun and quirky like Beastie Boy/Blink 182 videos) capturing the day. We also want the raw footage.
You’ll probably only spend 2 hrs shooting, with the meat of your time editing.
Again, don’t send me a quote for more than $500 as I will not respond.
Email me with your quote and some samples.”
In the end, we found a great guy, who’s contracted to be onsite for 7 hours, is providing a 15-20 min video, 3 minute highlights vid, and the raw footage. All for $550.
I’m thrilled
We will be having one, but only because he offered to do it for free. He’s a coach at the high school my fmil teaches at and his primary experience is taping high school video games. I can’t imagine that it will be anything less than cheesy, not fantastic like the video you posted. But still, it will be nice to have those memories in action.
By taping high school video games, I sure did mean high school football games.
Everyone goes back and forth about this issue. From the start of our planning it just wasn’t in the budget and sooo much was cheesy. I asked our flower girl’s father to videotape the ceremony so we’d remember that.
Then 3 weeks before our wedding I discovered Wes Jones (www.filmjones.com) and thought…”what do I have to loose?,” so I emailed him to see a) if he had our date booked and b) what would it cost. To my surprise he had that day free so we flew him from NY to Burlington, VT and I’m so glad we did. Here is the super8 footage from the day (he also shoots digital): http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/12/17/super-8mm-wedding-video/
Good luck with your decision….if it’s not in the budget ask a friend/family member with a video camera to set it up for the ceremony b/c that will be the part you really want to remember 10-20 years from now.
We were just talking about this on our way to shoot a wedding yesterday. The main difference between having a buddy shoot it and spending the money on a pro is this:
The equipment that good wedding cinematographers use is so good that it’s almost as good a quality as a blockbuster movie you’d see in a theatre.
HD is big. 15 years ago, you’d get a cheeseball video tape with wacky edits and transitions, and 15 years later, you go to watch the VHS and it looks aged and horrible.
Consumer cameras look pretty good today, but the image quality is nowhere near what it could be with a pro.
There isn’t much more the industry can do to make their wedding videos look more movie quality because it seriously is almost there…so in 5, 10 years, when you sit down to watch your DVD, it is going to look as amazing as it ever did.
And again, like VideoBride, I’m also based, but we don’t know where you’re from, you’re most likely not going to book us, so what reason would we have to lie to you!
We’re often baffled why video is the first to either not make the cut or be cut. It really is essential because this the the only sure shot at having a documentary of your wedding day! Would you also not bring a video camera to the delivery room? To shot mom & dad’s first reaction to seeing their first child? It’s on par with that!
@Miss Dumpling: That’s a great idea! I’m sooo looking into this now!
@Mrs. Kim: That’s a great way to look at it! Agreed!
@VideoBride: Lucky!
@bellenga: What a great idea!@Sam: I can’t believe I didn’t think of Craigslist! Heading there now!
@Sar9: I’m kinda nervous this will happen to us as well…
@Mrs. Milkshake: OMG OMG OMG!! I have been drooling over your SDE since your wedding day! It is truly amazing!
@Ruby Slippers: Me too!
@BaghdadBride: $10k?! Holy cow!
@AHotPinkPetticoat: It looks like CL is the place to go! Thanks for the tip!
@Mrs. Onion: I so love your video too — there is something so incredibly specia about 16/8mm film!
I see you’re in Austin.
One of our inspirations is from there. Not sure what her packages run you, but she shoots Super 8 & digital.
And, about Craigslist, I just posted some insight on that…I totally think it’s an excellent resource for couples wanted a budget video. Here’s the excerpt:
“There is also the Craigslist route, try to work with a student or someone just starting out. My boyfriend shot over 100 weddings as a freelancer before we decided to start our own company with our own vision…we had all of that experience under our belts, but no clientele. So we looked for any brides looking for a videographer, realizing they had a tight budget, and ended up shooting our first wedding as “Vacilando” for $750. The package we shot for them, which would become our demo to get more clients, is now $1800. I know it’s kind of a luck of the draw, but you never know who’s looking at those threads or what kind of undiscovered talent is out there just needing someone to help them get their big break!”
Good luck!
I went through the same issue. I splurged on a photographer and felt the videographer was something I could cut. My mom thought I should have one but respected my decision. Then I saw the video for a friend’s wedding that I attended last year and I thought to myself, I need to have some memory of the things I didn’t see happen. I’m not making a huge investment in it. More than wonderful cinematography (which I’d love to have if I had the money), it’s the different memories that will be captured on video that I’m interested in.
I really didn’t want to have a videographer for our wedding, I figured a great photographer is more than enough but then I started seeing vintagey videos (Super 8?) and cinematography styles, just like the one you posted… now I’m also having a hard time pondering if I’ll go for it or not. The hardest thing about it is that you want to preserve that very special moment in you life yet don’t want to spend too much as they are expensive even you know it will be so worth it… I know I’m not making it easier for you… sorry… goodluck with your decision! =)
I would LURV to have a fancy videographer but it’s not really an option for us… too expensive to bring one with us to the Dominican. I think we’re going to go the Cupcake route and have a family member do it, and spend more on the photography.
I’m budgeting video over photography (blasphemy on this blog, right?)
And I get the cheesy comments, I really do. But weddings are cheesy.
i didnt have one and i wish we did have more footage. i didnt think it was that important but i have a few clips of the speeches and really wish we had more.
My fiance and I started doing wedding videography to pay off the really sweet camera he bought to shoot his own movies. He does really great work, not that I’m biased
Although it might be riskier than hiring a wedding industry pro, I suggest scouting out the local colleges or news stations for someone to help you out. They probably wouldn’t charge as much and would have access to a nicer camera than you would buy for yourself. Also, your video will probably look more professional if you have someone with shooting and editing experience do it.
If you can check out their portfolio beforehand, that takes out some of the risk. If all they’ve done are zombie movies, you might want to look for someone else You’ll probably have to explain very specifically what you want if they’ve never done a wedding before (what AHotPinkPetticoat did for her Craigslist posting is perfect, some suggestions about style are good too, like an example of a movie you would like your video to look like).
Another thing to consider is to work out beforehand if they’ll be willing to re-edit it if you aren’t happy. It’s hard to tell what’s important sometimes, so customer input is usually helpful…especially if the ceremony is conducted in another language or you have special things planned for the reception.
I’m sorry this post is so long–I just was really excited to finally have something to contribute! I hope your search goes well!
Yes, and even after looking through 2300 fabulous photos, watching the video was such a wonderful and special experience . Seeing the ceremony - hearing my husband’s voice again - and speeches again was so special, and seeing the other moments on video was really priceless. Our guy was a documentary guy so it was just capturing the day with no cheesy special effects at all. But you could have someone video tape it for you. Personally, I love that we have the day recorded. If you are considering it, try to make it happen!
Im sure you can get someone to do this for you at a very reasonable price from criagslist to do it as a simple gig…or even somone starting out as their career to have as their portfolio and probably wouldn’t charge much..or a artsy media student to do this job.
i wish a videographer was in my budget becasue everyone who hired one would do it again in a heartbeat. but we just can’t afford it with everything else we’ve been paying for. but my dad’s good friend has a high def videocamera, and he offered to record the wedding for us, so i am happy and grateful for that!
I would not pay big $$$ for a wedding videographer! You would be surprised at how many really talented amateurs there are out there, especially with video equipment becoming more affordable and video itself becoming so much more important in the media.
I am a multimedia journalist for a newspaper, and I have quite a few coworkers who are attempting to get their foot into the wedding videography industry but need some experience first. I would bet if you emailed a photographer at your local newspaper (provided it’s a fairly good-sized daily) they could help you find video professionals (journalists) who are not wedding professionals and would be able to produce high-quality footage for a lower price. Even local journalism or film students would be able to do some good stuff I bet. Heck, if I lived near you I would offer to do it! Good luck
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Mrs. Lemonade, Austin/San Antonio
Age and Occupation: 28, Bureaucrat
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Music Management
Engagement Date: December 21, 2007
Wedding Date: April, 2009
Blogging Since: August 22, 2008
Venue: Country Club ceremony, ballroom reception
About Me: I’m a total wonkette who is lucky enough to be surrounded by her favorite things on a daily basis – awesome music, the great State of Texas and of course, Mr. Lemonade! I find any excuse I can to craft something and am completely infatuated with the 1950’s, all things Kennedy, and my furbaby Vida.
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