The short answer is “no you do not”. Hiring a wedding videographer to be with you on your big day isn’t for everyone. Some couples want less of a fuss whilst other want to reexperience the day over and over again and a Wedding Video is the best way to do that. Sure you could have your friends all film a bit on their phones but shaky hands, and blurred faces just wont do. Not for your wedding. You deserve pristine, stabilised footage captured on exceptional cameras. You deserve crystal clear audio so you can hear every crackle in your partners voice as they say their vows. You deserve to hire a wedding videographer. Hopefully me!
Hiya, I’m Ellyn and I am the boss here at Bright and Beautiful Films. I film elegant, romantic wedding videos that also are full of levity and energy. Here, see for yourself.
If I was booking my own wedding videographer I’d be looking for the quality of their work and a general sense of personality in their website and on their social media pages because at the end of the day I am going to spend more time with them than any other guest so I’d want them to be a laugh. A very competent and talented laugh.
Here are a few tips to help you hire the best wedding videographer for you.
A quick Google or YouTube search of your venue’s name + “wedding video” will pull up loads of potentially brilliant wedding videographers. For example, if you search “The Pumping House Wedding Video” into YouTube, my video of Katie and Mark’s wedding will come up. Should you hire a wedding videographer solely on the fact that they have shot at your venue before, no, but it’s a good start. If they filmed at your venue in the past that means they wont get lost, they wont need to spend ages trying to figure out the AV system to get a feed of the speeches, they will know all the best spots to take you for portraits and they will already have an idea of how they are going to film your ceremony. From there you can put your sleuth hat on and see if you like other videos that that videographer has made, if you like their vibe, hire them to be your wedding videographer.
If your wedding is rooted in your blended family, or your mixed cultures or the fact that you have been together ages or did long distance and it was horrible but now you are planning your wedding god damnit, make sure the videographer you like can communicate your story in a way that is authentic. You’ll really need to sift through their examples of past weddings they have shot and find ones that you can relate to. If you can’t find any, move on because stories like yours aren’t important to that videographer.
Send them an enquiry at 2pm on a Saturday. If they are good and in steady employment, they’ll be filming someone else’s wedding at this time so an auto-send, a super quick email saying “I’ve received your enquiry and I’ll send a proper response within a few days”, or nothing until the next day saying “sorry for the late reply, I was filming” is acceptable. You don’t want the grafting on your dime, you want them present and focused.
At this stage it literally doesn’t matter what they say. It matters how quickly they respond and how much they respond with. There are a couple scenarios that can play out here:
What deal with the devil did this charlatan make. Even if this videographer had absolutely no life and they didn’t have any other weddings in the backlog, it is impossible to produce a quality wedding video in that time. 3 weeks is doable if they have literally nothing else going on but that raises the question, ‘why aren’t you working on other weddings/ why aren’t other couples working with you?’ I offer a 6-8 week turn around (8-10 in peak summer months) and that’s fast compared to some people. But good things take time.
Run. You’re telling me that you aren’t going to film the speeches because the schedule ran long and you have to go because you are filming a corporate karaoke party in Wolverhampton at 6pm? What a joker. Hire a wedding videographer who is going to be with you all day, no time limits. They leave when the story of the day has been captured.
Okay Grandad. If they think that is the best way to deliver a wedding video they have a very very tenuous grasp on technology and I hate to think of what camera they are using to film these DVD weddings
I hope my ramblings made sense and were helpful to you. If ever you wanted to chat things through about what I could bring to the table I’d love to have a no-pressure chat. Why not get in touch.
